First I went on the Saturday Morning Ride (a designated route that takes riders to Prout’s Neck through South Portland, Scarborough and Cape Elizabeth) with Shannon, the leader of the women’s ride out of Saco, along with other women who joined us. It was tons of fun, especially since I was feeling pretty strong and able to ride up front with a pretty strong rider who I recently met on the CCCP Monday Night Ride and the Tuesday Women’s Ride.
Then, I went on a nice ride with my husband and Tracey. It was a casual ride going over the same route as the previous day’s ride.
The weather was perfect and we saw oodles of other cyclists out also enjoying the day. However, the wind picked up a lot on our way back, or perhaps we were just riding more into it, which made for some difficult riding.
Don and Tracey decided to head back to her house and she gave him a ride home. Don still ended up with 30+ miles today – his longest ride to date. (I think he likes his new bike, making riding more enjoyable.) When we parted ways I rode down my favorite stretch, Shore Road, to enjoy the rollers and to be a bit sheltered from the wind. Then it was into an intense headwind riding across the Casco Bay Bridge from South Portland to Portland.
I swung by the shop on my way home to have them look at my bike since I kept hearing a rattling in the back and the gears seemed to be grumbling, like that cross-chaining sound. As it turnes out my cassette was a little loose, which was fixed easily, but my chain has stretched and no only do I need to replace it, but I need to replace the cassette. I suppose it’s to be expected – I’ve put almost 3000 miles on that chain and cassette in the last year since it was built up. It’s time to be replaced.
I have been using Google Reader to read many of my favorite blogs and cycling sites. Recently on Bicycling.net I saw this video of this year’s stage of Alpe d’Huez.
I really miss the Tour. Even as I sit here and await the live updates on Velo News to begin on the first stage of the Vuelta. I do miss the tour. How many more days until next year’s Tour? I’m going to need a countdown calendar for that, aren’t I?
I volunteered at the Saco Bay Criterium on August 23rd. Hey, if I can’t race, might as well volunteer. I was only there until about 11:30 but in that time I did see some good races.
Mark McCormack and his brother, Frank, showed up for the races. Mark took first in the Masters 35+. As another local rider said, “Shocking.” (Sarcasm of course.)
Another local blogger was also there to ride the race and gives a brief account of his race.
Our local ladies did well with Cody Harris finishing first and Stephanie Chase taking third.
You can see all the race results here. There are some really terrific pictures from the crit here.
The best part about working the race was that it gave me the desire to go out for a bike ride myself. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do that all weekend but I’m back on the bike now, commuting and riding with the club and if feels goooood!
We have a friend who has a floor pump, as many cyclists do. He is participating in a Duathlon Sunday and wanted to know if he could bring his bike over to use our compressor pump because he just can’t seem to manage 120psi with his floor pump.
We’ve had this product for about a year now and it’s been money well spent. It’s easy to use on the bikes (with a presta valve adapter that you can find any any bike shop) to get the desired pressure in no time at all, with no effort. You just select the desired amount of pressure needed by moving the dial and turn it on. You also don’t lose any air when removing the hose.
The air station comes with a car adapter plug so it’s great to take on outings where we drive the bikes to the starting location.
Oh, yeah, it also works great on the car tires.
If you are in the market for a good pump, I highly recommend spending a little extra money to purchase this product.
Belgium Knee Warmers (BKW) posted something interesting about Junk Miles. I’ve talked about this in the past in that when you are training you either ride really hard/fast or really slow/easy.
These days I’ve lost my desire to go really hard and really fast. The Monday Night Rides (MNR) seem like such a chore to me then they are fun. I had intended to participate in the Thursday Night Ride (ThNR) last night but I decided against it. That ride causes me to get home so late and I wanted an early bed time in order to be up earlier to commute by bike, which seems more enjoyable to me since the weather has finally turned nice enough to do so.
I did manage a short yoga workout after my arrival home last night now that I have my new yoga DVDs. (My cat apparently thought I was serious when I told her that “we” were going to go do some yoga as she plopped herself on the edge of the mat. She was there for moral support only.)
Back to the bike. I guess I’ve come to that point of waning motivation that BKW mentions. I’m not sure that I accomplished all my goals for the year. My mileage is down, and my average speed, I think, did increase, which was a big goal for me. At this point I’m more content with those moderately hard efforts commuting to work in the quiet of the morning and the warm sun in the afternoon.
There is one major event still on my calendar for the year, the Loon Echo Century. It’s one of the hilliest centuries in Maine and hey, if I’m not up to it in a month, there is always the half century!
