Sep-5: Not a 3 Act Play

Sep-5:

PUE: Act 1: Y'ville-F'ton; w/ BobH, Iva, Becky + Mallet, Steve 21m + Lt. 11m + Barry 2m; 49.23 m.; est 2250 ft; 3hrs, 1min, 15 sec; 16.3 mph.
- - - - Act 2: Raven Ridge errand; 18.37 m.; est 1235 ft climbed; 1hr, 17min, 25sec; 14.2 mph;
- - - - - Total Ride: 67.6 miles; est 3485 ft climbed ---> effort index = 102; 4hrs, 18min; 15.7 mph.

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: 16 rides; 732.2 m.; 45 hrs, 3 min; 16.2 mph.
Aug tot: 11 rides; 709.7 m.; 45 hrs, 0 min; 15.8 mph.
Sep tot: 1 ride; 67.6 m.; 4hrs, 18 min; 15.7 mph.
YTD: 91 rides; 4389.1. m.; 276 hrs, 54 min; 15.8 mph.

Rolling 12-mos.: 118 rides; 5697.3 m.; 356 hrs, 41 min; 16.0 mph.

Act 1:

We picked Becky up en route today. Actually, more like she picked us up. She saw us going past the entrance to her "housing development", and decided to see if she could ride with us. She fit in very well, both speed-wise and CL fun-wise, thank you very much. She does need to start carrying her spare inner tube and tools, though.

Steve reported that he saw Becky running on Pleasant Union Ch Rd as he came in to finish his ride.

Should it count as someone rode "with" us if they started FAST out of the gate, dropped us immediately, and we never saw him again except after he had U-turned after 2 miles. Apparently Ba-room decided to stay entirely on the "flat" today.

Near the end of the ride, after I put in 7-mile "time trial" pull on Bruce Garner / New Light (Frank - it would have brought back memories, or nightmares), I expected Bob to come around and zip past me once we turned onto Ghoston. Instead, it was Iva. (If I had his body and my legs, boy, then maybe I could climb. Seems to me I 've heard that before.)

Steve finished his ride at about 10:39. Well after Bob had headed for home and after I had dumped. Apparently, Steve could no longer hold on to the Mallet even before entering Franklinton, missed the turn onto College St., tried to use his I-pod to chart his way back to PUE, and rode NC-56 from the middle of Franklinton to Gordon Moore Rd. That wouldn't have been soooo bad, but once he got Pokomoke Rd, Steve apparently felt honor bound to try to replicate the mess that Snapper / Wave had led Levi and him into a couple months ago.

I had figured the Mallet would eventually exhaust Steve, but I figured that would happen on Bruce Garner Rd, and Steve might be waiting for us at Grissom. Instead, he spent about 20 minutes in downtown Franklinton at the gas station / convenience store waiting for us / trying to plot a new route home.

Here's the funny part of the above: Steve described that he could no longer hang on to the Mallet after 8 miles. The funny part -- Cedar Creek Rd is only 6.4 miles long. (I didn't mention that to Steve.) (When I originally wrote the preceeding sentence, I thought and wrote that Cedar Creek Rd was only 4 miles long.  The "funny part" is MUCH funnier if Steve's 8-mile road is only 4-miles long.)


Lesson to all, there: print and bring the cue sheet. And don't rely on those I-pod or Blackberry things to find a route home -- they will invariably try to put you on Capital Blvd (Steve, today) or some other high traffic road (Rushmore, a few months ago, on the OMV).
I have threatened to change the course after dropping someone off the front -- but the above is not what I envisioned, nor what I "planned" for today.
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Act 2:

Raven Ridge has a LOT of UP. The UP that really got me was the part after Koupela. It just sucked the life out of my cadence and my avg pace. (After checking "veloroutes" for estimated climbing on the two segments: no wonder Act 2, especially the first half of it, felt so debilitating -- 658 ft climbing in the first half of Act 2. 1235 ft climbing 1n 18.4 miles for all of Act 2. The amount of climbing per mile during Act 1 appears as nothing compared to Act 2 per mle.)
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Act 3:

The plan had been to ride another 33 miles and sneak in a century. But with Raven Ridge and Possum Track having sucked the gitty-up out of my pace, and the "diaper sores" that were trying to make themselves evident, and the plan to ride the next two days, I decided to skip Act 3 and save the energy for those next two days.
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And I noticed that for the first time this year, my YTD avg pace has fallen below last year's YTD avg pace.