Halters Cycles 31/31 Contest. July 2015 $100

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Ian F

Well-Known Member
Day 28: https://www.strava.com/activities/355728058

My first attempt at a pre-dawn road ride. It was actually rather nice leaving the house at 5 am. Zero traffic for the first 30 min or so and then still fairly light. I managed a new PR and 8th ranking on one segment - mainly because that segment is probably one of the most dangerous stretches of road on my local loop and I wanted to get it over with ASAP. It was still fairly warm and I wasn't even a bit cold. During the return, I spotted a beaver crossing the road in front of me. Unfortunately, I couldn't get my phone out in time. Tomorrow I'll try to leave a bit earlier and use a better light.

I'm glad this worked out as due to scheduling issues, the rest of my rides during this challenge will likely be similar... :rolleyes:
 

jmanic

JORBA Board Member/Chapter Leader
Staff member
JORBA.ORG
Team MTBNJ Halter's
My self loathing has cycled to a peak, well beyond being even somewhat motivational. So, I was at the hairy edge of "Eff it, whats the point anyway?" right up until 1030.
Glad you got out- almost there.
Just pick a wheel and virtually draft someone til Friday.
 

Zaskar

Well-Known Member
Day 27 -- https://www.strava.com/activities/355470065

MTB ride while the family went to the pool. I finally broke the top ten (8th) on a segment I ride a bunch, always figured it ended at the LARGE rock on the trail but keeps going to the road...now I know. I think I can improve on that time since I wasn't going full (for me) out. Came home and ordered tires which have plagued me from the the start on the new Trance. The current tires are Ardent 2.2's which have fallen apart with tears all over the sidewalls...hopefully the Trail King 2.4's will be stronger.

Day 28 -- https://www.strava.com/activities/355779204

Road ride this morning which doesn't even feel like it happened at this point. Extended the swamp loop by about 4 miles which took me to the other side of 287 and added some hills. I really need to put out a long road ride one of these days and add the Boonton/Kinnelon area.

Good stuff and looking forward to the end of the week...
 
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Pagliacci

Well-Known Member
So, last week I agreed to help a guy with a thing. We had to work from 6~7 pm to 9~10 am all week, replacing a drop ceiling (fire rated sheet rock tiles, of course).
I've spent the last 28 years working in cleanrooms, mostly looking through microscopes, crunching data and writing reports, so the labor involved in the ceiling job really took it's toll on me.

I was pretty sure I'd bail on riding, but I made 2 important discoveries.

First, I realized that if I have no time margin, I will roll out of bed and climb on the bike to get my ride in. When I have extra time, I will procrastinate up to the last second (as evidenced by the number of rides I've started close to 11:00 pm.)

The other surprise, is that when my joints and muscles are so stiff and painful that I can hardly move, an hour on the bike totally loosens me up and I actually felt pretty good by the time I got to the job site.

Job got done and I didn't miss a day riding; win/win.

Sunday, I had to ride from Port Monmouth to Oakhurst to pick up my truck. I figured I'd head down past Brielle and circle back to my truck for 40+ miles, and covering all that flat land on a plastic bike, I might actually log an avg speed approaching the numbers real cyclists hit on a slow day.

http://app.strava.com/activities/354768379

Reality hit me in the face though, when I crested the Azzolina bridge and saw kite boarders on the Ocean side, and all the white caps washing north.

20150726_145738.jpg


When I rolled off of the bridge and onto Ocean Ave, the wind in my face was brutal and unrelenting. Every flag for the next 9 miles or so was pointing straight at me like cardboard cutouts.

At Monmouth Beach, the wind kicked up another notch (it went to 11), and I seriously considered stopping and getting a ride (we have several households of friends and family along this strip), but I knew the price of a ride would be years of mockery.

If I lived in Oakhurst and rode to PoMo, I probably would have had the ride of my life, as the 1000 riders going northbound on Ocean Ave were flying along without pedaling, some on bikes with square wheels.

So I pushed on to Deal, where I was happy to turn out of the wind and go straight to my truck; did not pass Go, did not log extra miles.

