Trying to Get Back into Shape

Work and weather have really interfered with my cycling this year. The spring was wet and I had trips for work almost every week in June and July. By the end of July I had ridden 633 miles, which was 960 fewer than I had ridden from January through July last year.  I took the last week off and managed to ride 6 times.  I rode several times in the evenings and it is getting dark earlier, so the rides were shorter than I would have liked.  Despite that I had my first 100-mile week with 103 miles. This week I have ridden five times for 119 miles and that included my long ride of the year, 44 miles. All together the last two weeks have accounted for 23% of the years riding so far.

Beautiful Day to Ride

I felt like I was dragging all day. I cut the lawn, paid bills, and ran errands. I finally went out to ride around 5:00 PM. The weather was great and after I got warmed I started to feel more energetic. I rode 27.5 miles at a 14 mph pace. Then farthest and fastest of the year. I am going to have to keep doing this. 

Two Days in Row

I got out for another ride today. It was the first time that I rode on consecutive days since last September. I took the same route as yesterday with the exception of one little detour.  The weather was again quite nice, and it was much less windy. It must of been the wind that slowed me down yesterday. I averaged 13.6 mph today over 23.2 miles.

YTD: 92.6 miles

The Long Hard Road Back

A couple of illnesses and some travel for work kept me off my bike for about six weeks in the late fall. When I had a chance to ride again, it had gotten cold and I was not prepared to deal with it. Since last October I had ridden less than 50 miles. I got out today for a 22 mile ride, and I managed a blistering 12 mph pace. I was hindered by some serious wind gusts are times, but the problem was mostly me. I even had a minor cramp at a stop about three quarters of the way through the ride.

The weather for tomorrow looks promising. It should be warm again and I am hoping for a bit less wind. I hope to get out again. It is going to be a long hard road to getting in shape so I had better get a good start.

Back in the Saddle

I got out for a brief ride on Saturday. I was out running errands, including getting my car washed. As I pulled back into the driveway, I realized it was 63 degrees. I had to get out and ride. It was already 4:20 PM, so I grabbed my hybrid and rode around the neighborhood for 10.5 miles.

YTD: 10.5 miles

Still Having Bad Luck

I rode up to Lewistown today to lead the club’s Pick Your Distance Ride. I hit a bump on the new paving on Christopher’s Crossing, and my mirror fell off. I heard something hit the ground, looked down, but I  could not tell what had fallen. I stopped and looked back just in time to see a car run over my mirror.

YTD: 2000 miles

Long Ride After a Long Layoff

I was off the bike for four weeks in later July and most of August. The first week was due to travel and the rest was due to having the flu. I have been riding again for about two weeks covering 62 and 80 miles per week. Today I joined members of the club to check out the metric century route that we will be doing on September 20.

The ride was similar to a ride I did in May, although it was a few miles shorter and just bit less hilly. I survived, but I was exhausted at the end and my legs were fairly sore. I was in better shape in May.  I ended up averaging 14.6 mph for the ride, which makes the ride my fastest as well as my longest since my layoff.

The rests of the riders were clearly near their peak conditioning from riding all summer, which kept the average speed up. I would not have gone so fast if I was not chasing them.

I had been well ahead of last year’s pace until I sick. When I got back on the bike I had just about the same number of miles as the year before, but now I am falling behind. I racked up 180 miles in one week in early September, and I don’t think that will happen this year.

Flattest Metric Century Anywhere

I believe in truth in advertising so I have to inform that the flattest metric century is only 59.5 miles according to my odometer. I had hoped to break my personal best for a ride of 50 miles today, but I failed miserably. My personal best is 15.8 mph, which I did last year on the metric part of the Civil War Century.  Today I averaged 13.6 mph.

We were riding from Severn, MD down to Annapolis using the BWI trail and the Baltimore and Annapolis Trail as part of the route, so I know I would have to leave the house by 7:45 AM. I prepared extensively for the ride. I loaded my bike, shoes, pump, and helmet in the car the night before. I put a couple of bottles of gatorade in the fridge. I printed out the directions to the ride and added some new podcasts to my ipod for the ride home. I borrowed my wife’s camera, brought sunglasses and sunscreen and headed out.

