4/25 Legs Of Steel Memorial Day Warmup #1

The mountains are calling, and we must go! But not without proper preparation.

There are five weekends till Memorial Day, so let's get ready. If you've never done this ride before, you owe it to yourself: it's challenging and beautiful and gets you stronger early in the season. 

If you do the ride without any special prep, you will definitely finish; but if you join us for the next few weeks, you will get a diet of progressively longer and hillier rides that will leave you smiling and happy after the big event (instead of just relieved and sore). I did it without training (and 25# heavier) my first time and was glad I did the ride, but I learned there's a better way. 🙂

We'll start with the Old Orchard Beach/Boom Road ride, a flattish 51 miles with a lovely spin along the coastline and then we turn up along the river. We'll plan to stop at Saco Bay Variety to refuel. We've had good luck keeping the group together to that point, and then we split the group and let people fly home in two groups. I'm including a shortcut for those who might want a smaller loop; I will do the same for the next 2 rides.

These rides take more time, so wheels roll at 8:00.

Full Route (51)
Garmin | Strava | RWGPS

Short Loop (32)
Garmin | Strava | RWGPS

May 2	May 9
May 16	May 23

Memorial Day

4/18 Saturday Ride

Looks like we'll have very consistent temps tomorrow, though we'll have cloud cover and gain sea breezes as the day goes on.

Let's head north and take the un-hilly (relatively speaking) route to Pinelands. Most of what hills are there a front loaded so we'll just have the breezes coming home.

There is no temperature advantage to starting later, but a wind advantage to start earlier: wheels roll @ 8:00.

Strava | Garmin | RWGPS

4/12 SUNDAY Ride

It's April and it's WINDY. 😕

My weather app says Saturday's temp may officially be in the upper 40s, but the gusty wind (13-25+ mph) will keep it feeling like 43°. Sunday, however, will feel the 48° it's supposed to, and we won't have the added insult of pushing against a wall of wind (7-14 mph). Therefore, I vote Sunday!

Saturday                                                    Sunday

  

Let's do Mitchell Hill/Ash Swamp (36 miles) with the option to tack on Cape for an additional 14 miles for those interested.

Strava | Garmin | RWGPS

It's still early season, so let's keep a 9:00 start.

A warmish Saturday is a terrible thing to waste!

It's not 55° but it's not 35°, either--who wants to stretch the legs a little before Monday? I'm thinking 30 miles or so, and conversational--we'll break into speed groups if needed. It's warmer earlier, so let's say a 9:00 start.