Success! 3 days, 3 bikes, 4 rides

Four rides? Well if you count Friday afternoon, yup, 4 rides! And all of my crazy bikes got a chance to ride with me over the weekend - one at a time, of course.

I've been trying to plan a biking vacation (or two), but it's been difficult without knowing whether I'm back in prime biking condition. My goal for this nice long weekend was to do three reasonable length rides and to see how I felt at the end of the weekend. And - I think I'm back!

My weekend started a little early when I decided to take advantage of what turned out to be a beautiful Friday afternoon. I left work at 3 - a bit early, but it felt like the right thing to do - and headed home to join forces with one of my bicycles. My bike & I managed a nice 22-mile late afternoon ride. It definitely felt good to be back out on the road, my first ride since last Saturday's jaunt with Robyn & Jean. (Weather wizard, please listen - you're not supposed to keep us off of our bikes at this time of year!) It was amazing how messy some of the roads were - lots of leaves and small twigs scattered across the road surface. And it was scary that I saw several trees down not too far from my house. The roads were mainly dry, although there were enough spots where the road was totally covered with water that my bike requested (and received) a nice wash when we returned home. Clean, and ready to hit the road again!

Saturday? It was an absolutely beautiful day. I headed out to Robyn's in the morning, and we did a really nice 27-mile ride. Both of us had afternoon (non-biking) plans, so that was the length ride that we'd planned. I thought that was fine, but apparently my bike decided she wasn't done! I drove home, did a few weekend errands, and then my bike jumped out of the car and we were on the road again - 15 more miles.

Sunday started with wet roads, so I started my ride later than expected - waiting for the roads to dry out! It was cloudy, but it was still a pretty good riding day. I was rewarded for riding by coming around a corner to see a blue heron standing in the middle of a pond. Later in the afternoon, I saw the sun reflected in a pond. Still a nice day. Not too much later I started to see very gray clouds. And more gray clouds, dark and threatening. At that point rider passed heading in the opposite direction. He looked up and said "you know we are both going to get very wet, don't you?" He was absolutely right, and when I was about 4 miles from home a steady rain started. Too bad I didn't have my rain gear with me! Oh well, it was still a good ride - 45 miles worth of good.

It was just amazing to see this heron standing quietly in the middle of this pond (although it's also possible that it is standing in a field that just happens to be covered with water). I wish I'd been able to get a little closer, but I suppose I should be happy with the posing bird!

This reflection shows clouds, but blue sky too... The blue disappeared not long after I stopped to take the picture.

Monday dawned with clear blue skies. The weather forecast called for a high probability of rain and afternoon thunderstorms. Do you think I listened? Nope. Out we headed (my bike and I)... It probably would have been smart to combine some shorter loops near home, just in case - but I didn't do that. I was afraid that if I started on a shorter loop that I would get bored and head home without completing my target mileage. I headed to Beverly (on the coast) and then up to Ipswich before turning towards home again. My goal was a 50 mile ride, and when I got home I'd done 54. The first time I got caught in the rain was just outside of Ipswich, a good 20 miles from home. I was able to share a road-side shelter - actually probably a place that a local farmer uses to sell produce in the fall - with 2 motorcycle riders. We stood and talked during the heavy part of the rain. I kept looking up and wondering how the water was falling on us since there was blue sky immediately above us! That little break lasted only about 10 minutes. The road was a bit wet, but it dried out fairly quickly. The second time the rain started I was in North Andover, but still 3 or 4 miles from home. That stopped fairly quickly. I was really lucky though, considering the downpour with loud cracks of thunder and visible cloud to ground lightening strikes that greeted me as I pulled up to my house at the end of the ride. Talk about dumb luck and good timing!

I'm so glad that I've developed a habit of taking my camera with me. When I saw this donkey standing next to the fence in his very large field, I just had to stop to chat with him and to take a few pictures.

I'm definitely happy with my biking mileage this weekend, a total of 165 miles. I think I've proved to myself that I'm ready to start touring again - so now I should be able to put some plans into place. I think I'm going to start with something relatively short - a 5 or 6 day tour in Maine in late June. My initial thought is Bar Harbor and north, but that could change. Since late June is not very far off, I think I'd better try to firm up some plans this week!

Is this the face of a happy cyclist? I think so!

More pictures? The photos from this weekend are on the last two pages of my It's spring! 2005 picture gallery.

Gray & gloomy - but I saw a patch of blue this morning

Really! To bad it's gone again...

When I woke up this morning and peeked out the window, I actually saw blue skies. Finally! Unfortunately by the time I took my morning shower and headed downstairs for breakfast, the sky was once again covered in gray - lighter than the gray of the last few days, but still gray. We've had a lot of rain this week - based on reports on the National Weather Service site, towns close to mine are reporting that there was over 3 inches of rain. I really wish that the weather wizards would listen when all of us say "enough!".

