My Most Recent Ride 2010 (Part III of the series)

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

Yesterday, what a beautiful day. Even though I had a teleconference at 12:30, I took off right afterward to ride. The weatherman said we might have a couple hours of sunshine while the rest of the day was cloudy. Well it was SUNNY and WARM (60 degrees) when I left. Rode 20 miles on the greenway and Cherokee Boulevard. EVERYONE was out jogging and walking their dogs that day. Scenery was great!!! (If you know what I mean!)

Still love my new bent. The rear gearing is smaller than my other bent. I can tell going up hills I don't have as low of gear. I might change that out in the future. But right now, I am not worrying about it.

Still love the handlebar set up. I am definitely going to change my old V Rex to this set up. It is just so much more responsive and comfortable. (Dave, Don and now AD pay attention to this. You need to give my bent a try to see if you would like it on your rides.)

With weather like this, you have no excuse not to be riding. (Of course Terii won't see 60 degree weather until JULY!!!)

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

Today was even warmer and more beautiful than yesterday. Combined with the fact I didn't have any teleconferences, I took off again.

I rode 19 miles all over Knoxville and the greenway system. I am LOVING this weather.

Hope the rest of you are getting out and doing some riding. This weather is perfect before it starts getting hot!!!

RIDE RIDE RIDE

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

Well, I had my first ride of the year. It lasted all of 3 minutes. My chain jumped off the inner ring on the cassette while I was trying to get up a steep hill. Somehow I managed to get off my trike without rolling backwards and wrecking the new cassette and chain.

While trying to figure out what was wrong, I completely fouled up my gearing and I so badly suck at adjusting gears I don't know how long it's going to take me before I can get out the door again. I'm not sure I can face all the fiddling with no clue with what I'm doing.

Pity too. Gorgeous, almost 50 F out and Loke was so exicted as was I. I just need to wallow in self pity for a bit before I can face the gearing. D*mned LBS that won't work on my trike.

Terii

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

Terii,

Please forgive me. I LAUGHED when I read your post. I shouldn't. It wasn't funny. But it sounded like something that would happen to ME!!!!

I thought you would be writing about putting studded bicycle tires on your trike!!! Come on... You live in Sweden.

PS My family is DEFINATELY coming to Sweden this summer on a cruise. I will send you a private email to see if we can get together that day. It would be fun!!!!

PPS No one else in my family rides a recumbent or bicycle. Be warned. They think I am NUTS when I leave the house in my spandex and really weird bicycle!!!

PPPS Everyone else on this board thinks I am weird too!

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

Last week on 3/15, I managed to get my bike out on a clear afternoon. It was my standard loop ride, which, depending on which turns I make, can be either 12, 23 or 25 miles. I took the 23-mile option since it was only my second ride of the year. I took my new helmet cam and shot as much as the batteries let me. This pic was pulled from some of the video.



I promised myself I'd take it easy, but the legs just didn't want to listen and every time I made a conscious effort to back off, they pushed the pace right back up. Overall average for 22.8 miles was 20.2 mph. Not bad considering I'm still under 60 miles for the year!


Too back March is back. It's been snowing almost all day here.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

Good to hear you got out John. I certainly have wanted to get out but so far only 3 days.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

S'okay. It struck me as a bit funny after I got over the disappointment. The really funny thing is, after running for only a quarter of a mile and then pouncing around in snow until Jens came to get us, Loke slept like the dead in the hallway for almost 4 hours. You'd think he'd run 40 miles or something.

I think I have the trike settled. *fingers crossed*

Of course, the weather did a complete about face on us. Yesterday, sunny and almost 60 F. Today? Near blizzard conditions and 28 F. In about 8 hours, we have over 10 inches of snow. All the roads that were clear yesterday are buried again. It's really pretty to look at, but aggravating from a 1.5 inch deraillieur clearance. :

Terii

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

Wooot!!! I got a ride in!!!

Just 5 miles, but it was enough to leave Loke flat. I was hesitant to do more since the last trip kinda left me untrusting of the trike. So, today was mostly a test ride to see if I got the issues settled. I THINK I did.

I probably should have stayed in today since I'm getting over a rather nasty cold my hubby brought back from one of his business trips. It was almost 60 F, the SUN was kinda shining and the roads were clear enough for me to do my extended river loop. Given it is supposed to rain all the weekend and well into the week, I decided to risk it.

Loke ran at a good clip and is now a flat muddy rug on the floor which hopefully won't move for the rest of the night. The ride improved my mood which is good.

Terii

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

Good for you Terii. I hope to be able to get back out again next week when the weather turns a bit better. We had 14 degrees this morning. That is a bit cooler than I will ride in.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

glad you got out Terii, I have often wondered why derailleur's arn't mounted up on lowracers and trikes instead of down. It seems to me that with the idlers on bents it would be doable, maybe one of those injun-ears can comment. Sure would give you more ground clearance and if you did hit it wouldn't hurt so bad.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

First century of the year wheels of Fire around Pine Mountain, Ga. Its a brutal course with 6800 feet of climbing and usually has a significant wind this time of year. It has about the best views I can get around here and it supports their local fire department so I like to ride it.

This year I decided I was going to ride my ride, no chasing pacelines or going off too fast. I have been doing lots of climbing on the Weisel in preparation and felt like I was ready.