My battle with discouragement started when I looked at the Strava file.

20 miles - almost all of it flat - on a carbon road bike, and I averaged only 12 mph.

I'm pretty fat, so I've always been slow, but this ride made me want to go back to undocumented riding. I would've carried the streak at least through the end of the month, but not as a participant in the challenge.

Late Sunday night though, I started to get pissed at myself for relying on Strava to validate the worthiness of my ride. The truth is, I genuinely loved it. I kind of loved fighting the wind and I definetly loved the route.

And I loved seeing all the smart, independent, capable women in their beach attire along the way. Women whose body type, physical endowments, and facial symmetry I didn't even notice, much less ogle, and I certainly didn't inquire as to how they may have been doing that afternoon.

So I'm still in, and looking forward to seeing how far into August I can extend the streak.

Speaking of which, I've still got to get my ass out there today.
 
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JoeLee

Well-Known Member
Basic commute home last night - though my legs were finally feeling open. Getting some ZZZZs the last couple nights after a sleepless weekend helped.
https://www.strava.com/activities/355598891

Today I really tried to get out early but the wife woke with a migraine so I had to run the kids to their day camps and run some errands. Still got to Chimney Rock for some slow, painful, sweaty and mosquito-bitten fun.
https://www.strava.com/activities/355921466

Did see some fawns on the ride:
Fawns.JPG


Finally took a trail-selfie. I look as gross as I felt :)
HotatCR.JPG
 

Santapez

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
4 Day bike Tour. Supposed to be VT. Mostly MA with a bit of VT and a real small bit of NH.

First tour taken real easy with no real plan. Interesting way to do it. Fully loaded, self supported except for 10,000 calories a day in fancy shmancy New England restaurants. Mostly camping except one day filled with lots of riding in the rain. Road 10 miles in the rain to get to a hotel instead of a campsite.

I have like 10 gps files as the files would get saved every time I charged the Garmin while eating and other shenanigans. The larger ones below:

Saturday - Brattleboro VT to Greenfield, MA
https://www.strava.com/activities/356286338
Sunday - Northhampton MA to Shelburne Falls, MA
https://www.strava.com/activities/356286382

Monday - https://www.strava.com/activities/356286489
Today https://www.strava.com/activities/356286485
 

Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
So i'm out!

I couldn't think of a ride i wanted to do today. The only thing that was remotely interesting would be to ride with the mtb camp, and since
i'm not connected there, that would have only been by chance! really didn't want to ride, just to ride the hour. up until now, i was excited about
getting it in, but it just wasn't there today.

probably goes with my MO to participate, and not really compete - i'll start a new streak tomorrow...haven't been to smp in quite some time.
if i had packed the bike in the car early today, that might have happened - but water under the boardwalk....

gl everyone!
 

tommyjay

Not-So-Venerable Asshat
Day 28:

Just tooled around Hillsborough. Intentionally started late to try and wait out the heat, and that plan worked well. Was a nice night for a ride and my head has settled a bit since yesterday, so I just rolled along absorbing the goodness.

One neighborhood I rode through smelled like freshly dried laundry - that smell makes me smile.

http://app.strava.com/activities/356332908

This guy, cause 'merica:
20150728_222114.jpg
 

liong71er

Well-Known Member
So i'm out!

I couldn't think of a ride i wanted to do today. The only thing that was remotely interesting would be to ride with the mtb camp, and since
i'm not connected there, that would have only been by chance! really didn't want to ride, just to ride the hour. up until now, i was excited about
getting it in, but it just wasn't there today.

probably goes with my MO to participate, and not really compete - i'll start a new streak tomorrow...haven't been to smp in quite some time.
if i had packed the bike in the car early today, that might have happened - but water under the boardwalk....

gl everyone!
is this real?you joking right?
 

Arwen's Mom

Mother of Dragons, Breaker of Chains
@fidodie PAT YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME! I would gladly have missed some sleep time to ride with you just to get you out there. You were so close :(
 
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