November Wrap Up

I finished up November with a 24.54 mile ride today. It was 34 degrees and breezy when I set out and my toes were pretty frozen by the time I got back, though I was otherwise pretty comfortable. The views and sunshine helped to keep me going. At one point, I was picking my line slowly through a potholed, patch on patch section of road and noticed this hawk perched overhead on a power line. I didn't think it would stay there while I dug in my coat for the camera with clumsy full fingered gloves and then 'woke up' the camera, but it did! I guess it was too cold to bother with flapping away.

Along with dropping temperatures, we had a lot of rain in November which I didn't want to go out to ride in. Then we had some holiday things scheduled toward the end of the month, so it was a little harder to stay on track and get the miles.

I managed to ride a total of 19 days and 525.48 miles. The cx bike has been put to a lot of use as it's great for mashing over acorns, sticks and leaves that litter the roads this time of year. I used it on 13 rides and my road bike for just 6 rides. I don't see many other bikers outside now and only did 2 group rides this month. Jeff did 8 rides with me, but I had to do 11 solo efforts to get the miles I wanted.

Here's the inevitable chart. I know, not exciting blog fodder, but these little bars help keep me motivated, so you'll have to live with it!

Turbulence

I understand the usefulness of headwinds or even crosswinds for training, particularly in flat RI where to some extent we can use wind to simulate hill climbing. So, I don’t complain about that…much. But I do complain about crazy, swirling winds that randomly push you from side to side, front to back, down and up. For perhaps the first 10 minutes or so, I guess it’s actually fun, kind of like a carnival ride. But two hours later and I’ve been shaken about so much I hardly know which way is up.

Today was one of those days. Last night and early this morning, we had winds and rain with very warm temps, up to 60 degrees. About a half hour into my mid-morning ride, the cold north winds really picked up and started to drive the warm air out. So, I had crazy turbulence and rapidly dropping temps. Joy!

On the bright side, the weather did make for some dramatic pictures.

What better sky to have over a Gothic cathedral?

The surf was high. Down at the other end of the beach, near the rocks in the first picture, there were a bunch of surfers in the waves.

The sky looked pretty dark out over the water.

But was even darker over the road I was biking on!

11/24/07 Weekly Ride Report

I'm doing my best to keep up my riding though colder weather and holiday activities! This week I did 3 rides on the 'cross bike for a total of 95.35 miles. Jeff did 2 of those rides with me.

Pre Thanksgiving Feast Ride

We had a lot to be thankful for yesterday, including a beautiful warm day. It was perfect for a ride and we weren't the only ones out enjoying it. We saw so many other bikers, walkers, runners, surfers and horseback riders!

We biked twice around our beach loop and past the bird refuge (where we saw a Kestrel and a Harrier). Then we biked over to the town rec area for some loops around the fields for a total of 33.74 miles.

I snapped some pics of Jeff. This narrow lane is on the way to the fields.

It's fun to practice turns around the trees at the edge of the field.

A few laps around this big field can sure get the heart rate up!

And these are a couple of shots of Jeff as we headed back home.



It was an easy ride, but allowed us feel a little less guilty about taking that extra slice of pumpkin pie for dessert!

Gobble, Gobble!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jeff and I biked past this flock of wild turkeys on last Sunday's ride. They seemed very relaxed considering it's turkey dinner season!

I know I’ve been biking a lot when...

Last night, I was telling Jeff about seeing someone we know drive by me when I was out biking. I told him that this person ‘ beeped and waved to me over the handlebar’, when I meant the steering wheel!

New Saddle

I've debated for some time about whether to try a different saddle on my X6 or not. Well, more frequent, longer rides on the stock saddle in cold weather became pretty uncomfortable as I had to keep shifting from one sit bone to the other during the ride rather than just being able to perch evenly. As the saddle didn't seem bad other than not being wide enough, I decided to look for one from the same line. The stock saddle is a Selle San Marco Ponza. Unfortunately, they don't seem to make a Ponza for women, so I ordered a saddle from the same 'Island' series, the women's Ischia. It is an appropriate width which is good, but also a bit heavier and thicker in profile. Luckily it's not at all expensive, so I don't feel badly about experimenting a bit. I ordered it from amazon since it's not something the local shop usually carries.

This is the saddle as pictured on amazon.

Jeff and I mounted it on the bike Sunday and I think we did a pretty good job positioning it, but I'll probably stop by the shop at some point as the owner said he'd help with adjusting it. It certainly won't hurt to have an expert look at the angle of my knees, etc.

This is a picture that I took of the saddles together for comparison. My new saddle is in the foreground and the stock saddle is shown behind, on Jeff's bike.

If you happen to know about saddles for cx and have any thoughts on this one, pros or cons, please leave a comment for me. Or if there is one that tends to be favored by women, let me know the name. I'm just getting started with cx, so I appreciate *all* advice!

Also, Jeff has decided he isn't very comfortable on his saddle, so we'll be looking into an alternative for him as well.