Saturday morning I headed up to Cherry Creek State Park. I haven’t created a map, but it was pretty similar to the run on this post from last summer. Perfect morning for it as it started out cool and overcast and finished nice and sunny. Total ride was right around 34 miles.

While up around the park I stumbled into the midst of the Greenwood Village Goose Chase. That’s an event I’d never heard of but looked like they were having a good time. Seemed like a fund raiser of some sort (?) but I sure can’t tell who benefits from the web site. I rode with ‘em for a bit and then split off so I wouldn’t be in the way.

This morning (Sunday) I thought I’d try out a route that I’d recently spotted that involved a run through the Pinery neighborhood. Funny how hills that you don’t really notice in a car can kick your butt on a bike! (click that picture for details)

I was able to get over to the Pinery neighborhood easily enough, but I never did spot my turn off and ended up just doing a complete loop through the neighborhood and then dropping back onto the Cherry Creek trail. I enjoyed the loop once I was done worrying about having a heart attack from that initial climb…

From the trail I headed North to the Parker Rec Center, then turned around and picked up Sulfur Gulch trail to head back up to the ‘hood.

The map shows 25, my bike odometer shows just under 26 miles. I didn’t put the stretch where I wandered through the downtown farmer’s market on the map

I always like to start my rides by going into the wind first – that way I get a little boost on the return leg… makes the return trip so much more enjoyable   Well, tonight I got caught unawares and took off with the wind on the first leg. Whoops.

It was glorious! I was running in the 20’s and just flying down the trails. Alas, that got me a bit over-confident and I decided to stretch the ride a bit and take on some hills.

As we say in the midwest, “Uff da.” I got my butt handed to me for miles 8 – 10 on that map… Pretty much all uphill as I worked my way up into the bottom part of the Tech center (very near the Bronco’s training camp for what that’s worth). Climbing hills while going straight into the wind is a bit of a stretch for me still; especially after my little hiatus.

No worries though, I finished without a stroke and it was a great ride. 17.3 miles total in just a few minutes over an hour. Now officially over 800 miles for the summer. The hand held up well so I’m hoping for some good rides yet this week if the weather holds.

Good timing.

The ride itself was uneventful. The legs were fresh and I kept a decent pace. My hand didn’t give me too much trouble once I focused on keeping weight off of it (I have a bad habit of locking my elbows and putting too much on my handlebars.). It was very overcast and even a bit humid and unseasonably cool. Very comfortable riding weather.

I rode 15.0 miles at an avg. speed of 17.5 mph. I’m calling that good enough for today. Hopefully will find a chance to get a longer ride in soon. I’ve been studying the maps and have a couple routes I’d like to try soon.

Tonight I headed south on the local trail system to Franktown and back for a bit over 24 miles. Normally I’d extend it a few miles with a little loop on the north/final stretch. However, I cut it a bit short tonight as my eyes were bugging me (I have pink eye. blech). That gave me a chance to work on some extra hills climbing back up to the neighborhood as well. I hate those hills…

Felt good to get back out after a several day break. The way the next few days are shaping up I’m not sure when my next ride is going to be either.

Forgot to check tonight, but I think I’m coming up on 800 miles for the season.

I suck at hills. I really need to work on hills. Man, hills hurt me.

Total mileage on today’s ride was 35.2 which is quite a bit less than my previous estimate of 40 from last week. I know my route change cost some miles… but I guess I still must’ve overestimated last week’s ride by a bit.

Avg Speed was just under 17. I’ll admit that I was definitely out of gas on the last 10 mile stretch

Now over 760 miles for the season, the 1000 mile goal is almost in sight.

This is some video shot when they where married back in 1966. Really fun stuff to watch.

(Click the map for more details courtesy of MapMyRide.)

I have another neighbor taking up cycling so this morning we met up and did a 14 mile ride. Nothing too crazy, but he was able to set a good pace and we had a nice ride. The weather was gorgeous which made it all the better. Almost cool, a bit overcast and just the hint of breeze.

We jumped on the trails and headed south for about 5 miles. On the return route we went north beyond the entry point and then made a north loop back to the start/end spot. This is one of my favorite 14 – 15 mile routes.

Total mileage was just over 14 and we finished around 55 minutes. Not a bad pace for his first extended ride on his new (and very very fancy!) bike.

I’ve been riding alone the past few years — kind of cool to ride with other people from time to time. Two neighbors so far, I wonder if we can eventually get a little “club” going for the neighborhood?