I started the week in the gym, but I quickly switched back to walking outside. My bicycling rain jacket turns out to be good garb for wet walks - the only part of me that got totally soaked was my feet. I just bought a new pair of running shoes to support my walking habits, but I've been sticking with my old shoes this week. My feet want the cushioning of the new shoes, but I'd hate to start out by trashing the new shoes this early! So far this week has had one day of exercising indoors followed by 3 days of very wet but decent length (fast) walks. I'm still hoping for things to dry out by this afternoon - my bikes are screaming to go out and ride.

Still hoping for dry weather... I'd like some sunshine too, but I'll settle for dry.

Gray, gray, and wet too

The weather forecast for this week is only good for folks who really like cool, gray, and wet weather. Today's weather forecast was for a 20% chance of rain, with pretty solid rain forecasts for much of the week. I was hoping to get at least one weekday ride in by heading out on my bike after work today - but the rain started in the middle of the afternoon. Rain and cold, what a combination! Guess it's time to head back to the gym...

I was listening to the news while I was working out, and the weather forecaster said that all but 2 days in May were below normal temperature levels, and that much of the month was gray and wet. No wonder the weather is getting to me! I'm just hoping that the scattered showers that are predicted for the upcoming holiday weekend are just that - scattered - and not more solid water.

An anniversary that deserves notice

Yes, this is it - the anniversay of my stellar impact with the pavement, of flipping my bike over and landing on my head, of my crash. I had hoped to celebrate the day with my first bike commute to work of the season (and since the crash), but I woke up to cool weather - temps in the low 40s - and a forecast of possible rain later in the day. Hoping that the rain wouldn't come until very late but being scared off by the temperature, I drove in to work, arriving early enough to put in a full day and leave at 3:30 - plenty of time to pull off a decent after-work ride. Of course the forecast of rain wasn't right; it was beautiful by late afternoon with some sun, and temperatures in the mid 60s. I had a good end-of-the-day celebration ride, which I think was the best way to celebrate surviving that accident.

Truth be told, I don't think I'm quite back to my pre-accident cycling shape. I honestly don't know if that is due to the accident or if it is due to our very wet and cool spring. Putting in two decent (but not really long, 30+ mile) days of riding still leaves me feeling tired on the third day, and my goal is to be able to ride 50+ miles day after day. For my work commutes, I need to be able to put in a 30+ mile day plus a full day's work in between my rides to and from work. I think I'd be happy with commuting 2 or 3 days a week by bike, although 4 would be ideal. And for touring? Well, that's the 50 mile a day goal, and I'm not there yet. Soon, I hope!

And I hope that the weather wizard is listening to my goals, because I think I need the wizard's help. The last week of May is ahead, and it sounds like it will be a continuation of wet and cool. So weather wizard, please, please, please put in a change for June. I need to be back to the normal Denise.

What better way to celebrate than by getting out and riding my bike? That red spot surrounded by black & blue on my face? Yup, you're right - it's still left from the crash.

Hide & seek with mother goose

I've been trying to escape from the office for a short walk in the early afternoons. A little bit of light exercise as a work break always helps, and some days I get a good laugh out of it too.

Today was the day for playing hide & seek with some Canada Geese. Yesterday I saw what appeared to be a whole flock of geese, quite a few adults surrounded by their young - so today I brought my camera with me in the hopes of getting some pictures. I have to say it was hard finding shots where the birds were standing still. The geese today appeared to be in family groups; that is, I would see a pair of adult geese (I assume mother & father goose) along with a bunch of "children". The funniest were a pair who were separated from me by some bushes. One of the adult geese would scrunch down behind the bush, then pop his (or her) head up to see if I was still there, then scrunch down again, then... Well you get the pictures. I was definitely laughing, but the silly bird was moving too fast for me to capture the scene with my camera!

If I walk fast do you think I can get away from that camera?

Babies happily eating surrounded by the safety net of mom & dad!

A rest day?!

What? A day without exercise? I came home from work thinking it was a day for walking, but then I faced up to how I was feeling. Tired! I have to keep telling myself that it's OK to have a day without exercise. Somehow I was substituting walking days for riding on those semi-tired days, and I don't really think that walking at a fairly fast pace for 60 to 90 minutes qualifies as resting. OK, I'll rest...

