Tour de France CHALLENGE!

nerdieprofessor

Day 6 of RAGBRAI is wrapped up....I am overnighting at home tonight which is nice. Rode 80 miles in 5 hours and 40 minutes. I ended up pacing with another ride for a good hour and we were clipping along at around 17 to 18 mph so I averaged about 14 mph which is my best time of the week. No cramps again--woo hoo. I didn't eat much on the route as I really didn't find anything I was interested in. One finally day-65 miles-and then I will be dipping my tires in the mighty Mississippi.

I hope you post a photo of that tomorrow! )

Have fun and be safe!

skywalker, I was going to swim this afternoon if I had only biked an hour, but I worked instead (and was very productive!). My swim partner doesn't swim on Fridays so I would have been going alone anyhow.

The parts finally arrived so I can use the garmin on more than one bike. Mr. Wonderful has set up my Bianchi road bike (which I've ignored for weeks) so I might get brave and try to road bike tomorrow and ride toward the hinterlands... it always makes me nervous to do that, thus, I haven't done it in months. Not sure I can get over the first huge hill about 2 miles from home, that has to be crossed to get to the hinterlands (and has the meanest drivers... hopefully not on Saturday morning, though). It's a nicely paved wide two lane road marked with "share the road" signs but the hills mean most cyclists are slow and the drivers, they aren't the most patient... I might give myself a goal to ride to the nature center or something (which is over that hill...). I dunno.

TDSeest

Day 6 of RAGBRAI is wrapped up....I am overnighting at home tonight which is nice. Rode 80 miles in 5 hours and 40 minutes. I ended up pacing with another ride for a good hour and we were clipping along at around 17 to 18 mph so I averaged about 14 mph which is my best time of the week. No cramps again--woo hoo. I didn't eat much on the route as I really didn't find anything I was interested in. One finally day-65 miles-and then I will be dipping my tires in the mighty Mississippi.

Cool. I want to bike the entire Mississippi river from the headwaters to the outlet in the gulf next year.

nerdieprofessor

You dream big, TD. At least that bike ride would be mostly downhill! ) Of course, much of it (the parts I'm familiar with) will be on the other side of a levee and you won't see the river much.

I'd like to bike the whole Natchez Trace (much more reasonable!) or bike across (the short way) my home state or my current state... or something.

At the moment, I'm content to get on my bike and ride most every day, though. Bigger goals can wait until next year.

This is the first year I haven't reached a big goal. I had one (swim a 4.5 mile race) but didn't achieve it as I got very sick two months before the race. Last year I attempted a half ironman. In 2009 I completed an olympic distance triathlon (and some shorter ones) and a half marathon (my first, last, and only).

Next year, no idea what I might try. I do better with a goal, though, for sure. Thus, the Tour de France Challenge this year. )

CDGolden

Well I had a nice ride on Friday, 22 miles before date night....

Planning on commuting to work this afternoon for some more miles.

Chris

nerdieprofessor

Good job, CD! I hope hawkeyegal is having a great last day of RAGBRAI ride!

I rode 20 miles on the Bianchi (first time in ages) and I went over the big long hill (first time in 10 months at least) and I went into the hinterlands alone (first time in over 10 months). It was weird, but alright.

I'm still not very comfortable on it (I'm a much better bike handler on the heavier and more upright and bigger tired hybrid. I'm still having hand pain and knee pain on the Bianchi. I think shorter crankarms (if I can find some) will help the knees. I don't know what to do about the hands. The problem is I have very short arms and there's no way to shorten the bike frame horizontally. I already have the tiniest stem available and I ride a 47 cm frame.

At least my back didn't hurt! ) And it was good to get out and over that hill to the south that scares me so much (long long hill for a heavy girl like me to climb and famous for rude drivers). It was nice riding those roads which i haven't seen in 10 months and catching up on all the construction going on down there (first stages of a new interstate being put in - overpasses but no actual roads). And, not many cars, so that was good, but I did see a lot of other folks out riding, one of whom called out my name when passing (no idea who she was) and loads of butterflies. )

This is my first week (that I know of) this year over 100 miles in a week and I haven't done Sunday yet.

hawkeyegal1995

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

I can now proudly say that I have biked across Iowa on RAGBRAI. Ended up with 65 miles today....around 5 hours--not sure on the time as we had to walk about 2 miles to our car from the dip site and I did not look at the ending time just my miles. I ended up with about 450 miles over the past week. Plan to take a few days off the bike to give my body time to recoup-not to mention the bike needs to get looked at as the chain was chattering like crazy the last two days.



