Week 9, 80 miler, 15 mph — Rain out!

Oh no! It’s raining and the forecast is for rain almost all day.  The radar looks like rain.  We postponed the ride until Sunday.   Sunday was even worse than Saturday.  A total washout.  I’ve missed the 70 and 80 mile ride and with rain forecast for the whole week there is no chance of getting some miles in.  I’m in pretty bad shape to do 100 after missing the last big two and grinding out the whole season with a bad hip that won’t cut me much slack.

The season started out so well, no flats, no wind nice weather.  Well most of the folks in the group (all of them really) will be able to do it.   I,  on the other hand will be pushing my luck.  We ended up with three weather cancellations.

Well, right now the forecast for Saturday is 72 and sunny with a light west wind — doesn’t get much better than that!  Guess I’ll try to tough it out.  Perfect conditions for the beginners!

See you Friday night for the pasta dinner — I’m still in good enough shape for that!

Week 8, 70 miler, 15 mph —

Imagine being in the city on a beautiful spring day and not doing the 5 Boro Bile Tour!

This week the ride moves to an 8:00 start.  That means I’m setting the alarm for 6:30.  I never will be known as a morning person.  The phone rang at 6:00 am and I was up late doing the blog the night before!  It was not a rider asking if we’re on but my friend who was anxiously awaiting the call to come into the city for a kidney transplant.  I had happily accepted the role of driver a few years back, fully knowing the call could come at any time of the night!

You know what kind of day it is going to be when you start off with a flat in the parking lot.

It seems I missed an eventful ride.  We made up for an almost flat free training season in one day!

Dina picked a bad day to join us. She and Jane wouldn't be laughing for long!

If you have to get a flat, it might as well be at Momma Lombardy's

I don't recognize the location of the next flat!

We gather in the Wildwood.

Well Lunch at Wildwood State Park is always fun — especially on a nice day!  We have actually had snow on the Wildwood ride.  You never can tell about Spring on Long Island!   Josie called me to tell me the ride was about two hours behind schedule and to see how the transplant was going.  Unfortunately that was also delayed.

The headwaters of the Peconic. You would drive right past in your car. Thanks Evie and Lori for the photos!

Super Mario! aka MA-RE- O Speedwagon!

Carl Hart Bicycles was an unintended stop on the ride today.  Riders purchased a few tires, tube and other parts as the ride passed through Middle Island.  Later Mario’s axel broke.  He called home fora ride.  They drove to to Carl Hart and Mario rejoined the ride with a new rear wheel.  Those bike riders are crazy!

About 6:30 I got back from the City and decided to go out to find my wife.  More time was spent fixing bikes then riding today!

I caught up with the group in time to photograph the final couple of legs on LI Ave.

Troopers!

Almost home!

Everyone will do the 100 — Two weeks to go!

Week 7, 60 miler, 14 mph — “At last… and life is like a song.”

It should be smooth sailing today with temps in the 70’s.   I hope people didn’t give up because of the cancellations.

Marianne gets the bike fit demo!

Today we’ll combine the bike fit and clothing talks into one “how to be comfortable on a long ride.  We’ve already done a couple of impromptu bike fits along the way, but today we explain and demonstrate.

We did a fit for Marianne.  Last week in a quickie fit we recommended she bring her handlebars up and in.  Her bike shop made the changes and the rest of her fit was right on.  After the ride she loved the changes.

This week it is Miles' turn to show off his new bike! Frankie Karl and I are the only steel holdouts!

Yip Yip Yaphank

Long Island Oddity?

Car Back?

So everyone showed up for the 60 after all! This is a determined bunch.  This week we ordered lunch ahead and the great folks at the Back Country Deli had it ready for us to carry to Smith’s Point.  We stocked up with water (and used the bathrooms of course).

Picked up lunch at the Back Country Deli in Yaphank

Life's a Beach!

Oh yeah!

I think they are hungry!

Leaving Smith’s Point is always a problem.  One way or another the wind is gonna kill you.   Today was no exception!  It was picking up as we came in and really blowing when we left.   It hounded us for the rest of the day!  It was an exhausting ride back.  Joan and Lori fell in separate  incidents.  Only our egos were badly hurt.  That wind can really fatigue you on a long ride.

Another (windy) day at the beach.

Slav - "Watch it he's my Slave" said the the deli guy who mispronounced his name.

Luckily Joan fell right near a gas station with a nice convenience store.   Some people will use any excuse to eat and use a bathroom!