Cool at the start, about 43 degrees and a clear sky that quickly became cloudy as the winds built up. Early estimates were for 8 mph winds but they were more like 10-12 with gust to 20. I waited until 820 to pull out and set out easy, passing a faired Tour Easy and a V-Rex on the first climb. That first climb is 1.5 miles Into The Ride and is 1.5 miles long for 240 feet of climbing. That warms you up quick. Several times I heard riders as I passed them say (hey, I thought those things couldn't climb).

After you crest there is a nice downhill followed by lots of rollers with 5-7 percent grades. Sort of what the majority of the ride has. However after the downhill we also turned east into the teeth of the wind. The longest climb of the day to the top of the ridge was ahead. Its 460 feet of climbing but it is over 6 miles so only the last mile or so is really steep. I didn't see but a couple of riders on this climb and so far no one had passed me. Once on top of the ridge we rode six miles before we dropped back into the valley on the other side. The views were great as you can see down into the valleys on both sides of the ridge and the air was very crisp and clear.

The downhill is fast!!! 420 feet in half a mile. We were heading south now so he crosswind was crazy and I used a lot more brake than I usually do there keeping my speed about 30. My 4 spoke carbon wheelset has a lot of surface area and I got blown around a good bit, just a little bit scary.

There is a small town at the foot of the mountain and a SAG was setup in the fire house. Two fella I had parked next to that had pulled out 15 minutes before I did were just pulling out as I rode past the stop. With 80 ounces of fluid in my Camelbak and lots of honey (which my stomach tolerates well) I wasn't even thinking about stopping yet. I fet good about catching up with those riders were wearing team kit from Miss. I stayed with them for about 1/2 a mile and then blasted away on a long slow down-hill. I hit 40 there and one of the guys say I pulled away from them like I was in a car. We began to hit climb after climb with the grades anywhere from 8 to 12 percent and i could see them slowly catching up with me, I must admit that I pushed harder than I had planned trying to stay ahead of them big mistake!.

Sudden sharp pain in my left knee on the inside at mile 41. Really hurt, I couldn't unclip, couldn't spin. It felt better if I reached down and applied pressure to the tendon that attached the quads to the tibia on that side. The road was flat right there, thankfully, and I mulled over my options. Not far from home and I knew several people that lived nearby who I could call for help if need be. Also, I know the roads and where the shortest routes were to my car. Then I tried mashing. NO PAIN . As long as I kept tension on the pedals and limited my cadence to 60 I was alright. So for the next few miles I worked on unlearning my spin and returned to my mashing roots. The fella's I had worked so hard to stay in front of passed me but I just had to let em go. Slowly over the next few miles I got back into a groove and learned what gearing I needed to be in on what grade.

I was going to be able to do this!

We hit the long straight-away with tailwind and not much in the way of hill. As i pulled into the 62 mile sag the two riders were pulling out. A potty break, PB sandwhich and a refil to my camelbak and I was ready to go. The camelbak I have mounted to the side of my seat now. To refil it I picked up a piece of corregated tubing which I used as a funnel not having to remove the bag, worked great.

The next 18 miles are recumbent heaven. Tailwind and short rollers which I maintained my momentum on. The worst was here are the drivers. Suddenly they are all trying to see how close they could get to me . Also I saw a small paceline coming up in the rearview. I didn't push too hard but I kept them off until mile 78. Trying to catch me cost them though as a couple of miles later three of them were toast. I passed them climbing a 12 percent grade at about 3 mph barely staying upright. They were done. The other two joined up with the two guys I had been chasing. I almost caught them on a downhill before we turned back into the wind and thats where the real fun began.

From mile 81 to the finish were were back into the teeth of the wind with hill after steep hill. We also joined back up with the metric riders here and it was difficult to see who were the guys I had been chasing. There was one girl riding the metric who had just stopped on a climb and lying in the grass beside the road. She waved us by and looked very relaxed, like she was just watching the clouds. The climbs are a series of upward steps with flat sections in between that you couldn't get any momentum on because of the headwind. My ride adv was 18.4 when I hit this section and it was 17.9 at the end and I was crazy happy with that.

So there it is 99.88 miles in 5 hours 35 minutes for a 17.9 ride adverage. The guys I had been chasing 5 hours 41 minutes. HA I WIN! They however were not limping as we heading to get our spaghetti dinner. :

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

Awesome, Ward.

I wanted to get out for a ride today, but at 34 F and rain, I wasn't feeling that froggy.

If I don't get a ride in tomorrow, there is a small chance I won't get a ride in for the rest of the week as I'm supposed to have dental surgery on Tues. I'm sure I'll want a day or three to recover from that. Unless of course, we discover that sedation won't be good enough and they WILL have to knock me out to get the tooth gone, which will mean another appointment... *sigh*

Fingers crossed!!

Terii

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

Well I am in Florida right now and planning to do my ride. (Navarre Beach to Pensacola and back.) However I got food poisoning last night so I am staying close to home today. But tomorrow, I am going to give it a go.

I will report back. I do know the road is now complete (two years ago they were still fixing it due to hurricane damage). Great road, few cars, beautiful scenery. I will bring my camera to take pictures for you all. I can't wait!!!

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

Good report on the ride Ward.

Jon, I hope you are feeling better. That has to be awful getting food poisoning.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride - 2010

Thank you Jon. You're a fine feller. Now I'm not taking back any of all
those nice things I said about you.

Got on the RANS Wave...felt real nice. Yep set right there. Now what do
you think of me? Will keep you posted. May want to get on it tomorrow.