My Most Recent Ride 2011 (Part IV of the series)

Phew!

Why does it always surprise me, after a Winter's layoff,
how tiring real riding really is?!

What happened, you ask?

Hah!
You're a captive audience, so I'll tell ya:

It's a sunny 74 degrees F. outside!
No bugs, the kids are still in school and the
time clock punchers are still slaving away.
The pressure to go ride-for-real outside was irresistible
a few hours ago, when the temperature was only 70.

So I un-clamped the bike from the trainer, aired up
the tyres, slathered on some sunscreen, donned the
silly helmet and ...

rode!

As fast as I could!

For 3 miles.

Turned around and
-sprinted home, as fast as I could!

A roadie passed me on a slight uphill grade;
I was doing 22MPH... and on the flat portion
of the ride, with the tailwind, my top speed was 27MPH.

Six whole miles!

Well.

It's a start....

 

OK Jon, you need to get out and ride some more, I just went above you in mileage. I'm now ahead of you by 6 miles.

Curtis

 

We had a club ride today and a fellow Recumbent rider Jim was there to rode with me. It was a blast and we kept the DF in our rear view mirrors most of the day. (Jim is in his 70's) We did 18.1 miles.

Tomorrow I am meeting a fellow who is 72..I have to brag about him.. His name is Fred and for his 70th birthday he road from his house in VA to Oregon, by himself! That is Awesome! But me and a guy form work will be meeting Fred to do about 50 Miles on the W&OD trail. I will be the only bent rider.

 

Absolutely Beautiful day today. I talked my buddy Paul into going with me on today's ride on the WO&D trail. We met Fred in Purciville and took off about 10am this morning. It was rather chilly at the start but it soon warmed up and turned into a great day for a ride. We rode to Herndon had lunch then made the return trip.

There must have been 100's of bikes out today on the trail and I think most of them called off work or played hooky to enjoy the day. I saw 3 recumbents out of all those bikes, one was a fully socked fared LWB- Could not tell what kind of bike it was. I think the other was a Lowracer-The recumbents were coming at me in the opposite direction and we passed each other in a blur. I yelled "Nice bike!" to them as they passed.

I did get to toy with a few DF racers. One instance I looked in my rear view mirror ans saw this racer hunker down and he tried to lay the hammer down to catch me. I picked up my speed and pulled away from him laughing my tail off. I had to slow for an upcoming stop sign and the Racer caught up to me and was staring at my bike. I asked him " What did you think I had a motor on it?" He laughed and road off. The V-Rex held its own and I was having a blast. One another, two hotties on high dollar bikes with aero bars passed me and I kept on there tail for a mile or two before I had to pull over to wait in my friends..lol

I had to keep my speed slower or stop and wait on this ride because my DF buddies were having trouble keeping up. To be fair it was their first ride of the year and I have been riding pretty steady. Both were very surprised how fast the Rex was. This makes me even more inclined to sell my DF and by a high racer. If they are faster than the Rex.. then there will be some more dusted DF's in the future.

We ended up going 51.8 miles

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/177060

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/177061

 

If you notice I am ahead of you now. Was out of town yesterday so no miles

Opps never mind!!!!!!

 

Hmm, now if I can just get it to stop raining, then I can get out and get some riding in! Perhaps the weather will clear by Sunday and I can pick up a few miles and play "catch up".

Have a great weekend and I hope your weather is better than ours. We're having the proverbial liquid sunshine of So Cal.

Curtis

 

Road from Strasburg to Orchard View Elementary School just outside of Winchester. It was a 20 mile ride to the School- I had a 14.9 average which is the best average I have ever had on a bent or a DF. Once I reached the school I had to wait for the other riders to show so i tooled around a track to keep warm.. 4 other Winchester Wheelmen all on DF's shoed up and we were off. I was hoping they would take it easy because these guys can fly. I told them if they dusted me I knew my way back home.

I either did pretty well or they felt sorry for me. I wheel sucked them most of the way and of course blew past them on the downhills. I rode with them for 13 miles before they made a return trip back to Winchester and I continued back home-It would have been interesting to see if I could have stayed with them on a longer ride. That was the hardest 13 miles I have ridden yet, because they kept trying to dump me and I was doing everything I could to keep up. Once they turned off I Slowed down and took a breather.

I can feel that ride in my legs now..Nothing a beer or two wont cure. I think they are starting to gain just a tad bit of respect for the Rex..I cant wait to find a decent priced High racer.

Total Ride was 38.6 Avg MPH ended up being 13.9.. Still the highest overall yet for me.

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/293300

 

Great Job!!!!

It just takes time to build up your recumbent legs. Now all the effort is starting to show results!!!!

And you forgot one important point. You rode without pain. I bet the DF riders could not say the same thing!!!

 

Ribs getting much better so I decided to give them a try. Went out on the Venom yesterday, starting slow to see how it was going to go. A bit uncomfortable on the rough stuff and i couldn't take deep breaths but other than that okay.

About 20 miles Into The Ride the endorphins had kicked in and I was cruising along very nicely with stretches in the 18-21 mph range. Ended with almost 37 miles and a 14.9 mph average.

 

Ward,

What is wrong with your ribs???

 

I wondered also, and scrolled down to find the following posted on Feb. 5:
"I dropped the MTB last Monday so I have not been on the bike or trike since. Maybe by next weekend I'll feel up to it."

Now, Ward, it looks as though you weren't trying to hide the accident. But it also wasn't a look-at-what-I-did high-visibility posting. So for the record,

1) How you doing?
2) Have you gotten rid of the evil MTB yet?

 

doing pretty well, I was off the bike for almost 3 weeks and that was the worst part. Still have the MTB, its in the garage still covered with mud as i didn't even feel like cleaning it. Sleep is the worst part, I had to stay almost completely upright in a chair for the first week, after that I have sort of a ramp on the bed with 3 pillows to keep my chest elevated.

Yeah, It wasn't my proudest moment taking a low-speed spill and breaking some ribs. Following Einstein's theory of insanity I will probably be back on the trails sooner or later.

 

Ward,

Glad you are healing OK. It is getting warmer so you need to be ready to ride!!!!

 

Mmmm, Ribs!

Get well quicker and get back on that trail...
you know you want to!



I hope that there were no witnesses to your low-speed rib-cracking fall
and if there were, I hope that they can keep a secret!

 

hope ya get back to ridding hard core soon. This is crazy weather almost 70 degrees Friday and 3 inches of snow on the ground today. With the forecast it looks like no riding all week.