Category: 30daysofbiking (Page 5 of 6)

30 Days of Biking–Day 9

April 9, 2013 / Susan

Day 9’s ride was a pleasure ride, albeit a windy and muggy one. Today’s high is in the mid-80s, tomorrows high will be in the mid-40’s with a likelihood (if you believe the forecasters) of freezing rain. Could make tomorrow’s ride very interesting.

I didn’t ride anywhere in particular and it wasn’t a training or fitness ride, just a fun time on the bike.

I did use LiveTrack on my new Garmin 510 so Mark could see where I was during the ride. Cool technology. We are going to California in a couple of weeks and I plan to do some LiveTrack rides while we are there. I will post the ride map and data here each day as soon as I am able.

Day 9: 6.3 miles/36:45

Photos from Day 9:

30 Days of Biking–Day 8

April 8, 2013 / Susan

I waited until just before dark to ride. Mostly because of the atrocious wind, but also because of how I was feeling after a dentist appointment in the afternoon.

So off I go on to my “have to” ride because of my pledge to ride every day in April. I expected it to be maybe not miserable – because no time on the bike is miserable – but not fun or enjoyable.

It was actually fun and beyond enjoyable. Really the word that best describes tonight’s ride is magical. The sky was blue and orange, the air moved between very still and very gusty, and only a handful of us were out. Two boys fishing, several playing basketball, a couple of women walking and me. We knew what the people in their homes looking outside didn’t know and what I hadn’t known 5 minutes before: It wasn’t only not bad outside, it was perfect. An evening in the spring, at that magical time, twilight.

One of those rides I didn’t want to start, yet once I was riding, didn’t want to stop.

Again, I am reminded that there are times when a ride doesn’t seem right or fun or sensible, but that is precisely when some of the best rides happen.

Pictures from my 8th ride in April:

Day 8: 3 miles

30 Days of Biking–Day 7

April 7, 2013 / Susan

I finished out the first week of 30 Days of Biking with a ride to Sprouts market. If I take a direct route, the store is less than 7 miles round trip. It is sort of ridiculous that I don’t do it more often on my bike. Obviously one reason, the main reason, is panniers don’t hold much in the way of groceries. Still, for just a few items it is the way to go. Today Mark went with me so we had 4 panniers to carry stuff.

One of the best things about an event like 30 Days of Biking is I end up biking more frequently than normal. Maybe not more miles, but more rides. Since I must ride at least once a day, it forces me to figure out ways to incorporate a ride into my day. I don’t know about you, but I don’t do training or fitness rides every day. I do however, go out to run errands, etc., some of which I can do on my bike.

Sundays are my favorite day to ride, maybe yours too. Fewer people on the roads is always welcome and in these parts – especially during church hours – the roads are pretty empty. We had planned a Jones ride today, but with the windy and overall yuck weather, looks like it will just be the grocery store run today.

Pictures from Day 7:

Only down side of no vehicles is there is no one to trip the light

A lovely old building on the campus of UCO.

My lovely, not so old *steel is real* bike.

30 Days of Biking–Day 6

April 6, 2013 / Susan

Today’s ride was just an easy spin of 12 miles. We rode close to home through nearby neighborhoods. Slow and easy.

Day 6: 12.1 miles/12.3 avs/594ft of ascent.

30 Days of Biking–Day 5

April 5, 2013 / Susan

Day 5 ride was the longest of the #30daysofbiking rides so far. I joke – and like most jokes there is truth there – that rides in street clothes are rides of a bike rider and rides in spandex are rides of a cyclist. It is a well understood fact (by most anyway) that drivers are more tolerant of bike riders than cyclists.

I talked yesterday about how easy going drivers were on Day 4’s ride, today’s bike jersey/shorts ride i.e., cyclist ride was an example of how irritated drivers can be. I find it so interesting that depending on how you are dressed (and possibly the type of bike you are riding) people actually react differently to you. It wouldn’t be an issue for cyclists except the irritated drivers sometimes respond in a manner that puts us at risk. There have been studies done confirming this, according to one, the safest person riding a bike is a female pulling a trailer commonly used for hauling kids.

Today’s ride was great regardless. We parked at Oakdale school and rode to Jones on Hefner Rd. The same road that hundreds of cyclists (and bike riders 🙂 will be riding tomorrow at the Redbud Classic bike event. Signage was already out warning drivers to expect possible delays.

The ride to Jones is so peaceful (and easy), especially on weekdays when most are at work. We saw more cows than people. I had to stop to take a picture of this longhorn and her calf.

Once we hit Jones and started heading back we decided to just ride home and pick up the car later. Good decision because once we started heading north we had a very nice tailwind from the southwest. You can see how strong the wind is from the flag in the photo below.

Aren’t the redbuds beautiful!

We picked up another 8 miles by riding home of mostly easy pedaling although there was a fair amount of traffic. One person buzzed us even though the left lane was completely empty choosing to stay in the right lane where we were passing us very close and THEN got over into the left lane.

Once we could we got off the busy streets and ride through neighborhoods to get home we did. Also gave me time to get a few more shots.

Day 5: 26.5 miles/14.8 avs/119 ahr/922ft of ascent.

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