North Street -- I heard someone say "This is a long street!" Especially in the wind!

I can't place this -- I'm guessing South Street. Mario, Lori and Karl take on the wind!

I don’t even want to say what time we got back!  All in all a challenging ride and the longest ride ever for a bunch of the riders!  They are still having fun — RIGHT MARIO?

Week 6, 60 miler, 14 MPG — POSTPONED AGAIN!

Oh no — rain, rain and more rain all day long.  Gotta cancel another one.  Three weeks left. We won’t be doing the “Bonus Ride” this year!

Week 5, 60 miler, 14 mph — POSTPONED!

Hmm.  I don’t know if we’ve ever canceled because of the wind before!   Josie said  we have.   This is a tough ride anyway because of the wind at Smith Point.  I never should have written that we’ve had calm winds on all of the rides so far!  Today it’s 25 – 35 mph per hour winds —  gusts to 50 and a wind advisory from the National Weather Service.  I’ll kick myself if I’m wrong, but the blue blob of rain on the map  looks like it can miss us.   I’ll feel better if it actually start raining again!

Josie has been sick all week and it looks like I got it back the last two days too, so I’m feeling more cautious than usual.  I talked myself out of it!  Not feeling well probably pushed me.

Last year we got stuck in a wind and rain storm while we were at Smith Point.  We got lucky and waited out the rain under the pavilion.

Our first call was to a rider who lives on Fire Island– she said IMPOSSIBLE!  I fell a little better!

Tomorrow is supposed to be nice, but we have plans already.  Grrrrr.

Make sure you ride during the week!

Week 4, 50 miler 13 mph

Bikes of Steel!

It’s raining in the morning — people want to cancel.  It looks like the weather  might break, even though the forecast is for rain.  We delay the start for an hour.  Good call.  It stopped just in time.    A couple of people stayed home.  It hardly warmed up but we stayed dry.   The wind is calm at least.  With Josie on her new bike Frank and Karl are the only other steel bikes left — except me of course!   I wonder how many people in the club ride steel.

Josie's new bike -- much faster once she figured out how to shift!

Ah now my computer is not working!  Can’t seem to make it work.  I think I kinked the cable.  Turns out I can’t keep the 13 mph pace without the computer.   Pete volunteers to lead.  I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun on the training ride.   I got to ride with all different folks.  Got to look at their position and see how they were doing!

Lunch at The Bagel Lady.  I was looking for a pasta salad but it was not to

More bagels.

be.  Another week of bagels.  There was another group of cyclists eating when we got there.  They weren’t club members,  just buddies out for a ride, all carbon or titanium.

We lingered too long at the stops again and did not hit our target speed but we were close.  No one was far off the pace.  All in all this is a group that will do well.  Speed should not be a problem since we have not had a rain out yet with four more weeks to train.  Oh yeah we finally had a flat — Karl — must be the extra weight of the steel bike.  I forgot to take a picture to commemorate.  This is the most miles ever for a couple of the riders.

I think it's fun!

Carolyn was a first timer last year, and it took a lot of coaxing. This year she's a natural!

We stayed fairly tight for a beginner 50 miler!

With Pete leading, I get to take more pictures.

New Bike!

I found the original receipt for the Trek 520, purchased in 1986.  People said you had to be crazy to spend that much on a bike.  Ah, but it was so light — probably about 28 pounds maybe a little less because it was so small, double butted chrome-moly Reynolds tubes with the latest Shimano Biopace elliptical triple crank and down tube friction shifters!  The stuff of dreams!  HUH?????????

At the time no one cared about 5′ 2″ women riding a bicycle except an overzealous woman named Terry we met on a ride upstate.  She could make a bike for us but it was out of our price range.   When you’re a 5’2″ woman you knew what she was saying about bike fit was right, but try to convince a bike shop — most of them laughed!  We scoured the bike shops, magazines and catalogs and along with our tape measure set out to find something that came close to fitting.  The Trek 520 was one of the few 19 inch frames around in our price range and had the shortest top tube — so there it was.  Over the years we we able to find oddball parts and even had some custom machined to try to make the bike fit.  It worked for a while but twenty years later the body can’t make that stretch anymore.

Over the years we became zealots of woman’s bike fit on the training rides.  We knew women could get a good fit and advised our riders to go to another shop if the sales person insisted on selling a bad fit.

You'd think I could take a better photo of the new bike!

