In celebration of Veterans Day we met at the Brandywine parking lot to ride 46 miles around Horsehead, North Keys, Molly Berry and back down Brandywine road.  I was joined by Mike and Regina Saizan, J&J Hudnall, Darin King, L&P Bankerd, Scott Walker, Jim McPhearson, and Ken Meridith. 

Leaders: Jim and Jane Hudnall

What happens when you schedule a ride but have everyone ride in the small ring and use pacelines to keep the speed up?  You end up with an ams of 19.2!!  It was probably the last really nice day before winter weather sets in - sunny, warm, with clear skies.  A brief review of paceline etiquette started us off.  Blake Altman, John Giglio, Jack Gardner, John Clark, David Monn, Darin King, Carole Harris, Ken Meredith (joining us at the top of Berry Rd and leaving us at Brandywine to head home), and a couple other riders whose names weren't on the sign-in sheet took turns pulling to keep the speed up.  Most of us were able to stay in the small ring which proved challenging especially when the speed picked up or we were headed downhill.  There were a few times when the line looked "raggedy" but all in all a good ride with no mishaps!  And because of the shared work (okay, I did very little of it) I wasn't tired at the end!

Good Day Sunshine!  The promise of a lovely fall day brought out a lot of folks.  The B ride drew out Linda and Paul Bankerd, Sharon Miller, Jim McPherson, Broderick Pascal, Bill Loewe, Sheila Harron, Freddy Telleron(?), Danzie Seward, Larry Peed, Kenny Mundy, Sam Perry, Eric Petersen.  A couple CC riders ended up with us as well (good for you!). We made it down to Goose Bay without incident and on heading back, I convinced a few folks to go to the end of the road with me to see the views of Chapel Point and the Nice bridge.  On our return, we bypassed Rose Hill and went up Valley Rd instead, for a nice modification.  We still had Bumpy Oak Rd, so we did get a small hill workout.  My avg on the return was 14.9, a good solid B.  With the detour and modification, the route was actually closer to 40 miles. No one seemed to mind.

The C/CC group joined the B ride and had some fun in the warm weather. What A great Day to ride. Thanks for riding with Calvin and JulieAnn. Those who came out know what happened, we all  were pushed to our limits.  

Leader:  Darin King
Members:  Blake Altman, David Kemp
Metrics:  http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1013202

What a gorgeous day to enjoy the still-vibrant fall colors!  We journeyed over some of Charles County's "speed bumps" (says David!):  Chapel Point, Popes Creek, Old Sycamore, and Bel Alton-Newtown (~1800 ft of climbing).  Good camaraderie made the miles fly by as we finished up at 18.3AMS...a solid A+ pace.  The back-roads had a suprising light traffic load for such a beautiful Saturday morning.  No incidents to report.

Ride Leader: Holly Carr

Leader was Jackie Schoch and riders were Randy Schoch, Holly Carr, Daryl Lowery, John Riconda, Vicki Garlock, and Richard Harrington.  It was a great ride except for the wind.  On the way back from White Plains we had the head wind again.  Second week in a row with this strong head wind.  The weatherman said it was going to be light wind well we should had him on the trail.

Co-leaders Mike and Regina Saizan rode with Larry Peed, Tom Roberson, Jon Agazzi, Joan Oppel, Steve Palincsar and Sam Perry on this beautiful brisk fall day.  We were fortunate that the Nor’easter snowfall that hit several states north of us missed our area.  From the beginning of the ride to the end, temps were in the 40s, the sky was blue and sunny, and the 12-15 mph winds created a cool breeze.  The 34-mile route took us on very familiar roads, including lower Molly Berry, the rolling hills on Baden Naylor, and the climb on Floral Park.  On our return, we approached the parking lot on Brandywine Rd from the east via Missouri Ave instead of our normal west approach.

During the first 20 miles of the ride the group pretty much stayed together.  After our rest break at the WaWa on 301 and McKendree, the group rode together the majority of the time, except for Jon who picked up his pace on the home stretch.  There were no mechanical problems... we had a great day!

It was a sunny day, crisp cool air (40 degrees as we left Bryans Road at 10 am, 47 when we returned at 1:30) contrasting with the warmth of the sun. It's hard to overstate the importance of the sun: it was cooler today than it was on Saturday, but it was lovely, a joy to be outdoors, while Saturday was as miserable a day as one could possibly imagine.

The group was a small one for such a pretty day: Larry Peed, Roger Cubbage, Paul and Linda Bankerd, Richard Harrington, Sharon Miller, Loretta Troen and Karen Morgan and leader Steve Palincsar.

The theme of today's ride was views of the Mattawoman Creek / Mad Woman/Old Woman Run. Not knowing for sure how it would feel, I planned the ride to stay close to home so we could cut things short at several places. We took Pomfret to the IHRT and followed Mattawoman Creek down towards Indian Head, taking a short break at the portolet at Bumpy Oak (where Linda Bankerd shared her improvised binder-clip-field-fix for sunglass lenses that won't stay in place with Karen Morgan), toured the neighborhoods south of the trail at Blair en route to Mattingly Park and the waterfront along Mattawoman Creek, stopping at the park and the portolets at the end of the road.

We took Mattingly to Indian Head, then Strauss, Hawthorne and Chicamuxen to Smallwood Park and took another break at the Mattawoman Creek. Passing up another shortcut opportunity, the group took a novel return route along Sweetman and Bicknell to Pisgah Marbury and Mason Spring where we experienced some gentle undulations (in truth, that's all they were, really) on the way back to Hawthorne and Chapman's Landing and some more undulations there.

The group stayed together, and although my computer is no longer giving accurate AMS readings, the Pace Arrow seemed to indicate a Used2Bee average in the mid-to-high 13s for the entire 32 miles.

Sharon posted photos on Facebook: