Dec-26: Irregulars turn out in numbers

How many in "numbers?"  At the start, including Smitty's son Tyler, seven (7).  At the finish of "Act 1," seven (7) -- even though BobH turned off at Hickory Grove Rd (I hope he turned off at Hickory Grove -- if not, he might be lying in a ditch along Carpenter Pond Rd just west of Coley Rd).  How did we do that?  Iva recruited JohnD during the ride. 

That makes me wonder:  I was working hard at the front of the "peleton" as the "green jersey group" had gone up-the-road.  How was it that Iva had sufficient breath and brain function to carry on a useful conversation?  I think we may have to send the Hawk to the front of the line more often. 

Tyler set a record just by showing up.  The previous youngest rider on any "irregular" ride was young Mark at 24 or 25 years old.  Tyler beat him by 5 or 6 years.  One thing about 19-year-olds:  it seems awfully hard to wear them out, even when on their longest ride ever, by 20 or 25 miles (at least that is what Smitty told me that Tyler told him). 

It is not impossible to wear out a 19-year-old in reasonable shape.  But it certainly appears to be easier if he decides to "do it" to himself -- although, I suspect that he didn't "decide", it just happened.  Tito and Smitty carried the flag for us more mature types.  Four-fifths of the way through their three-and-one-half-mile-"sprint" for the CL on Carpenter Pond Rd, Iva looked ahead and noted "Tyler is coming back to us."  "Us" was the "peleton."  The "green jersey group" had dropped Tyler; although, before the end of the ride, I think I heard Tyler sounding similar to the first animation in this post; I wonder if Tyler would find that amusing.  He may not have had enough experience to appreciate the conversation. 

As Will Suitt Rd was about to become Boyce Rd, Tito egged me on to "sprint" against him.  I finally relented.  I should have waited before f-i-n-a-l-l-y relenting.  I did catch Tito off guard for a moment or two -- but he was able to rectify the situation.  But I learned something.  Thanks, Tito. 

I do wish I had remembered there was another CL at the bridge across Falls Lake on Cheek Rd.  Totally forgot.  It was probably better that I preserved some legs for "Act 2"; and for tomorrow. 

Later, some of us were discussing the Tito vs. Martin CL "sprint."  I wondered what had made Tito mention and urge me to "go for it" head-to-head.  I think it was Phil that responded "probably because you write about them all the time."  I responded that the CL write-ups made for something at least potentially interesting. 

However, I guess the time has arrived to "come clean" about CL "sprints."  "Irregular" CL sprints started one ride about a year-and-a-half ago when there were only three of us on the ride:  (1) an out-of-shape me, (2) an out-of-shape Heath, and (3) and a supposedly "recovering from a head cold" PaulN.  Paul got bored, so started "laying down CL smack" to Heath and taking all the CLs.  It helped that Paul knew where all of them were.  Over the next months, PaulN continued to go for the CLs, and was taking almost all of them. 

I hatched a plot:  we would secretly set it up so that on some ride, the rest of the "crew" would work together to make sure PaulN got not a single CL.  It never seemed to work out that we had enough or the right riders to make sure PaulN got none.  Then finally, this last April we did the Snapper scouting mission:  Snapper was unfit to "sprint," or at least he didn't offer; Heath was unfit to "sprint."  Neither the Duke nor Iva knew where the CLs were.  Therefore, it fell to me to contest PaulN on the "sprints." 

I snuck the first.  I out-"sprinted" Paul for the second.  The third and fourth were not on the originally planned course, and Paul remembered the CLs, but I did not.  I took the all-important fifth CL -- which was a fair re-test of the first CL (at least that's my story, and I'm sticking to it).  Because Snapper and Heath had bailed after only one loop of the scouting mission, and neither Iva nor the Duke had legs to trade pulls, Paul and I called off the contest before the sixth CL.  Therefore, I took the green jersey that day.  And we no longer needed to conspire against the Iceman. 

Now, however, we have the Mallet.  That's all I'm saying.

It was a great and very fun ride, today.  Even the "peleton" covered the last 10 miles at a respectible pace -- at the turn from DocN onto Leesville, I was avg'ing 15.3 mph -- at the turn off CP onto MVC, I was avg'ing 16.0 mph.  That is reported simply to give you an idea of the quick ride across Leesville and Carpenter Pond Rds.

We arrived at PUE after having completed 46.5 miles at a very respectible pace for the winter.  I couldn't talk anyone into any "bonus miles," so I had to do "Act 2" solo.

"Act 2" starting at 2:45, after having wolfed down a banana and a Snicker's and some fluids, was chilier than earlier. I don't know if that was the sweat in my jersey, the sun having sunk lower toward the horizon, or because there was a lack of hot air coming off the "crew".

I couldn't face retracing the route back to the Leesville / DocNichols corner (am I coming down with "LT syndrome"?), so I made up a route as I rode: Norwood - VctCh - CP - Coley to Kemp, U-turn, back up Coley to CP - MVC [guess I could handle a little bit of retracing]. For some reason, I was slower on "Act 2" than on "Act 1" of the ride -- especially the last 10+ miles of "Act 1." But I got my 100k ride in.

Slightly less than 300k needed to get to 10 thousand k. If it remains fun, I will "chase;" however, if it becomes un-fun, I'll not worry about it.
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Dec-26:

PUE: Act 1:  lake loop counter-clockwise + shortened Dove loop + Strawberry loop + Northside loop + Redwood loop; w/ BobH, Iva, Phil, Tito, Smitty, (Smitty's son) Tyler + "pick-up" John; 46.5 m.; 2hrs, 56min; 15.9 mph.
 - - Act 2:  Norwood-VctCh-CP-Coley to Kemp-U-turn to CP-MVC; solo; 18.1 m.; 1hr, 12min; 15.0 mph.
 - - - - total: 64.6 m.; 4hrs, 8 min; 15.6 avg mph.

1-Q tot: _20 rides; _755.3 m.; _47 hrs, 31 min; 15.9 mph.
2-Q tot: _43 rides; 2124.3 m.; 134 hrs, 59 min; 15.7 mph.
3-Q tot: _36 rides; 1947.2 m.; 121 hrs, 48 min; 16.0 mph.
Oct tot: __9 rides; _551.4 m.; _35 hrs, 41 min; 15.4 mph.
Nov tot: __8 rides; _372.3 m.; _23 hrs, 49 min; 15.7 mph.
Dec tot: __6 rides; _281.9 m.; _17 hrs, 20 min; 15.4 mph.

YTD tot: 122 rides; 6032.6 m.; 382 hrs, 08 min; 15.8 mph.
 
(I passed 6000 miles for the year!! A little less than 300 km to get to 10k km for the year. I am also confident that anyone that has bothered to read this dribble this far absolutely wants and needs to know that after today's ride, I have 36 rides that qualify as a "metric", plus 4 "imperials" and one 200k this year.)