Looking down Ervin Road

Had about an hour, weather was nice, and my wife said “go for a ride.”. So I did.

Rode a warmup lap around the neighborhood loop, then down 50 to Ervin. Turned around at Radford, and rode back to mentally prepare for the climb up Stagecoach. Stagecoach hurt pretty bad, but I managed to muscle over it. Took me a really long time to return to normal breathing. Some folks on Stagecoach have gotten some new dogs since the last time I rode. They came to the road to greet me, but fortunately I had caught my breath enough to give em the old “get back on the porch this is my road” yell. Rode back down 50, with another hurt-so-good climb up Wonder Hills Drive. I arrived at my house out of breath, and a bit disappointed that I didn’t even clear 10 miles. I was tempted to ride two laps around the neighborhood to get the mileage over 10, but figured I had done enough for the day. Considering I have not ridden since August, making it over those two hills were huge victories. I also took the Jamis instead of the Schwinn, which has a 28 versus the Schwinn’s 32.

I had to work 12-3 and 5-6 today, so rather than go home during the two-hour break, I took a quick spin on the bike path. I did about 14 miles in the 56 minutes of riding. Before riding, I raised my seat about 1 cm. I had a little frontal knee pain during yesterday’s ride, and raising the seat seems to have helped. I’ll probably keep the seat like it is for a while and see how the body feels on the bike. I do get a little tingling in the hands while riding on the ever-so-flat bike path, so the next adjustment I do may be to angle the nose of my seat up a bit. Nice afternoon ride, with lots of wind due to the front of thunderstorms moving in this evening.

Next to the Hocking River

Chris and I met at Peden Stadium at 6:15 for an early morning ride. We did a quick out and back on the bike path, covering 32 miles in a little over 2 hours. We saw 7 deer, a number of rabbits, a few chipmunks, and a kamikaze squirrel. I was back home by 8:45, just in time for a trip to Bob Evans for breakfast with the family.

Early start at Peden

The route:

After missing my ride yesterday (slept in until 7) , I wanted to do a little more than the previous days. I had mapped our another route, but decided to stick with this one.  I figured with a new route I would spend too much time looking at a map and too little time riding.   I left at 6:15 just as the sun was coming up.  The views around Lake Harris were great in the early morning. I was home by 8 before it got too hot.

a tunnel of moss on Sunnyside Road

The route:

Lake Harris and a marina in the background

Tired legs from yesterday’s ride, plus I got started 30 minutes late, so today’s ride was a bit shorter.  I did basically the same route, except I didn’t do as many loops around Lakeshore.  Despite leaving the house at 7, traffic was pretty light on the route for a Monday morning.

The Route:

Had a great ride around Leesburg this morning. It started with a light rain and wet roads, but turned into dry and humid. The ride through old downtown Leesburg was nice, and the loop around Sunnyside and Lakeshore was spectacular. I got stung by a yellow jacket that collided with my arm (it’s dead now) but otherwise great 90 minutes on the bike.

The pics:

Downtown Leesburg on a Sunday morning

Lakeshore of Lake Harris

The route:

While visiting my folks in Chattanooga, Tennessee this week, my dad and I took two rides on Monday and Tuesday. Both times we rode the path at the Chattanooga Riverpark. While it’s not a very strenuous route at all, it was very good to get out and enjoy some quality time on the bike.

Clay and I had a great opportunity to get a ride in this morning. 22 miles on the bike path with the trail-a-bike.

Chris, me, and Mac

Today I had a great Father’s Day ride. I left my house at 6:30 and rode 50 to Radford, then down 56 to meet up with Chris and Mac. Together we rode up 682 to Connett, then down to Poston and up to 691, then back to town via the bike path. I then rode home up Dairy Barn Lane and up and up North Blackburn. I felt fairly good throughout the entire ride, even if I had a fairly hard time keeping up with Chris (he’s spend considerable time on his indoor trainer). On the way home, I was very pleased to make it up North Blackburn and Wonder Hills, especially after riding 30+ miles at a pretty good clip. Total mileage was around 35.75, with about 2.5 hours ride time. I’m pretty sure this was the longest ride of the year. I’ve had a lot of professional, personal, and family commitments that have kept me away from the bike, but man, that ride has me psyched to ride a lot more. Now to just find the time without upsetting my work/home/life/family balance.

Here is the route of the ride :