The Sun Shone Today

I finally got to ride this morning after days and days of rain. I did my favorite route, the Scenic 25. I forgot how nice it is to ride in the morning. The temps were in the 80s which beats the heck out of 96 degrees. The traffic was light; I went after the morning school traffic. While I didn't set any speed records, it sure was nice to ride again.

I hadn't ridden since doing the Full Moon Ride last tuesday night with the Firestone and Summit Group. We met at the east parking lot before entering Ft. Pickens instead of Casino Beach. I liked it better as we avoided all the traffic. The Mrs. and I rode the tandem we have been borrowing. This is the 2nd time we have done this ride and both times on the tandem. This time we actually got to see the moon. It was a very nice ride, but a headwind on the way to Ft. Pickens. I highly recommend this ride and believe it to be a monthly ride on the night of the Full Moon.

As I mentioned, this is the 2nd time the Mrs. and I rode the tandem. Years ago we rode a tandem quite a bit. Now, over 20 years later, it is nice to ride together again on a tandem. Our old tandem is, well, old and rusty. It is nice of Victor to loan us his tandem. We are still working on the right saddle for the Mrs. and seat height for both of us. I was told by the Mrs. that I also need to work on my communication. Communication is key to riding a tandem.

Since the Full Moon rides are intended to be easy rides, we will probably stick with those for the time being, unless we just ride on our own. With the headwind last time I got to do some drafting on the tandem (was drafted too for a bit). I found it more challenging to draft on the tandem than when riding by myself, but still worth the effort.

Map My Ride

It has been either hot or raining. I've been staying up too late to get up early to ride. And last week I went to New Orleans. So, I haven't ridden in a week. What I have done is get familiar with MapMyRide.

MayMyRide is really cool. I've been having a lot of fun creating routes and have spent hours and hours doing this to try and make the routes perfect. The possibilities seem endless.

Below are a couple of routes I've created. There are several others I've created as well: 100k, Century, 200k. As of this writing some of the routes still need cleaning up. Some have directional arrows. It's hard to decide on how many arrows to use. Click here to see my profile which list all of the rides I've created. I have also listed rides in a list on the right on my blog page.

Here is the Firestone & Summit group's Super8


My favorite training ride - The Scenic 25

Ride Yellow

Yesterday I rode Ride Yellow for the 2nd year in row. I am pleased with my performance as I cut a little over 30 minutes from last year's time.



I rode with a group of 8 riders (one being my son) which started as nine. Dana Foster's front hub cracked after 2 1/2 miles; so he was out. Near the end we had another casualty in that one of Earl Page's sons got dehydrated and had to be taken to the hospital; I learned that he has since been released and is ok.

Eventhough I was riding with a group, I still got dropped on the hills. It seemed that I would catch back up only in time for another hill. I had to work hard, but I enjoyed this year's ride much more than last year. Thanks to my group for pulling me around and thanks to my son for setting a nice reasonable pace; I know it took a lot of self-discipline.

We did the 62 mile course. My riding time was 3:37:30. We only stopped twice, skipping the other rest stops. Last year I stopped 4 times. Stopping twice broke the ride into three nice segments; I really liked it. I forgot my heart-rate monitor so all I could do was use how I felt to pace myself. I also forgot my camera, so no pictures.

This is a great ride, very well supported and for a good cause. I'm already looking forward to next year.

Beginning

This is the beginning of this blog. I intend to write primarily about bicycling in Pensacola, but may from time to time write about other things as well. While my primary interest lies in competitive cycling, I have admiration for all types of bicycling; other blogs have opened my eyes to various types of cycling that people enjoy. After all, it is all about the love of the bicycle.

Currently I do not intend to be an active blogger, but that could change. I've been very interested in creating a blog, so today I did it. I mainly wanted to create an account so that I would no longer be anonymous anymore.

Happy cycling!