A NOTE TO INTERESTED RIDERS:
I led these rides for several years. They were a fun and healthy winter blast. I currently don’t have plans to lead any more.
BUT THAT SHOULDN’T STOP YOU.
There were two routes we used: THE 5 SUMMITS and LITTLE BUG
5 Summits we’d do once, and Little Bug twice. Download them to Garmin, or ride them in daylight first- there are many tricky turns. Enjoy!
Some people get in their cars after work, drive to a gym and ride a bicycle in front of a TV. Not a bad idea except for the driving part… and the gym part… and the TV.
The Bike Sweats are a series of outdoor winter bike rides intended to give you a short, hard workout once a week. Riders of any fitness level are encouraged to ride. There are two different workouts alternating weekly: (NOTE: I am stopping the Montebello sprints this year. They were fun and effective, but difficult with small groups)
Roland Park Hill Climbs start here: HILL CLIMB START
Lake Montebello Sprints start here: SPRINT START (south parking lot)
All rides are Wednesday nights starting promptly at 7:30PM. All rides are approximately 1 hour. See calendar HERE or at right to be sure of the next ride.
The Bike Sweats are intended to be fun, all-inclusive workouts. I designed the routes as a good challenge to keep myself in shape over the winter months and to get me ready for harder, longer rides coming soon enough in the spring.
What do you need to participate?
- You’ll need to stay in touch with this blog. Add your email address and follow any new posts. Ice, snow and/or rain will cancel the ride and I’ll post about it here.
- You’ll need a willingness to push yourself physically and to be respectful of others in the group doing the same.
- You’ll need a bike that’s capable of getting you up steep hills (proper gearing) as well as getting you down those hills safely (good brakes)
- You’ll need strong, reliable lighting on your bike.
- You understand that participating means you’re riding at your own risk.
Questions? Comments? Leave a reply or, just show up and see how you like it.
Winter Bike Sweats 
Are you going to do this in 2019?
Howard. I won’t be leading these in 2019. I just added a note to the main page with route info. Best. -Bob
Is this suitable for a C rider on a hybrid?
John, If you can get up these hills at any speed then you’re good. In Mt. Washington we ride South rd, Sulgrave, Bellemore, Cross Country and Lake. If you can get up those and be ready for more, then you’re good for our ride. Give it a try- you can test yourself on the first hills and see how you feel about repeating. -Bob
Where are we riding today? Hill climbs or Montebello
For the rest of April, it’s hill climbs only.
I’m interested in the ride next week (4/22/15), but I don’t have a light on my bike. With sunset around 8, that could be a problem. Is a light a real necessity this time of year for this evening ride? I understand the importance of being visible and can dress appropriately. Thanks for any advice.
David
David, Glad you’re interested in the ride. Front and rear lights are important. We are both ascending and descending steep grades on dark neighborhood roads. Hitting a surprise pothole coming down a steep hill is not conducive to getting in shape. I consider strong lighting to be as critical for safety as a helmet. Grab a good light set and we’ll hope to see you next Wednesday. -Bob
Is there a place where the actual ride is posted week to week? It says in the email to check the blog on this site, but I never see anything. If we miss a few weeks, we always have to ask.
Barrett, Glad you commented. The calendar, “Upcoming Rides”, is posted in the upper right hand corner of the blog. WordPress does not make it easy to see the sidebar in mobile view, so that may be the problem. I put in a direct link to the calendar on the main page. One more month of these rides. Hope you can make it!
I see a ride listed on Meetup.com but not on this site. Hill Climbs on for tonight?
We are on for tonight. See you at 7:30 at Roland Park Starbucks.
-Bob
Did I hear Bellemore? I have hill repeats on my training schedule for this afternoon so maybe I will come to this ride to meet some people and suffer together. I’m looking to do some really intense zone 5a-c type suffering. Is this the right group for this?
We’ve had to skip so many Wednesdays, I couldn’t remember which ride was next. When in doubt, check “Upcoming Rides” in the side banner.
What ride are we doing this Wednesday? The sprints or the climbs? Thanks.
We’re climbing tonight! Good to see you back in the mix, Israel. See you tonight at Starbucks in Roland Park.
Interested in joining you. Crazy weather!
Have these started up again? It is not officially winter until this weekend but…I am ready!
Haven’t started yet, but will be soon. I’ll get dates up in the calendar. Expect our first ride for January 7th. We’ll go every Wednesday until April. Thanks for warming up the blog!
Its supposed to rain this evening. Are we still doing the Roland Park Ride tonight?
Israel and other regular riders, tonight is canceled due to storms. We’ll try again next wednesday at Montebello.
All level riders? I’m SLOW and hate to think I’m holding someone back…..
We’re all trying to become stronger riders. If you can make it up the hills on the hill climb ride, it doesn’t matter much how fast you go. Test yourself and see how many times you can ride up Bellemore in Mt. Washington or Elmwood in Roland Park. On the Montebello Sprints there’s always a slow group if you can’t handle the sprint phase. Come on out and give it a try… that is, when the weather allows.
This is great! Thanks! Looking forward to meeting the group!!
Thank you for providing a way to work out with a group during a time of year that can be hard to stay motivated independently! Looking forward to meeting the group!
Melissa Otterbein
Baltimore Area Triathlon Club member
melissaotterbein.wordpress.com
Clear and a balmy high of 28F for the ride tonight. See ya at the Lake at 7:30. -Bob
Sounds like fun! Count me in this winter.
🙂
Cindy
are you still doing these rides?
Olga,
The MidWeek Bike Sweats are a winter/early spring training ride.
I plan to make them weekly when we start them again in Dec.
There are a couple different routes I’ve used in the past, but this, http://ridewithgps.com/routes/2121182 is what we rode this year.
Best. -Bob
See ya on the 23rd at montebello!
Thanks for the heads-up, John. We are aware of the possibility for dangerous situations and have designed this ride to minimize them. The majority of riders will be going quite slow in fact. Also, these rides are just winter months and in my experience, only the hardiest of runners and bikers are out at 7PM on weeknights.
If you’re going to be sprinting around Lake Montebello, you may want to ride in the car lane, not the bike lane. A lot of people walk there (I’ve counted over 200 on a nice evening) and some of them (or their dogs) wander into the bike lane; I’ve seen several near-collisions of fast cyclists with pedestrians. The part with a median separating the bike+ped lanes from the cars is a particular problem, it’s great for kids and other slow cyclists but a fast cyclist really shouldn’t use it. Cars generally don’t go much over 25 mph around the lake, so you shouldn’t be pissing their drivers off too much.