ABC Ride: Saturday, April 18 at 11:00 a.m. from the Exchange St lot in Holliston
Joel Arbeitman
Hi everyone.
The Ashland Bike Club’s next ride has been scheduled for this Saturday, April 18 at 11:00 a.m. from the Exchange Street parking lot in downtown Holliston.
GPS address: opposite 49 Exchange Street, Holliston (same as the last ride)
Route name: ABC – Spring Warmup 7
Ride
Rating:
Distance: Easy (18.1)
Elevation: Easy (37)
Total Gain: 664 feet
Steepest: 5.6%
The Weather
Saturday’s forecast calls for a mostly cloudy and cool day with temperatures
holding steady between 53 and 55 during the ride.
ABC
pre-ride group photo
at Habitat Re-Store (4/11/26)
Thanks
to Habitat store manager
Casey Pichette for taking the photo!!
ABC is
looking for a “volunteer”
lawyer to review our waiver form
Can you help? If so, please send an email to: ashland...@gmail.com. Thanks!!!
The
Ride
This
is a fairly short route coming in at just over 18 miles. It’s part of ABC’s
spring warmup series but it’s often a good choice both early and
late in the
riding season. The first
10.5 miles or
so are on a very flat bike path.
The
last 7 miles are on some very scenic roads although there are a
few moderate
hills. The Holliston
section of the
trail is surfaced with packed stone dust rather than asphalt. It’s a very smooth,
easy-to-ride surface even
for road bikes. Milford’s
section is paved
with asphalt.
We’ll take a rest stop at Louisa Lake at the 7.7-mile mark and another at the Out Post later in the ride or perhaps at Coffee Haven after the ride ends.
Here’s a link to a map of Saturday’s route:
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/27197733.
You
can
print our “official cue sheet” for the ride by clicking the link
above, then
click “More”, then click “Print Map and Cue PDF”, and finally
click “Print
Official”.
Off the
Route
Our “Off the Route” feature
includes both bicycling
topics and non-cycling topics we think are worth sharing.
Ashland Bike Club Radio
Here’s an ABC tribute to morning songs, when “the sun pours
in
like butterscotch” and sticks to all your senses … Sometimes
the magic is in
the lyrics and in the feelings they evoke.
Cat Stevens – Morning
Has
Broken
Joni Mitchell - Chelsea
Morning
Townes Van Zandt - I'll
Be Here in the Morning
Iris DeMent - When My
Morning Comes Around
Arlo Guthrie - Oh, In
the
Morning
Another Balancing Act
Wow, lots of comments from the last ride notice’s article
on how
to improve your balance. There are dozens of things that can
cause balance
issues so getting a medical diagnosis can be very helpful.
Here’s a little exercise that “might” benefit you. Someone I know has had amazing results doing this. It was recommended by a physical therapist.
Print the attached chart and tape it to a wall or a door in a safe space where there might be something you can hold on to for support if the exercise makes you dizzy. The center of the chart, where the "X" is, should be at your eye level. You should wear your eyeglasses or contacts if you have them.
You're going to do one minute of moving your head up and then down while keeping your eyes focused on the "X" in the middle of the chart.
Then you're going to do one minute moving your head to the left and then to the right while keeping your eyes focused on the "X" in the middle of the chart.
How fast should you go and how do you know when a minute is up?
Download an app (from the Google Play Store) to your phone called "Easy Metronome". It's completely free and there are no ads. If you have an iPhone, you should be able to find this app or a similar one. In the settings (the gear icon in the lower-left corner), turn on the "timer" and then press the back arrow in the upper-left to return to the main screen. All the app does is make a sound every second to help you maintain a consistent rhythm.
Build up to higher speeds gradually to see what is comfortable for you. It would probably be good to start with 80 beats per minute. You can always increase it later if that works for you. The timer defaults to one minute so that should work perfectly without needing to change it.
One last thing. There's a slider control near the top of the screen labeled "Beats". Move the slider all the way to the left so that it only beats once every second.
Once you're all set up, press the "Play" button (right-facing arrow near the bottom of the screen).
So, to repeat, print off and tape up the attached chart at eye level. Get and set up the Easy Metronome app. When you're ready to try the exercises, do one minute moving your head up and down (up on one beat, down on the next) and then do one minute left-to-right (left on one beat and then right on the next). Always keep your eyes focused on the "X" while you move your head.
Let me know if it helps.
Where does Massachusetts rank
in annual highway
fatalities?
It seems like people in Massachusetts take some kind of
perverse
pride when observing how bad our drivers are. Everyone has a
story … or ten.
But is it true?
Statistically, there are many multiples of non-fatal car accidents compared to the fatal ones. Some reports suggest that Massachusetts does, indeed, have a high non-fatal accident rate per miles driven.
But, according to the Department of Transportation, and I expect you might find this hard to believe, Massachusetts has THE LOWEST RATE of fatal driving accidents per miles driven. Who’d a thunk it?
Does that stat provide proof that we are safer drivers? Not necessarily. Some attribute the lower fatality rate to having more proximate and better medical facilities. Some suggest that due to population density, we are often forced to drive more slowly. Perhaps this accounts for a higher non-fatal accident rate and the lowest fatal accident rate. Why do you think we have a higher accident rate but the lowest fatality rate compared to other states?
What do you think accounts for the difference?
Read the article: https://www.iihs.org/research-areas/fatality-statistics/detail/state-by-state
Remember to check your email after 9:30 a.m. on Saturday (always 90 minutes before the “meeting time”) to make sure the ride was not cancelled or postponed due to weather or other reasons.
See you Saturday at 11:00 a.m. at the Exchange Street lot in Holliston opposite 49 Exchange Street and … don’t forget those helmets.
Joel
