Jul-11: Johnson Mill Rd

Jul-11:

PUE: Kemp-Burton-SnowHill-JohnsonMill-Hopkins-Rougemont-Butner; w/ Lt. Daaave, Levi, BobH (& Baroom for 9 m.); 69.9 miles; est 4316 ft climbed ---> effort index = 113; 4hrs, 17min; 16.3 mph avg pace.

1st Qt. tot: 20 rides; 755.3 m.; 47 hrs, 31 min; 15.9 mph.
2nd Qt. tot: 43 rides; 2124.3 m.; 134 hrs, 59 min; 15.7 mph.
Jul tot: 6 rides; 306.2 m.; 18 hrs, 33 min; 16.5 mph.
YTD: 69 rides; 3185.8 m.; 201 hrs, 3 min; 15.8 mph.

Rolling 12-mos.: 116 rides; 5549.8 m.; 345 hrs, 40 min; 16.1 mph.

After I realized that the intended route was too long, I figured some short-cuts to get a route that I hoped would be 72 miles and thus commemorate the 72nd anniversary of my father's birth, but I didn't guestimate the distance very well.  (For the originally intended route: http://veloroutes.org/bikemaps/?route=35460 )

For the actual route:  http://veloroutes.org/bikemaps/?route=41287 .

New roads from about the 20 mile mark until about the 48 mile mark.  Snow Hill is long with stair-step climbing.  Johnson Mill has some tough climbing.  Hopkins and Bill Poole were scenic, and had a bit of climbing.  Hampton Rd has good rollers, but was not very scenic.
Upon leaving PUE, it seemed that Dave and Levi were in a hurry.  Bob commented "it takes me an hour to warm up."  I responded "it sometimes takes me two hours to warm up."

I managed to sneak into the lead at the turn onto Carpenter Pond in an attempt to slow the pace half-a-mile-an-hour or so; the gambit was working until I decided to slide back and inform Levi of the "excellent" road conditions we would encounter on Kemp Rd.  Immediately, the pace went up again.

I was trying to warm up slowly and to keep the five of us together for a dozen or 15 miles so that warm-up for me would be easier and also so that Barry would have a reasonable pace.  Baroom was sweating and breathing hard when we got to NC-98; he announced he was going to drop us of his front, after only 8.6 miles.

It seemed we had a bit of tailwind on NC-98 and Red Mill Rd -- Stallings and Burton just had rollers. I don't like those two roads, and remember nothing worthy of comment from today's ride.  I managed to sneak into the lead again by the turn onto Red Mill -- did I back the pace down a bit?  Or did I pick it up?  It was quick, but maybe that was the tailwind?

We got to the turn off Red Mill onto Teknika without being caught by the Gyrating A squad.  Maybe we could relax the pace a bit?

Old Oxford Hwy was flat.  Snow Hill Rd was not.  Neither was Johnson Mill Rd.

Hopkins Rd was scenic -- and the sign for the Orange CL is non-existant (but the Durham CL sign is there on the other side of the road).  Bill Poole Rd was definitely not flat and was scenic for the the first half-mile or more (maybe the entire length we were on it).

Dave and Levi seemed to be in a hurry again -- and then Bob seemed to decide to join them.  Ha!  I knew the road turned to nasty gravel just ahead -- they did not.  Irregulars rule # 3.  I was suddenly in the lead as the others U-turned to see what I would do at the corner they had blown through with gusto.

After a "flo-max" assisted regrouping, we turned onto McKee Rd which soon became Cothran Rd and then merged with a road from the right and we were back on Bill Poole Rd again, heading into Rougemont.  We stopped to refuel in Rougemont and exchange banter.

After only about 8 minutes, we remounted and headed off on Red Mountain Rd, all of us with added lead in our legs from the inactivity of the previous 10 minutes.  My leaden legs began to come back to life just in time to see Levi signalling / questioning if we were supposed to turn left onto Moores Mill Rd -- if any "irregulars" read this, they may recall that Moores Mill Rd and Red Mountain Rd intersect about 1 1/4 mile east of Rougemont and about 4 miles south of Mt. Tirzah.  Dave and I each ignored the apparent plea to turn onto Moores Mill, and when I caught Dave I suggested that he should have told Levi "sure, go ahead and ride up that road to the top; we'll wait for you here."  (That isn't exactly how the conversation went; I am using artistic license to combine my half of the evil thought with Dave's half.)

