Only three of us rode this ride. Scott, Keith, and myself. It was VERY windy out. Scott wanted to make sure that he didn’t override again, so we pretty much let Keith set the pace. The route was out, up Renner, to the park, reverse, and up the triplets.

With the strong tailwind, I was able to FLY up Renner. At one point, I noticed that I was doing 18mph up the hill, so I figured I’d call it quits and pull it way back. So I slowed to about 10 and rode the rest of the way up and to the park. I waited there for the guys to catch up.

The return trip was pretty much uneventful.

FINALLY! Scott has managed to come out of yearly retirement and ride with me again. He’s down 22 pounds in just a few weeks time though, so he’s really not supposed to be riding hard. Let’s see, who else rode today? There was Scott, Myself, Keith, and another newbie to the group: Jerry Adams.

Jerry rides a mountain bike, so he’s not very fast, but it’s all good.

We started out pretty slow, but it was pretty obvious that Scott was wanting to test his legs. Since Keith has ridden the course enough times to know his way around, Scott and I took off at a pretty good gallop. We figured that we’d skip any hill work, so we went straight out and stayed away from them. Basically, a good, fast paced 30 minutes and we turned around. Leaving the park, I was really impressed with how well Scott was riding when it happened. He bonked. And when I say bonked, I mean he bonked hard! Needless to say, I slowed it down to a craw and rode back with him.

Was a slow craw back, but we still ended up with an avg speed of 16. Not bad beings that he had us down to about 8 mph for a good portion of the trip back.

Danny and I did a little planning before this ride. We formulated a plan to break from the group. (Extra miles were needed by both of us.) The ride started out the same as most of them, complaining about what’s not feeling good, or how tired we were. (HAHA). But after we started rolling, both of us noticed that it was going to be a good ride. The main pack actually slowed it down a bit, and never really went over 30mph. In fact, we spent most of the ride around 23-25.

There is this super fast guy (Tony) that I know from work that actually rides this ride as well. (He doesn’t work with me, but is a good friend of my boss.) During the ride out, I managed to snag a spot beside him. So we talked alot about what I could do to improve, and how we could hook up to ride. Was nice to actually have enough energy to engage in conversations. Unfortunately, the pace started picking up towards the lake, and I could tell that Danny was suffering a bit. (Happens when you don’t ride enough – hint hint) We still managed to come in with the main part of the group though.

On Tony’s advice we left a few minutes ahead of the group to get us out of the hills before the main pack came hunting us down. Worked great, but they caught us about 4-5 miles out. THEY WERE MOVING! As the blur passed by I heard Tony’s voice call out saying to jump on. We did. 30+ mph we go. About the time that we were starting to fall off, I noticed that we had reached the point where Danny and I had decided to split from the group anyway.  Of course now we had a big ol hill to climb. Needless to say, we climbed it and headed up towards the north side of town. Felt good to slow it down a bit. The ride back to the cars was pretty un-eventful from that point on. Basically we just rode back down to the road that we had been on, and then retraced our route back. (Didn’t realize how many hills we had ridden down to get there though! Amazing how much easier they are to see when you have to go up them.) Finished up with an avg speed around 18mph. But even better, with a black cherry smoothy from Panara!

The heat finally lifted!

8/16/10: Keith and I rode out to OGG and through the park. He still had to walk the top of the cliff (OGG), but it was a good ride none the less. For the first time, I managed to go straight up the darn thing without zig zagging my way up.  On the way back, I showed him a new route, that leads back down 79th. I don’t think he much cared for School Hill (Hee hee). It’s only 5% grade, but it sure seems like more!

8/17/10: Rained out!

8/18/10: Windy, but not too hot. No one would ride with me again today Oh well, sounded like a good excuse to hit my new best friend OGG again. So, I did. Up OGG, back down Renner, over the Triplets, and back to work. Great day. OH! Saw 5 deer in the park.

Here are two of the little buggers. The one was so close I could have darn near touch her. Click for full sized image

8/19/10: Wasn’t sure how I’d feel this day, but I wasn’t too bad. Rode out by OGG, but decided that I’d had enough for one week. Needless to say, I went on past it and just rode straight out this time. Was still a good ride though. Came back via the triplets.

WooHoo! I love Saturday morning rides!!! This one was a blast. And by a blast I mean it was FAST! I managed to stay with the fast group all the way to LoneStar (The town, not the Lake)! Would have made it further, but I had someone in front of me really slinky riding (slow, fast, slow, fast, slow…), that caused me to fall off the pack and loose the draft.  Average speed going out was 23 mph, but I had to really slow it down coming back.  Still managed to turn in a overall average of 19.15 mph though. Danny held up pretty good on this ride as well.

Ok, what to say about these rides… Emmm It was HOT! Seriously, it was a heat index of 115 everyday.

8/9/10: Did a basic out and back from work. Finally got a new guy to ride with me though. His name is Keith, and he works over in the other part of the building.  The route was out, down the triplets, up Renner to the park, and then reversed.

8/10/10: Was another hot day, but this time it was also VERY windy. Keith rode with me again, so it was time to teach him about the great wall of OGG. Good ride, but was kinda disappointed to see Keith hop off the bike and walk up the last part of OGG.

8/11/10: Hottest day of the 3. No one would venture out into the heat that day (Except my dumb butt!) Of course, that meant I had no one to hold me back either. SO… I pushed this ride as fast as I could. Up Renner, to the park, and back up the triplets. I think I came close to overheating on this ride.

Today was another hot one. Left the house around 7:30 am, and met up at the park. Danny wasn’t able to make it today, so I figured I’d pair up with Pablo, or Matt. Sure enough, both of them were there.  About 8 o’clock, we started rolling south bound. Could tell by the 18 mph pace that we were setting, that it was going to be a FAST ride. Yep, once we hit the first turn, it was on… The pace picked up to around 27, and the first people were beginning to get dropped.

Up the hill we go, fragments of the group falling off the back. Reaching the first stop sign, was a real strain! A quick regroup before crossing 59, then it felt like an all out sprint till we turned north again. Time to pick up the pace once more. This time it was up to 30 mph. Sorry, but that’s more than I can handle for any extended time. I tried to hang on for as long as I could, but I could tell the strain of trying to keep pace had popped Pablo.  He fell off the back. I’d lost Matt in the group, so I didn’t know his condition. Left turn, and they picked it up again! MUFFIN RIDE my foot! This was all out murder.

About 200 yards, and I’m done… I was hammering along at 29-31 mph, but the group was leaving me like I was standing still. That’s it… A full crank on the right hand shifter, and I’m 3-4 gears easier, but slowing to a more reasonable 23 mph.

The rest of the trip out to the lake was done pretty much by myself. Man, it was windy out there. Around the bends, over the hills and I could finally see the main group waiting at the lake. Looks like Matt had managed to stay with them most of the way. Said he dropped at the barn. About 5 minutes went by, and Pablo shows up with 4 other riders. He was really spent on the trip out.

We rested long enough for him to refill his water bottles.  Time to head back. Matt, being the strongest of the returning riders this time, took point. At the north end of the lake, we picked up another 4-5 riders. Matt and I decided that we’d leave them to ride their own pace back, so we kicked it up to about 25. Much to our surprise, Pablo hopped on. SO, it was going to be three of us.

The return trip actually went pretty quick. We had to slow down a couple of times to let Pablo catch his breath/legs, but we still managed to pull off a rather quick time. Matt wanted to have a sprint finish, but there really wasn’t much left in the tank for me to give him a race.  Pablo gave us the go ahead signal though, so I figured what the heck. I wasn’t able to sprint for long, but I gave it everything I had… Let me tell you, half a mile is WAY TOO LONG to try and maintain a high rate of speed! Needless to say, I was fixing to call it quits when I saw Matt hit a pothole! One look at his position on the bike, and I could tell – That hurt! Time to shut it down and coast the rest of the way into the park.

All in all though, it was a good ride. Just hope Danny can join us next time.

THE GREAT WALL OF OGG

Today was HOT! Ride went well though. Not the fastest I’ve ever ridden by any stretch of the imagination, but there were some highlights. The biggest being of course that it was time to tackle Ogg cliff….. Errrr, Ogg Road.  This is actually the first time in a long while that I’ve ridden over here in Lenexa. Forgot how many hills there were!

Well, it’s been two weeks since the Lizard. In truth, I haven’t even looked at a bike since then. So, I guess it was about time to jump back in the saddle. I got all my junk together and loaded the bike up on the car. (Was going to meet Danny up at the park.)  Here we are unloading everything and getting ready for the ride. (Bunch of hams that we are, we had to take some pics!) (You can click any of the images to view them full sized…)

My Bike loaded up on the car....

Danny loading up his stuff...

Me, hamming it up...

Oops... Forgot the helmet in the last one...

Danny Hamming it up!

Once on the road, I could pretty much tell it was going to be a tough ride for me… I think I gained a good 5 pounds in the last couple of weeks. Beings that I’m already VERY heavy for a cyclist, this was going to be a challenge. The first 3-4 miles we kept it rather slow to get our legs warmed up, then we opened it up a bit. The wind was at our backs a good bit of the way out, which spells trouble for the return ride. But we were able to pop it up to around 23 mph and hold it there for a good part of the trip. The route that we took is pretty much flat, so nothing worth mentioning. We made the lake with an average of 18mph (about what we would normally do with the group.) A short rest there, and we started back.

Toward the bottom of the hill leaving the lake, it suddenly felt like I was riding through mud. Normally, this means a flat, but looking back I didn’t see any. I pulled up in front of Danny and had him check my brakes. Sure enough, it had somehow managed to start dragging on one side.  Poo… Oh well, things happen. I pulled over and fixed it (Not sure how it just started doing that, but I’ll look to see what’s up now that I’m back home.) Some easy pedaling to get us back up to speed, and I figured now would be a good time to shoot some more pics.

Danny on the ride...

Danny pulls away...

Yes, I’m riding with no hands. Don’t worry, I could see for miles behind me, and could tell there were no cars (or crazy truck drivers) coming.

Time to put up the camera. Danny was getting eager to pick up the pace, so time to go… We made pretty good time at this point. Turning east put us right smack in the wind. He pulled off and it was my turn to lead (great…) Now, anyone that has ever spent any time on road bikes will tell you: It’s great to get behind the bigger people. WHY? Because we make a large draft to follow. Sure enough, I’m busting my tail up there, turning about 100rpm and I look at our shadows. Danny isn’t pedaling at all. Must be nice… He doesn’t get to enjoy it for too long though. Soon after that, I pretty much peak, and can’t take the lead anymore. It’s all him now. I can do nothing but hang on at this point.  The rest of the ride went smooth though, and we finished with an average just under 18mph. Not great, but not bad having not riding in a couple of weeks.

Sadly, there will be no pictures with this post. Neither Danny, nor I took any. Well, here’s one of the course we rode:

Lizard Under the Skillet

We did it! 62 miles, in the middle of July. I’ve got to say: It was so hot, I watched a lizard craw into the campfire just to get into the shade of the skillet!

Overall it was a good ride. Only took us about 3.5 hours to complete.