We could never understand the industry because every year most of our enthusiastic new riders were women who couldn’t buy clothes or bikes to fit unless they spent big bucks.  Forget about comfortable seats!!!!!

Bikes don't look comfortable in the house -- they like to be ridden.

Twenty years later — all we had to do was change the stem and get a perfect fit starting at entry level price and going to whatever you could afford to pay — all different brands and most important — colors!

The wind was so strong the bike stood still going down a mountain.

Ah that steel steed, faithful companion over thousands of miles.  So many states and Canada.  Mountains, valleys. rivers, lakes, oceans, forests, cities, bridges, suspension, covered wood and washed away but still on the map.  Rain, snow, sleet, mud, heat, cold, dogs, eagles and moose.   55 mph coming down a mountain — we must have been crazy. One day the wind on the coast of Nova Scotia was so strong the fully loaded bike came to a standstill going down the mountain and actually blew over.

You would never have seen the moose from a car

Kind strangers willing to share diner just to find out why you were passing through.  Loggers, cross county semis, and jerks in pickups, SUV’s and muscle cars — if they killed you it didn’t matter cause they were having fun!   Why do they hate us?

Freedom -- Everything you need for two weeks in Nova Scotia without a car.

All in all — joy, freedom, ride for days or weeks without a car or cell phone — that wonderful high — endorphins, nature, speed, stealth, seeing things you’d never see in a car, but seeing so much more than walking.  Cows smell sweet, dips smell different than hills, you can smell the rivers coming up around a bend — home style cooking made with love — you don’t ever stop there in a car.  Dogs and horses run along side, for miles sometimes, like they wish they could jump on and spin for a while!

“Bicycles move

With the flow

Of the earth

Like a cloud

So quiet

In the October Sky

Like licking ice cream

From a cone

Like knowing you

Will always

Be there.”

I had to quote from the poem Bicycles by Nikki Giovanni in her new book of poetry Bicycles:  Love Poems (HarperCollins).  Turn off the computer and read the book the next time your ride gets rained out!

Week 3 — 40 Miler, 12 mph

30 degrees, why are these people smiling?

It’s going to be another cold one.   Morning temperatures around 30.  Two cold weeks in a row and we’re sure to lose a couple more of the first timers.  It takes a few attempts to figure out that you can actually be warm on a day like this.  Most new riders are not going to have the right clothing and it can get quite expensive to stay comfortable in this unseasonable weather.   Well at least the sun is strong and amazingly the wind is calm for the third week in a row!  The March sun can warm up a day pretty quickly.  We should probably do the talk on clothing earlier in the rides, but it is all so important, spinning, drinking, eating, the things you have to know to be able to stay on your bike for 100 miles.

Does Spiderman really need a helmet?

At least the sun was shining.

It’s so cold out there I didn’t really pay attention to taking pictures for the blog. Luckily Lori had a camera and sent me a few of her photos… leg in a cast, riding 40 miles in 30 degree weather AND taking pictures!  I guess she’ll do the hundred.  The battle in your mind, especially the first time you try do 100 is as difficult as getting into shape, and as important.

Mary Ann and Lori ride past the DEC area.

We lingered too long at the start, but once we got underway it went pretty well.  We spent too much time at the first bathroom stop, with a few bike adjustments.  Then on to the Bagel Cafe in Middle Island.  New owners there, but I’m happy to report the bagels are good, the bathrooms are clean and they seemed happy to have our group of cold riders!  Hmmm I’m thinking we could rename this the “Tour de Bagels.”

Evie's going to ride the Road Bike next week. 40 is usually the limit for hybrids.

We stayed too long at the bagel place too.  Everyone is keeping up but we’re spending too much time at the stops today.  I love the ride through Middle Island and Ridge;  ponds, horses and I even saw a deer on a side street.  I forgot I wanted to take pictures of this area that has kept some of it’s charm.  Long Island looks so much different on a bicycle.

Could this be Josie's last ride on this bike?

I forgot to check the time we got back.  This ride took too long.   Everyone kept the pace pretty well even though we threw in some hills.  Dare I mention, we are done with week three without any flats?  We have to watch the amount of time we spend at the stops.  Same old story.

The whole day seemed like the red team against the yellows.

It never warmed up, which contributes to the delays.   I doubt it ever hit 40.   The forecast was wrong as usual.  We’ll start the 50 at 9 next week.  Could be another cold one with one hour less of that March sun.

