thank bud. Truth be told I do alot of riding that is binders on. That is normally training/high intensity riding for short periods of time. On longer ride I am looking to
A. first and foremost find fun trail
B. find cool spots that are other wise hard to access.
C. sometimes see what else is going on.
Without longer riders, it is hard to the shorter ones and vice a versa. They build off each other. long low intensity rides are the building blocks of solid cycling training program.
On the spandex thing, I use to never wear it. I won a pair of bib shorts back when I raced sport in XC, and after trying them for the first time they were so much more comfortable in every way possible. I will never do long XC rides in baggies again. Also you know how my girls will compliment it? lots. I just think alot of guys have beer guts and want to hide that fact or something. My new deal on 'casual" group rider to not look like a some dick racer is to wear board shorts over my bibs. still so much more comfortable than MTB baggy shorts.
Ha! That is hilarious! My daughters recently forbade me to wear spandex, at least when I ride with them. We had more than a few family laugh-fests over that topic. If you watch the TV show Modern Family, there was an episode where Cam wore spandex shorts to the gym and caused a bit of a stir. You can imagine the off-hand comments that got tossed my way from the girls after they saw that......
Disrespectful little urchins! So now I do exactly what you do -- wear loose board shorts over my spandex. I'm still comfortable, and the fashion police got their subject to comply
And I hear you about the intense training / riding with blinders on. In the racing world, it's a necessity. Nothing to criticize there....it's all good. Just saying that it's great that you also take the time to ride just for the fun of it, to get out in the woods and fields, find a fun trail and relax and enjoy. And that you post that experience on the blog and share it. Good on ya!