We continued on and made a right turn onto Hampton Rd; I heard Levi mutter to Bob something about his leg(s) starting to "cinch up."  I didn't snicker -- out loud.  I caught Dave's wheel as he hammered up and down the rollers into the headwind.  We turned onto Range Rd for the downward sloping run back to Old-75, taking long turns into the wind.  Bob caught us.  Levi did not.  Too bad, really, that Levi was out of gas and that his legs were cramping on him; I had finally gotten really warmed up only 40+ miles into the ride.

We tried to nurse Levi in the last 25 or 30 miles, but the guy was toast.  Somehow, I am confident that Phil did a better job nursing Levi back to PUE when we did the "Range Rover 66" ride.  Levi made it back to PUE and managed to hide his fatigue from a group of 4 or 5 riders that finished their short ride just before he finished.  He spent a long time stretching and trying to get life back into his legs.  I suggested that on his next ride, he needs to commit himself to doing the entire ride staying seated on the saddle to try to break his habit of standing and trying to overpower the rolling climbs; thus saving more energy for later in the ride.  Once he figures out how to parcel out his energy, there will surely be another rider in the group whose wheel I cannot hold.

I made a "Levi adjustment" to the time for this ride to represent the probable time if we had not had to slow down trying to not completely drop Levi.  If Levi's spouse should happen to read this:  we put a hurten' on the boy.  Actually, he put it on himself.  He simply must learn to NOT attack every hill early in the ride, but instead, parcel out the energy, leaving enough in the tank with which to get home.
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From: Levi
Sent: Sun, Jul 12, 2009 10:00 pm

Just wanted to say thanks for waiting around and making sure I didn'tcroak on Saturday.  I'll do my best in the future to not slow down the end of the ride that much.  I can't remember ever having cramping problems in both legs like that before.

Lessons learned by me on Saturday:
1. DO NOT try to hang onto Dave's wheel too early in the ride, no matter how good you think you feel.  The man can crank...all day.
2. DO NOT listen to Martin when leaving the convenience store when he says "hey, we can go faster than this, can't we?"  That man too, can crank...all day.
3. Keep my butt on the seat most of the day instead of standing on the pedals unless the ride is shorter than 50mi (or you see a PAVEMENT ENDS AHEAD sign.)

The punishment for these transgressions:
1. You get passed by some "big" women when crossing the lake at the end of the ride. And they say "coming by on your left" and ring a bell, to sort of rub it in that they are passing your puny 165lb body and bike with aerobars with their bodies of at least 180 to 200+ and bikes that have bells on them.  If I'd been a little less whipped, I could have tucked into their huge slipstream and let them pull me up Ghoston.
2. Martin gets your wife in on the action to pick on you on his irregular blog.

All that being said, its fun to have a laugh at yourself as long as you don't die.  I had some tired legs on Saturday afternoon, but the weirdthing is that I'm not even sore today.  Had a great time and looking forward to the next epic.

From: me
Sent: Monday, July 13, 2009 10:43 AM

Levi - you were only doing 10 mph when I pleaded "hey, we can go faster than this". My legs needed more than one revolution per minute.

I thought you and Dave were both "in a hurry" at the beginning of the ride.  Bob "It-takes-me-an-hour-to-warm-up" H agreed with me (at least initially, then he too left my sorry "it-takes-me-two-hours-to-warm-up" butt behind).  Dave later claimed he was just trying to keep pace with you.  Luckily for me, rule # 3 was much in force (no one had a cue sheet) -- I especially benefitted when the three of you raced onto the very nasty gravel.  Aah, I love a "well-planned" course.

From: the Mallet
Date: Mon, Jul 13, 2009 10:56 am

Oh, man, that should lead to wonderful nick name possibilities for Levi.  Sounds like the fat ladies sang on his ride. How about Bell Man.