Your ride report sir!

[Too Tall]

Sat. 45 miles on fixed gear solo in and out of cold rain. Memorable moment...ducked under the cover of an apt. bldg. awning to wait out ANOTHER cold deluge and some cutie (from the house of beauty) was smoking up a storm UGH. At least I wasn't out there. She says "Well, that's my last one". So, yah know, I shook her hand and was generally impressed as a stranger in the rain could be but what I'm thinking is "glad about that, cause I was going to have to leave if she lit another". One soul for sale, I'm going to purgatory for that one.

Sunday - 90 miles mostly straight up or straight down. The ride is called "SkyMass" after the first part and second half. The ride consists of about 20 miles of Blue Ridge Parkway climbing a descent into a valley west of the ridge and up up up over Kennedy Peak (massanutten) and return via the valley parallel to the outbound Blue Ridge Parkway climb. This is one of the oldest and most traditional regional "Big" rides I know of. The climb up Kennedy Peak lasts about 21 mins. making it a prefect benchmark test for fitness...or puking...you choice. My training partner woke up for the 35ish mile valley return route. Ouch, I was riding at 425 watts IN HIS FREAKIN' DRAFT! Oh geeze, memorable moment was at the half way point we stopped at a COOL cafe for double espressos and the owner came by to chat us up. Mmmmm coffeee.

Too Tall drove to work today. Ouch ouch ouch.

And you?

[bostondrunk]

Sunday:
30 minutes on the nashbar turbo trainer, watching a backstreet boys dvd (not bad, good tunes), 70% of max, just stretchin the legs.......yeah baby..

[weisan]

Anytime the bostondrunk gave up on his <burp>, I take that as a good sign!

[TimB]

Saturday - 30 minutes on a stationary bike, followed by lifting and 20 minutes in the pool playing with my 14-month old daughter. We went underwater for the first time (mom was in the shower).

Sunday - 20 miles on the tandem with my wife, pulling the same 14-month old daughter in the Burley. Ten miles to Starbucks, 20 minutes chasing the baby around the store, and 10 miles home.

[jeffg]

Saturday --

3:30 on the Cardgirus doing the virtual Blackforest thing: Notschrei, Schauinsland, Teufelsmühle (yeah, the last one's far from the others, but it's virtual reality, after all). About 2300 virtual vertical meters. Suffered on the Schauinsland, which was likely the easiest climb. Go figure. My son was a champ, sitting in his bouncy seat and laughing his head off at his deranged dad. The baby did need a quick change about 2:00 through and a little feeding, but was otherwise good to go.

Sunday: The predicted snow did not materialize, but I had already committed myself to watching the baby, so another quick trainer run. This time, we travel to Italy (South Tirol) for a quick jaunt up to Merano 2000 (16 km, 1300 m virtual). 5km through, the computer freaks out, so we substitute Montescena (7.7 km, 770 m virtual with several sections at 13-17%). Suffer like mad for about 35 minutes, then make dinner and have a well-deserved glass of wine. All told, a little over 5 hours on the machine.

Hey, where's the wine glass thing? :beer: is great, but variety is what makes life spicy (apart from my braised lamb shanks, that is).

[Tom]

Saturday - 45 miles gathering a pile of sand on everywhere it would stick. Nothing really too exciting was seen except for the road instead of a TV and a cinderblock wall. Warm and wet on the way out, cold and wet and into the wind on the way home.

Sunday - 32 miles around the river and through the woods. Saw a dead goose and two forlorn people looking at the river that was about a foot higher than the threshhold of their front door. Cold. Just plain cold.

I guess it was too much, too soon. Today I have a full-blown case of whatever it was that made Karen lose her voice last week.

[Spectrum Bob]

Saturday – I was with Smiley in the morning, he was helping me set the cleats on some new shoes and checking the fit on an old Bianchi I am thinking of converting to a fixed gear. Got home just as the sun came out, my wife and daughter were out so I quickly got in a 26 miler. I even spotted you Too Tall in the park as I was heading out. Towards the end of the ride I saw Smiley riding in the opposite direction who told me that Sandy was behind him getting ready to ride. I stopped and chatted with Sandy for a few minutes. Made it home just before it started to rain again, I was lucky.

Sunday – I was just starting a ride in the park and ran into Flydhest, The Doctor and Mark. I rode with them for an hour and headed home – was able to get in around 33 miles.

I love living where I do!

Spectrum Bob

[Jollymon]

Friday-One hour on rollers while watching Tour de France footage from '01 @ 55%. Six mile fun ride to break up the monotony of working from home.

Saturday-Three mile ride (twice) with my son and his new InStep Pathfinder Tandem in tow. 50% when he would pedal and up to 80% when he wouldn't. Two-hours on rollers while watching the "The Italian Job." 65% when Charlize Theron was not on the screen and 35% when she was. (She makes me weak, but don't tell my wife...)

Sunday-Call me old fashioned...I rested on Sunday.

[Kevin]

Saturday - 60 minutes on the trainer with 50 minutes at 80% of max heart rate.

Sunday - 75 minutes of Spinerval hill climbing tape.

Kevin

[Bill Bove]

Sat, 45 mile fast group ride. Started with a strong wind at our backs and went to the turn around in a bunch at a steady 30mph with a couple of attacks at 35. Made the turn and the group immediatly stung out into a single file, never a good sign. Went all the way back to the start holding 25 into the headwind by choosing the right wheel. Memorable moment; bridging a gap going into the final sprint that seperated the group.