I have never tried to post a pic so I will apologize in advance if this does not work

nerdieprofessor

You are awesome, hawkeyegirl! That is truly amazing! Rest up a few days (and eat well!) and then get back on the bike. WOOHOO!

hawkeyegal1995

Cool. I want to bike the entire Mississippi river from the headwaters to the outlet in the gulf next year.
[/quote]

Hope you practice for lots of hills--I don't know how many times I heard out of staters comment about how they thought Iowa was a flat state. Have you thought of trying TMRV (tour of Mississippi River Valley)-it is a two day ride up here in Iowa that has some of the best views you can every imagine-I think it covers about 100 miles of riding on the river road.

TDSeest

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

I can now proudly say that I have biked across Iowa on RAGBRAI. Ended up with 65 miles today....around 5 hours--not sure on the time as we had to walk about 2 miles to our car from the dip site and I did not look at the ending time just my miles. I ended up with about 450 miles over the past week. Plan to take a few days off the bike to give my body time to recoup-not to mention the bike needs to get looked at as the chain was chattering like crazy the last two days.



I have never tried to post a pic so I will apologize in advance if this does not work

Great job...

TDSeest

Cool. I want to bike the entire Mississippi river from the headwaters to the outlet in the gulf next year.

Hope you practice for lots of hills--I don't know how many times I heard out of staters comment about how they thought Iowa was a flat state. Have you thought of trying TMRV (tour of Mississippi River Valley)-it is a two day ride up here in Iowa that has some of the best views you can every imagine-I think it covers about 100 miles of riding on the river road.
[/quote]

I'm working my way up to lots of hills. I've driven that way many times, as I spent lots of time in the Dubuque area.

I'm going to bike highway 101 from up by Canada across the state of Washington at the end of August with a friend, and then I plan on biking the route 66 trail from downtown Chicago to St. Louis in September and October.

CDGolden

Got my commute out of the way.....another 31 miles under my tires...riding home in the dark is different, but I do like it.

nerdieprofessor

CD, I hope you have your bike lit up like a Christmas tree for the night time riding!

I haven't been on the bike yet today. It's been in the 100s again and I'm hoping it'll cool off a bit and I can do a short ride before bedtime, or not. I suppose a rest day wouldn't kill me.

TDSeest

Final ride of the month; 16 miles. 608 miles for the month. Goal for August is 750 miles.

It has been fun riding with all of you this month; keep up the good work next month.

nerdieprofessor

Final ride of the month; 16 miles. 608 miles for the month. Goal for August is 750 miles.

It has been fun riding with all of you this month; keep up the good work next month.

Awesome! I just calculated my miles for July (which requires some guestimating as at the beginning I was recording time but not miles) and I did about 380 miles. Not bad!

Are you going to set up an August cycling challenge thread?

TDSeest

Final ride of the month; 16 miles. 608 miles for the month. Goal for August is 750 miles.

It has been fun riding with all of you this month; keep up the good work next month.

Awesome! I just calculated my miles for July (which requires some guestimating as at the beginning I was recording time but not miles) and I did about 380 miles. Not bad!

Are you going to set up an August cycling challenge thread?

I joined August cycling challenge thread, but I'd be happy to keep this one going too. I enjoy interacting with everyone here.

I rode 18.5 miles this morning, for a total of 18.5 miles for August. Feel free to join me in the new month.

TDSeest

Final ride of the month; 16 miles. 608 miles for the month. Goal for August is 750 miles.

It has been fun riding with all of you this month; keep up the good work next month.

Awesome! I just calculated my miles for July (which requires some guestimating as at the beginning I was recording time but not miles) and I did about 380 miles. Not bad!

Are you going to set up an August cycling challenge thread?

Congratulations on the great riding…It's hard to keep motivated during the hot months, but we all press on...

TDSeest

I joined this topic for August: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/304417-august-century-plus-cycling-challenge

Feel free to join over there as well...

nerdieprofessor

I'll join the August one as well, but I'll keep posting here to keep up with y'all until we are ready to start the Vuelta challenge in late August. )

nerdieprofessor

August 1: Biked 20 miles including over the scary hill on the scary road (similar to Saturday).

TDSeest

I rode 18.5 miles this morning, and 15.75 miles tonight, for a total of 34 miles for the day.

Good riding, everyone else...