About ten miles down the I realized that I forgot the direction. I thought I remembered the route, but I missed turn off MD 100. The rider leader’s ceel phone number was with the directions, so I tried every person’s phone number in my cell phone who might be at the ride. Eventually I connected and was directed to the right place, where everyone was waiting for me. I think they were patiently waiting, but everyone disappeared after I got my cue sheet.

Riding on bike trails is quite a bit different than riding on the roads. They frequently have a lot of bike and pedestrian traffic as opposed to cars. They are frequently crossed by small streets. Along the B&A trail there were stop signs at almost every crossing. The cars in the area would almost always stop to let bicyclists by, but I was not confident enought that they would all stop so I was constantly slowing down and looking for cars.

The trail is also not very wide. You can get two cycles next to each other, but everytime you see a bike going the opposite direction it is back to single file. It is easy to get stuck behind a slower cylist for quite a distance. On the most southern portion of the trail the trafffic was lighter and on the trip back I was able to get out in front and travel a bit quicker for awhile, but it did not help enough to get me a decent average speed.

YTD: 1454.3 miles

Three Unions and a Windsor 2008

The club held a ride today for the 4th of July. We did another variation of Three Unions and a Windsor.  This is a popular ride mostly through Carrol County. I have done it several times before and I think I do a different variation each time.

This was my 49th ride of the year, and I am over 200 miles ahead of my pace from last year. However, I am not riding as well. We did the same ride last year on the 4th. I was a bit slower this year, only averaging 14.2 mph for the 43+ miles and I did 15 mph last year.

YTD:

All the Hills That I can Handle

I only got in ten miles of riding last week due to family and work commitments as well as regular thunderstorms, so I was looking forward to today’s ride. I had originally planned to do this ride at the end of June, so I planned an early start of 8:30 AM to beat the heat. It turned out that even though the ride was much earlier in the month than originally planned, it still was not early enough to beat the heat. George’s computer was registering 99º F regularly on the second half of the ride.

George showed me this route a couple of years ago, but he has not lead the ride yet. He wouldn’t even need to write a cue sheet.  In a fit of desperation rather than inspiration, I named it Jefferson-Adamstown-Buckystown. I should have named it All the Hills That Mike Can Handle.

Colm, Doug, George, Jeff, Joyce, Martha, Ray, and I were ready to go at 8:20 AM, but we waited until 8:30 AM hoping a few more people might show up. When no one did, we took off and headed south on Ballenger Creek until we reached Capstine Road. We then turned back to the north on Capstine Road. This part of the ride has big loops to pile up a few miles while people warm up. Like we needed to warm up today. On Capstine we ran into Chuck who showed up a few minutes after we left and figured out how to run into us without chasing us. Chuck rides those roads regularly, and he knows his way around.

The group stayed pretty tightly packed until we started the climb on Jefferson Pike going into Jefferson. At this point  we spread out a bit. I pulled a Big Brown at the Belmont and watched the pack go by me.  Marlu Ridge went by uneventfully. We climbed up slowly, not appreciating the scenery fully, and then raced down the other side.

We stopped to regroup at Lily Pons and Park Mills and a young couple on some nice shiny new Jamis bikes stopped and asked us about the hill on Park Mills. We told them it was steep but manageable.  We left them thinking about and did not see them again until we were all sitting in front of the Flint Hill General Store at the top of the hill taking a refreshment break. It took them a long time to make it up the hill, but they seemed less bedraggled than we were when they did reach the top. Maybe those new bikes have a great-granny gear.

This ride always seems to fall apart at the end. The finish is close enough to town that many folks just head directly home instead of returning to the ride start. Last year we had people breaking off at several different points, and I lost track of who was still returning the start. We lost track of Chuck last year and only figured out he made it back when we discovered his truck was gone. This year I stayed at the back of pack, so if anyone had a breakdown I would know it.  Although Chuck and I did take a shortcut at the last mile, so we could avoid the last little hill. I had had enough of hills at that point, and it was getting hotter.

The temperatures were higher than ideal, but everyone seemed to handle them well. On the two mile ride home from the ride starting point, I was really starting to feel the sun roasting me. I am glad we finished when we did.