Sun, went out looking for 4.5 hours. 15 miles down the road hooked up with a group going another 50 miles with a no faster than 20mph rule. Enjoyed talking with a few guys who I hadn't seen for a while. Continued on after their ride was over and came home with 102 miles with a couple of short intervals thrown in to stretch my legs. Memorable moment; after 5.5 hours on the same road, running into a friends wife who was winding down after doing 80 miles, yet we never saw each other on the road.

This is why I live in Florida!
:banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:

[Jay Torborg]

Saturday - Did the Death Valley century ride, a 108 mile out and back from Furnace Creek to Scotty's Castle. This is part of a Planet Ultra double century event, so half the 600 riders were going to be riding well past sunset. The weather was about perfect, starting out about 60 degrees and warming up to about 75. But it is DRY in Death Valley and hard to stay hydrated. I started out quite a bit harder than I should have for a 108 mile ride and paid the price toward the end of the ride. On paper, it doesn't seem this ride should be that tough (108 mi with 4200' of climbing), but about 3200 feet of this is in one LONG 20 mi gradual climb that never seems to flatten out. I still felt fine at the end of this climb (and boy was it fun in the reverse direction), but I think it took a lot more out of me than I thought. The last 30 miles into Furnace Creek, I thought I was crawling but still managed to finish in the first dozen century riders which felt pretty good.

Sunday - travelled back home to the Seattle area to beautiful weather on Monday and got in another 60 mile ride.

[Frank]

Saturday...went with daughter to get some dirt for our flowers in the mailbox planter and for the little area by the front door where we have some plants and bushes.

She is 8 and has taken an interest in basketball...so we went to a park and played HORSE and PIG for a while. Young boy (13) came up and wanted to play so we played together than he and I played 21 one on one about 10 times. Played for three hours...went home a bit tired.

Sunday...same story but no dirt. Sorer Monday morning!

Bike content: not much ;-) I did get the frames out and cleaned them up trying to decide which to build and took the Steelman SR525 around the block. Daughter goes to ex in-laws (great folks!) for spring break this Friday for a week and I will break out the bike for a real ride for the first time this year!!!!

[Russ]

I did not ride at all this weekend!!!!

But you guys impress me... I am happy for you all.

Today, I took my Ottrott out and did about 2:00 hours worth of long intervals with a good warm up. All by my little self....

Total riding time 2h 45m. Avg Speed: 21.6, top-speed 33mph.

Damnit, it's a pain when you get a new frame geometry.... All these little things you got to re-check and re-measure!

Cheers!

[Ray]

Saturday, about half a mile to the bagel shop and the bank on the fixed gear. The return trip included a two block long "climb" of roughly 3%, so overall one mile with about 8-10 feet of climbing? Then a bunch of cool family time eating the bagels and spending the money!

Sunday was really nice and I went out on the road bike for one of the first times this year (mostly been riding fixed) and managed a little over 50 miles with a medium amount of climbing (no such thing as no climbing where I live - medium and heavy are the only options). Still felt pretty good on the last climb back into town, which was encouraging because I spent more time out of the saddle than I usually do this time of year. I'm standing more and more on climbs in the last couple of year and seemingly not having any trouble recovering - lotta fun, that.

-Ray

[Too Tall]

Ray and Jay to the head of the class.

C U Next week.

[davids]

Wednesday: Dropped my daughter at school, and joined a friend for my first road-ride of the season. 90 moderate minutes through Milton and Quincy, with a couple decent hills in the mix. The weather was ideal (low 50s and sunny), and the ride was a complete pleasure.

Sunday: Same friend, late afternoon. Arrive at his house to find he's getting his travel bike ready for his upcoming trip to Naples (FL, not IT...) So, it's going to be another moderate paced ride. Fine with me, because we do a lot more climbing today, including a hill so ridiculous that, at the top, a woman stands watching us struggle, and as we crest, tells us she didn't think we'd make it.

Monday: Snow.:rolleyes:

[csb]

what hill is it that you speak of?
i grew up in sharon and sometimes ride with
a friend from jp, usually out and around blue hill.

csb

[davids]

csb,

We climbed three hills on Sunday.

First, we went up Unquity Road through the Blue Hills (past the Ulin Rink, towards Houghton's Pond.) We usually manage to ride down that hill... Still, I made it up just fine, and was feeling pretty good that I'd managed to stay around 12 mph at even the steepest sections.

Second, we went up Green Street (stay on Unquity until it becomes Blue Hill River, cross Rt. 138 where the name changes to Royal, turn right and shift down...)

We briefly considered climbing the access road to the top of the Great Blue Hill, but my friend's travel bike doesn't have the best brakes, and it would have made for a white-knuckle descent.

So, we headed towards Readville, and swung back towards Milton on Turman Highway. When we got to the base of Fairmount Avenue, we decided to climb it. This is the hill. It's not long at all, probably 1/3 mile, but it goes up, and then it goes UP, and finally it goes UP. Ouch.

I think I dragged myself over the top at about 6 mph. I had enough breath to reply to the nice lady when she spoke to us, but I don't know that I made much sense.

We rode back out to Truman Highway on Brush Hill Road, a lovely fast downhill that almost made up for the climb.

It will be interesting to go back and try that again after I've got some miles in.

p.s. The Blue Hills is my biking home - In the woods and on the roads!