Week 2 — 30 miler, 11 mph

We got a decent turnout for a cold beginner ride! The bike is on the trainer for a demonstration

Well we always wonder what’s going to happen on week 2.  The temperature is about half of what it was the week before.   Temperatures in the low 30’s in the first couple of weeks of the beginner rides can knock the group down to just a few riders.  I always wished the 100 could be a couple of weeks later, because riders have to be committed to come out on a day like this… or as most normal people would say “they should be committed if they ride 30 miles on a day like this!”

Lori's Ligiment

We got a pretty good sized group for a cold day.  A few did drop out from the prior week.  As the group gathered, we noticed Lori’s leg cast — some kind of ligament damage — but she rode like a trooper.  There that committed dilemma again!

We weren't sure if some of the riders were going to rob the train.

Normally we do lunch at another bagel place on the 30 miler, but Fred and Darren from Carl Hart Bicycles http://carlhart.com graciously offered to give us a bagel lunch.  Support your local bike shop and they will support us.  Thanks for the spread Fred.  It’s always hard to decide what cyclists like more, bikes or food, but put them both in the same place and and you’ve hit on a winning combination.  Throw in a bathroom and we’ll ride another 15!

Thanks Fred and Darren

Men in tights!

Temperatures actually started warming up by the time we were done with lunch.  Feels like another photo opp.  In years past I used to just sprint ahead of the group, get out the camera and take a picture as everyone rode by.  Now I have to ask them to give me a head start!  Still, a bad day on the bike is better than a good day at almost anything else.   I should even mention that we had no flats for two weeks in a row.  Just a couple of minor repairs, Slav’s derailleur and Audry’s seat.   We were back by 2:30… and a good time was had by all.

Week One — 25 miler, 10 mph

I realized the bike and the bodies were not in shape.

So on Friday night before the first ride,  you realize that the New Years resolution to get you and the the old bikes in shape never panned out.

It still looks like winter!

There are 16 inches of snow out there and even though the temperature will be in the 60’s the phone keeps ringing — not only are we going to ride, but it may very well be the best weather we’ll have until May.

We’ve been leading these rides for twenty something years and the only sure bet about Long Island weather in the spring is that the forecast will be wrong and there will probably be a headwind in every direction!  We always wonder what the group will be like.  It’s never the same, but almost always turns out to be fun?

We made it out of the parking lot and across the street without any flats.

It ends up that more than 25 people signed up for the rides,  but a bunch can’t make the first week.   Still,  it is a good crowd and the ride is much easier to lead if there are less than 20 riders.  We’re still using the Ronkonkoma Train station as the start because the beginner riders need rest stops with bathrooms at predictable distances.  We didn’t have time to scout out new routes that were relatively flat, had the bathroom and lunch stops at the right distances and didn’t have much traffic.  B riders don’t have the same needs and fears as new riders, that’s why these rides are different.

Tell your friends you rode 25 miles in the snow.

It’s an interesting group this year, no clunker bikes.  There are only two hybrids and most have clipless pedals or toe clips on the first week!  In 23 years there have been four or five people that did all of the training and the 100 on a hybrid.  They just end up slowing the whole ride down for the first four weeks or so until they finally give up.  You need a road bike to ride these distances at these speeds and it looks like we finally got that message across.

We usually have a flat tire during week one before we get out of the parking lot.  Surprise, we got across the street with no mishaps — this is not the usual beginners group!

"Rocket" flew up the first hill, some others had a bit more trouble.

We got to Railroad Ave — 1.6 miles into it with snow on the grass.  Usually two or three riders quit by this point but everyone is still with us — still no flats! THIS IS THE ONLY TIME IN 23 YEARS WE EVER DID A MILE AND A HALF ON THE FIRST RIDE WITH NO MISHAPS!

Lincoln Avenue, the first hill and probably a good photo opp! Wow no flats and no walkers!  It”s a different kind of ride for sure.

Beginner training rides and bagels always seem like a good match.

Lunch at Bagel Lovers in Medford.  No flats yet!  We love stopping here.  They love cyclists, the bagels are great, and the bathrooms are clean.  I could never understand the shop owners that don’t want us.  We always call ahead and 25 hungry cyclists can turn it into a good sales day as long as we don’t wreck the bathroom!

Unreal — it 1:30 and we’re pulling back into the parking lot with all of the riders, no flats and everyone is going to come back for week two.