Weekend Bike Rides

The weather Friday was perfect. Warm sunshine and cool, dry air. I had a wonderful 31 mile bike ride and paused along my route to watch these polo ponies. I had to take some pictures. It was like a Stubbs horse painting come to life! They are beautiful horses with their roached manes showing off graceful necks.

Mainly they grazed, but one rolled and then there was a bit of play between a few.

There are international polo matches once a week in the summer, so this must be someone's string of ponies for competition.

This one was watching the antics of a llama off in the distance.

And here's an example of a Stubb's painting.

Saturday, Jeff and I set out for a 20 mile loop ride, but I had a rear tire flat at about 13 miles. Good news is that I changed it myself and it was actually pretty easy. Bad news is that a little piece of glass wrecked an almost new tire! I was able to boot it with some Park's sticky patches and get home, but we only did 16.68 miles in all. Fortunately that was long enough to give me a total for this week of 204.52 miles! It was pretty cool to crack 200.

Sunday, with an old tire on the back for the time being, we did 32.64 miles and I crossed 3,000 miles for the year! I should have had the the camera with me as it was such a nice day. The clouds were very fall-like with white tops and dark gray undersides. We saw a huge cruise ship in Newport harbor and later a pretty hawk flew in front of us. This is really the best time of year for cycling!

Oh Yeah!!!

Stopped by my favorite local bike shop today and ordered a couple of these:

‘His and Hers’ 2008 Cannondale X6 Cyclocross bikes!

We won’t order the same thing off a menu at a restaurant, but we buy matching bikes?! Somehow it just sort of works out that way as we mull over the specs.

Should have them by October! Winter won’t slow us down this year!

Tonight's Dinner

I always get in the mood for baking as fall approaches! I just made a couple of quiche (broccoli, onion, cheddar) and decided to take a picture to keep me from digging in before Jeff gets home =)

'Recovery' Ride

After a couple of rainy days in a row since my century ride, I finally got back out on my bike today! I took it easy, but felt like I could have ridden all day and did a 33 mile route. I stopped to take a picture of the surf at Brenton Point. I was misted by the sea spray as I rode along.


Later, I rode down a lane to a local vineyard and stopped to admire this old tree, the view of grapevines and the Sakonnet River in the distance. (The tops of the vines are just barely visible along the bottom of the pic and the Sakonnet is the bit of blue to the lower right.)

It was a beautiful day. After the long drought we've had it felt like the rain had refreshed and cleaned everything. It was great to be back on the bike and feeling refreshed myself after my big ride. Today's ride was a solo one and I actually love the meditative experience of riding alone sometimes. However, it will be fun to ride with friends tomorrow on one of our weekly club rides!

102.77 Miles in 6 Hours and 1 Minute

Despite being sick for the past week and half and doing less biking than we would have liked during August and the beginning of September, we managed to ride our first century and even did a little better pace than we had hoped for.

Event: NBW Flattest Century in the East
Distance: 102.77
Time: 6 hours 1 minute
Average Speed: 17.1 mph
Total Rest Time: 24 minutes 51 seconds (at the check points)

After packing all the sugary energy food I showed in the last post, I hardly ate any of it! Before the ride, I had breakfast of shredded wheat. During the ride I had 1 larabar, 2 gatorades, water and at the end of the ride I had an orange slice and some grapes. Maybe I could have been a little faster with some more fuel, but I just didn't really feel like my stomach could take it. Jeff, in contrast, ate the whole ride!

Here is a map of the route. We'd done many parts of it before, but never put it all together like this!

It's called 'The Flattest Century in the East', but there are still some hills as you can see in this elevation profile. The total elevation was about 4,677 feet.

Here is a graph showing our speed (mph) during the ride.

We almost forgot to take pictures at the end! Here's Jeff! He'd already gotten out of his cycling shoes. I'd already loaded my bike in the truck.

Here I am with my tee shirt that I can wear like a dress!

And here I am a little less manic looking and more smiley.

100 or Bust

After a week and a half of being sick, tomorrow I will attempt to cycle 100 miles. Maybe this will help?

Oops...

I got a little carried away and knit too many rows for the back between the underarm shaping and shoulders, so I'll have to frog the top part of this to decrease it by about 5 rows! I also knit the body slightly longer than the pattern called for, but it will suit me OK. I didn't intend to make it longer, but precision has not been my thing lately while dealing with the headache/cold I've had! But it's funny, I just lined it up on my recently finished Krim Tomato out of curiosity and it is identical in length/shape! Impreciseness seems to have lead to precision after all! This should fit as well as Krim! Now, I just have to make the front match up. Oh, It's hard to see, but I did opt for the waist shaping using the smaller needles.

I've also made the cap sleeves. They look a bit pointy to me! Do they look right to you? I've never done this kind of sleeve before.

Happily, I was able to knit both in pattern and have them turn out the same.

FO, New Project, Much Anticipated Books

Anytime I finish a pair of anything I’m relieved! It’s so hard for me to get to a second sock, glove or sleeve. I've gotten so I'll usually knit them at the same time, but I made the wrist warmers one at a time and was worried about getting to the second one. At last, here is the mate for the formerly lonely left wrist warmer! These are warm and cozy and I’m planning to wear them a lot this fall!

I've also gotten to work on the shaped lace tee. This is the back in progress, about an inch and a half from where I'll start the decreases for the armhole shaping. The yarn is wonderful and the pattern has been easy to work from so far.

The vine lace pattern makes a pretty trim. Here's a detail pic.

I am looking forward to some new books coming out soon. Next week, I should be able to find the latest Peter Robinson book at stores! The Inspector Banks stories are my favorite mystery series. I will try as usual to make this book last several days, but I always end up reading them in just a day or two as they are too good to put down!

One of my favorite cookbook authors, Nigella Lawson, has a new book coming out at the beginning of November. I'm really looking forward to seeing the quick and easy recipes she has to offer.


Thanks so much for all the positive comments on my Krim Tomato top! Also for the well wishes. I still have the cold, but I guess the upside is that I've had some quiet time for knitting while trying to get better.