Since jumping into this bike culture with both feet back in the spring of 2006, I’ve pretty much biked in some sort of capacity all year round without taking any significant time off. My plan this fall is to bike a bit on the weekends, when we lose the luxury of light for mid-week rides, and continue to commute to work as much as possible. Normally I hit the gym in November for spin classes to keep my fitness. This year I’m going to take November off, and possibly December. I’ll get back in the gym after the first of the year and with the time off I should feel refreshed enough to go gung-ho with my spring training. That is if I can handle being off the bike for that long.
Recovery periods are terribly under rated and I’m going to give myself the break my body, mind and sole soul might need.
We all know that you shouldn’t wear ear buds for iPods or MP3 players on the bike. It’s dangerous because you aren’t able to hear the noises around you, in particular vehicles coming up behind you. And you NEVER want to wear them on group rides.
How many offenders of this unspoken rule do you see?
I tend to see a lot. Most are riding solo. (Note: many of these people also aren’t wearing helmets.) However, I do know of at least two local racers that use them. One was at my house one day prior to heading out for a ride.
I have actually tried this before. It was early in the morning so not much traffic to worry about. I find you can’t hear much with the wind noise around your ears anyway unless you turn your head to one side to listen for traffic. (My husband joked that because I saw Chris with them that must have given me permission to use them.)
Since then, I have been using my phone on solo rides, which has the ability to store and play some music. I found a single “hands free” ear bud with a microphone that plugs into my phone. With just the one ear bud I can just put this in my right ear, still leaving my left ear available to listen for cars behind me, which is usually the ear I turn back anyway. I run the cable down my back under my jersey and slip the phone into my back pocket. If needed, I can pull the ear bud out of my ear and let it dangle in the yoke of my helmet strap and insert it again easily when safe to do so.
Has it made my rides more productive or more enjoyable? Probably not; though sometimes it is nice to have a little tempo music playing when climbing a long stretch.
My preferred music for these climbs are songs from the Ultra Chilled CDs, Madonna’s Ray of Light and Music CD’s, Jose Gonzalez, Gomez and Andrea Bocelli. Surprisingly enough, music that I have on my iPod that I need for motivation when on a run is not the kind of music I like on the bike. I prefer something more ambient to let my mind just drift off.
Do you use ear buds on your rides? What kind of music motivates you on the bike?
Monday morning I was driving to work. I left my neighborhood and went down a one-way street through the park, which is my typical route when driving to work.
The sun was in my eyes as I was dodging potholes. I looked up only to see a cyclist, eh, excuse me, a guy on a bike. I was surprised to see him since he was going the WRONG WAY up the one-way street. I was a bit over to the right and he yelled to me, “What the F***?!” He took the words right out of my mouth – that’s EXACTLY what I wanted to say!!
I was so close to pulling over, rolling down the window and yelling at the guy. Something prevented me from doing so. Perhaps it was just pure shock of the event.
Why do people on bikes do this? Is it that hard to go with the flow of traffic?
Wanna know what else freaked me out? Today I was riding my bike home on a very popular bike route, which is what’s known as a “back road” around here. A huge Fed-Ex truck went by me, while there was oncoming traffic, so he was a little close for my comfort. But that’s not really what freaked me out – it was the length of the truck. I certainly wasn’t expecting that. It was quite dizzying when he zoomed by me. Trucks pulling trailers and boats have the same effect on me. Why is that?
It’s nice to be out on a ride and recognize people, and be recognized.
Sunday, during the coffee ride, a couple cyclists came upon us and I heard, “Is that Dana?” Sure enough, Noreen, a gal from the women’s ride.
Monday night, on the way to the group ride, I saw a guy that I always see. He never used to wave and now he does. I think he recognizes my green/yellow bike and knows I wave so he waves back.
A little further down the road I recognized another rider, Noreen, as she was headed out for a ride.
Still further along, I saw Paul. I thought he should be joining us on the group ride and I assumed he was just out for a little warmup prior to the ride.
It’s a great feeling when you wave to a fellow cyclist and realize you actually know them. Better still is the feeling that they recognize you.
One of my favorite blogger is Belgium Knee Warmers. Since a few of the women from my group ride also ready my blog, I thought it might make sense to link his recent posting on group riding here.
"To be a cyclist is to be a student of pain....at cycling's core lies pain, hard and bitter as the pit inside a juicy peach. It doesn't matter if you're sprinting for an Olympic medal, a town sign, a trailhead, or the rest stop with the homemade brownies. If you never confront pain, you're missing the essence of the sport. Without pain, there's no adversity. Without adversity, no challenge. Without challenge, no improvement. No improvement, no sense of accomplishment and no deep-down joy. Might as well be playing Tiddly-Winks." - Scott Martin