I looked back at my exercise log for last week and discovered that I had actually put in a week with decent riding mileage. My total for the week was 135 miles. (Uh oh, watch out - she's complaining again!) So why am I complaining? I had two decent 33 - 35 mile rides, and the other 4 day's rides were between 14 and 18 miles. Overall the mileage sounds decent, but my body's reaction to the miles isn't what I'd hoped for by now. A decent but chilly 35 mile ride on Monday felt good, but the 14 miles on Tuesday felt pretty bad. My rides on Thursday & Friday were good too - in the 18 mile range. Saturday was another decent ride of 33 miles. Sunday? I only pulled off 18 miles, and again I was pretty tired. I'm having a hard time accepting not being able to pull off multiple days in a row of semi-decent mileage. Again, I'm trying to plan a touring vacation, and I haven't yet come up with a tour that eases up on the mileage. I think I'm trying, but then I somehow go back to what I really want to do - and that is to once again pull off multiple days of riding with the daily miles under my wheels of around 50 miles.

OK, OK, today is a rest day - and it should also be an ease up on myself day! Tomorrow...

Popping leaves

It's amazing - the leaves seem to have popped out overnight. I noticed that the tree in my front yard that had leaves and tightly closed (barely visible) buds on it Friday morning was fully in bloom when I got home in the evening. And on my commute this morning, the heavily tree'ed Route 125 through Andover has changed once again to have a ceiling of green. On Friday, there were still a lot of seemingly bare branches. Obviously they couldn't have been bare, but must have had small rolled (early versions of) leaves on the branches. This morning? Fully formed leaves, and very green!

Is it too much for the weather wizard to help greet all of these leaves with a touch of warm weather?

Gray sky, cool temps, but a dry weekend

Luckily the very wet weather that was forecast for the weekend didn't happen. It was gray, and it was cool, but for the most part it was dry.

I had planned to ride on Saturday with some women I "met" through the Team Estrogen forum, and we ended up canceling because of very gray skies and some short-lived rain in the area where we planned to ride. As it turns out, we could have ridden and stayed dry, but that wasn't obvious early in the morning. Robyn & I have already planned a replacement ride for next Saturday. I did manage to get in a decent 33 mile ride yesterday, doing several loops so that I was never a long distance from home. It was cool enough out that I didn't want to be very far from home if it started raining - I figured I'd get wet but not frozen... Today was even cooler and the skies were more threatening. I waited until mid-afternoon to go out, hoping that the temperature would rise. It didn't, but I rode anyway. A shorter ride today, and a ride in which I was again fighting a lower than desired energy level. I've got to get rid of that feeling... Oh well, I'll just have to keep fighting, training, and striving to improve. And I clearly need to do some more talking to the weather wizard too.

Grumble, grumble...

It's supposed to be spring, and I'm supposed to be back in prime cycling shape, but... OK, maybe it's my time for complaints. And maybe you want to skip this blog entry - but I figure if I get it out then maybe I won't feel the need to bore you with this in person!

I can't do anything about the weather except to accept what dawns every day. Or give in to my desire to escape the northeast and figure out where I really want to live... I'm not quite ready for that, so I guess I just need to figure out how to work with this non-ideal weather - especially on the weekends!

While I'd like to believe I'm in control of my own fitness, I'm not sure that I have total control over that either. It's been almost a full year since my crash, and my expectations (and hope) are that I should be back to my normal self and ready to ride. But am I there? I've looked at and compared my exercise logs from last year and this year, and I'm almost exactly in the same place as far as bicycling mileage goes. Unfortunately my energy levels aren't the same as the levels in my memory. My biggest riding weekend this year was 4 weeks ago. It consisted of 32 miles on Saturday and 38 on Sunday - and was followed by a very tired Monday. Unfortunately the weather has conspired against me since then and the rainy weekends haven't allowed me to repeat that mileage and attempt to extend it. I took last Monday off with the hopes of getting in three consecutive decent days of riding. The weather conspired against me, and the only rideable day of my 3-day weekend was Monday. I had a good but chilly ride along the New Hampshire coast, but Tuesday was a tired day. I am managing to get some riding in during the week though, and I'm sure that is helping. I'm not quite ready to commute to work by bike and be capable of putting in a full days work too, but attempting to get in 15 to 18 mile rides 2 or 3 days during the week has to be helping.

My sister and my mom have both told me I'm being too hard on myself, and it's quite possible that they are right. I just don't want to accept that. And I really want to get back to vacations on my bike. The problem? I need to be able to pull off consecutive days of riding a decent distance, and I don't seem to be quite there yet. I'd like to be able to ride between 50 and 60 miles each day, but maybe I could settle for 40 to 50 to start. I've thought out a tentative long weekend trip to Nova Scotia for the end of June, but I haven't made any reservations for places to stay - or for the ferry - because I'd like to be a little more confident that I am ready for the distances I'll need to bike. Not only ready, but ready to happily get back on the bike the next morning. Maybe I need to check the maps again and see if there is a slightly shorter option. I have a feeling that the problem with my early plans are that they involve 5 days of riding, and the middle 3 days are all about 50 miles. It's a good goal, and it's a good dream, but is it too much? I'd like to plan a longer trip for later in the year too. I'm hoping that late summer or early fall is a realistic goal for that.

