98th ride of 2018 - Wednesday, 10/10/2018

2018 mileage: 2578.3

Lazy day today! I was inexplicably exhausted, but made myself leave at noon and do a ride (both short and slow) of 15.8 miles in 1:55.

We are in the midst of a big weather change. The temperature is still unseasonably mild—when I left it was 72°, and up to 76° when I finished—but, as this picture shows, clouds have rolled in, obscuring the blue skies we enjoyed the last two days, and more seasonal temperatures are about to descend upon us. The projected highs for at least the next four days are only in the fifties.

Link to (Relive) video of today's ride

97th ride of 2018 - Tuesday, 10/9/2019

2018 mileage: 2562.5

Our weather is stuck in a gorgeous pattern. I suspect it may not last much longer, but today When I left at 8:45 it was 68°and sunny, and when I finished it was 79° and sunny. Once more I rode a round trip to Baker Rd., accomplishing the 20.3 miles in 2:37.

As I was riding the sidewalk on the south side of Jackson Rd. on the way home, eastbound, approaching The Session Room (a brick restaurant) and then, beyond it, Wagner Rd., I took this brief bit of video

Link to (Relive) video of today's ride

96th ride of 2018 - Monday, 10/8/2018

2018 mileage: 2542.2

On another beautiful summery day, I rode again a round trip to Dexter (Baker Rd.)—it was a brilliantly sunny blue sky the whole way, and 71° when I began (at 12:15), and 82° when I finished

Link to (Relive) video of today's ride.

94th ride of 2018 - Friday, 10/5/2018

2018 mileage: 2522.7

Did another round trip to Dexter (Baker Rd.) today, on a chilly morning. When I began, at 9:10, it was 46° (though it had heated up to a toasty 51° by the time I finished). However, it remained heavily cloud covered throughout, with some light rain falling in the second half of the ride, that spattered on my glasses, turning them into prisms. However (fortunately, coupled with the cold) the rain was never heavy or steady. I rode in shorts and a hoodie, and was comfortable, but I wondered how many more times in 2018 I'll be able to get away with riding in shorts.

At Baker Rd., when I turned around, just as I was starting back toward Ann Arbor, I stopped and took this picture to illustrate how bleak it was. It made me muse how much bleaker still it will look two or three months from now! I wonder, too, whether I will still be able to ride then. Cold doesn't really bother me, but I will not ride in or through heavy snow.

Link to Relive video of today's ride

93rd ride of 2018 - Thursday, 10/4/2019

2018 mileage: 25o3.1

Today I allowed myself to settle for a pretty lightweight ride, only doing one round trip to Marsh Park plus a loop on Interfirst Drive. This gave me a ride of 11.6 miles in 1:22.

I will concede that this decision was influenced in part by the weather conditions. A cold from is moving into and through the area, bringing relatively windy conditions and steadily dropping temperatures all day. It was 72° when we left at 7:15 to take Michelle to school this morning, 66° when I began my ride at 11:30, and 65° when I finished.

I'd better buck up, though ... much worse conditions clearly lie in the not-distant future, and as this picture (from near the end of my ride, coming up alongside Lohr north of Ellsworth and before reaching Oak Valley) shows, fall colors are already beginning to move into our area.

Link to (Relive) video of today's ride

92nd ride of 2018 - Wednesday, 10/3/2018

2018 mileage: 2481.5

Today I felt an unusual (for me) need for variety, so I visited an old friend, riding to Marsh Park for the first time since September 15. In fact, I did consecutive round trips there, and then added a loop in Stonebridge on the way home.

All this gave me a good ride of 21.3 miles, in 2:20. It was a gorgeous fall day, as the photo shows, but almost too warm by the end—68° when I began a few minutes before noon, but 79° when I finished!

Marsh Park had a new feature since I was last there—an added piece of sculpture. But, as the plaque shows, the market is evidently pretty pricey for sculptures of welded together rusted piece of scrap metal, since this comes in at $19,000!

Link to (Relive) video of today's ride

91st ride of 2018 - Tuesday, 10/2/2018

2018 mileage: 2470.2

Today's ride was highly frustrating in regards to the MapMyRide app. The ride itself went OK—I did another round trip to Baker Rd. (Dexter), and as near as I could figure it, I did 19.3 miles in about 2:40. But when I got to Baker Rd., and turned around to come back home, I took a break (5+ minutes), and sent a text, and when I stopped I thought I paused the app. But when I went to start up again, the app was still running! This made my speed look incredibly ghastly ... the first half of the ride was slow anyway, but that mess-up gave me a speed of below 7 mph!

Then, to compound things, I thought I'd really bust it on the way home, and bring my speed up as well as possible, seeing how close I could get to 8 mph. But after a few miles, when I stopped at a gas station for another break, the app quit altogether!

So, since Relive makes their videos from the data from my app, today I will have to video to share.