It looks like this weekend won't be ideal for riding since rain is forecast yet again. Hopefully I can get some riding in though, and there's a 3-day weekend coming up in just 2 weeks. Hopefully I can use that weekend as my slightly delayed test of whether I can pull off 3 decent riding days in a row. I hate to wait that long to finalize plans for a June long weekend, but I also don't want to make plans that I feel I need to cancel. Last minute travel isn't my usual style, but maybe it will work for me this time...

OK, it that enough of a complaint for today?

I'll keep working, and I'll keep dreaming, and hopefully my dreams and goals of traveling with my bike will be met this year...

Weekend plans must be made to be changed...

Three days, three states, and three rides... those were my unfulfilled plans for the weekend. A springtime nor'easter quashed my riding plans for Saturday and Sunday, but Monday was another story. I had intended to ride near home - in Massachusetts - on Saturday, and I had planned two rides along the coast - in New Hampshire & Maine - for Sunday & Monday. Obviously I didn't take the weather into account! I guess I thought that we'd already had enough wet weather, especially since this was the third weekend in a row of solid rain.

Saturday and Sunday were pretty much wash-out days. I had arranged to take the day off today, and I woke early fully thinking it would be raining and I'd trade today for a dry day later. No rain, although the sky was gray and the ground was wet. I decided to take a chance with the forecasted 20% chance of drizzle...

I headed to the New Hampshire coast to do an out and back ride. Luckily my cycling started by heading north, and finished by heading south. There was still quite a bit of wind left from the weekend storm, and it was blowing to the south. My ride out was definitely slowed. I was lucky and the wind direction held so on the ride back I had a bit of a wind assist. It was a cool day, starting in the high 40s and warming to the mid-50s. A bit of a chilly start, but once I got moving it was warm enough for riding. 35 miles in an out and back ride along the coast - and I felt good when I finished. That's a good sign.

Yes, the flags are really standing striaght out in the wind. Luckily the wind direction didn't switch on me, so the ride back was much easier than the ride out.

The sea gulls didn't seem to be bothered by the wind...

And the waves were pretty wild!

A cool walking week

Not much biking this week - it was a cool week that continually threatened rain, which somehow sent me back to walking as my primary form of exercise. As it turns out, I could have ridden - and stayed dry - on 2 of my walking days. And now that it's about to turn into a weekend, a nor'easter is promising to visit. It sounds like we're in for at least 2 if not 3 days of very wet weather. That certainly doesn't do much for my plans for riding this weekend. Oh well...

I did manage to get some nice photos on my walks though. I've included a couple below, or you can go directly to my It's spring! 2005 smugmug gallery.

It's fascinating watching the changes as new leaves start to make their presence visible.

All different types of daffodils - this one with a very shallow center. Beautiful!

And tulips in a wonderful shade of pink...

Wet again... weather wizard, you aren't listening!

The sun has finally reappeared after another very wet weekend. The week wasn't too bad - I managed 3 after-work bike rides - but the weekend was another story. Yesterday's ride was too short, and wet from the beginning. It was just starting to spit at the start of the ride, but it wasn't enough to cancel. But the rain got steadier, and a shorter ride than planned seemed like a good idea. Then it managed to rain on and off until late this afternoon. The sun finally came out a little after 5... too late for my riding plans.

I did spend some time pouring over maps of Nova Scotia, in an attempt to plan a long weekend get-away at the tail end of June. I was originally thinking of using last year's canceled plans, but then I realized that I had a 70 mile riding day in there. That's really too far right now. I'd like to think that by the end of June I can pull off a loaded day of that length, but I don't think that's smart planning. Right now I'm leaning toward heading from Yarmouth to the north, which keeps me on the Bay of Fundy side rather than the Atlantic side of Nova Scotia. I think I can pull off a slightly shorter day - like around 50 miles. Well, that doesn't feel short to me right now with my non-riding weekends, but hopefully it's a realistic goal. So I've gone from considering doing the entire long weekend in Maine to again thinking I'm going to Nova Scotia. I suppose I'll need to make up my mind soon...

I did a fair amount of wandering with a camera too, and I was rewarded with seeing some amazing flowers. It really is spring, even though the weather isn't cooperating nicely from a riding standpoint.