Dec-31: The Madness Completed

I threw in the towel during the ride on the 30th.  But LT did not.  Also, I had promised LT that I would ride with him and his ECU-attending cycling fireman if said protege wanted to ride on the 31st.  Peter opted to ride on Jan-01, but LT was determined to ride on the 31st, and help me get the 10k kilometers. 

Smitty also wanted to ride.  But his son, Tyler, in the words of Tyler's mother, "wimped out." 

So, Lt. Dave, Smitty and I rode a counter-clockwise lake loop (that kept us from finishing Ghoston-Peed-MVC).  Dave had "the bit between his teeth" from the beginning.  Smitty had pretty good form.  I had nothing, repeat nothing, for anything steepish; and often not-very-much for even shallow upslopes.  Dave and Smitty had to slow-down and wait, repeatedly.  Repeatedly. 

I did manage to sneak the CL on Cheek Rd.  They were being nice and had waited and were starting "easy".  I rolled through and past and hit the pedals.  A moment of false glory.  I fell way back on Cheek getting up from the lake.  I couldn't keep up on Patterson.  Once Olive Branch tilted up, I was off the back.  I worked hard on Doc Nichols and Dave and Smitty took it easy -- with that double, I was able to keep up.

We got to the stop sign at the top of Doc Nichols Rd (at Leesville Rd) and took a short, conversational blow; we were avg'ing ~ 15.3 mph.  After I bored them nearly to tears talking numbers, I started the remaining 10-mile time-trial in ernest.  (Later, Smitty admitted that he had a hard time hanging-on.)  I gave the guys a five-and-one-half mile leadout, picking up the pace to 25 mph as we approached the second and last CL on Carpenter Pond (I was unable to repeat the 26.5 mph performance from the day before).  Dave and Smitty came dutifully around to contest the CL, while I eased off to recover a bit.  I think Smitty didn't quite "have it", and as noted previously, Dave did.  Dave took the CL. 

D & S slowed a bit after the CL; I came around again, and again picked up the effort -- now chasing the last mile to the 10 thousand kilometer mark.  I made the turn off Old Creedmoor onto MVC, and coasted along, watching the odometer.  We celebrated with champaigne when I rolled 33.4 miles for the ride. 

Then hammered in the last 2.9 miles.  Avg pace for the whole ride was 16.0 mph -- a great last 10 miles of the year!
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Dec-31:

PUE: counter-clockwise lake loop (no Cash Rd.); w/ LT, Smitty; 36.3 m.; 2hrs, 16min; 16.0 mph.

1Qt tot: _20 rides; _755.3 m.; _47 hrs, 31 min; 15.9 mph.
2Qt tot: _43 rides; 2124.3 m.; 134 hrs, 59 min; 15.7 mph.
3Qt 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: _10 rides; _466.0 m.; _30 hrs, 06 min; 15.5 mph.

YTD tot: 126 rides; 6216.7 m.; 393 hrs, 51 min; 15.8 mph.

10 thousand kms, with 2.9 miles to spare.
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One 200k ride this year - a personal record (never rode that far previously), plus
A further four 100-milers this year - a personal record (actually tripled the number of career 100-milers), plus
A further thirty-eight metrics this year - a personal record (more than doubling my career metrics).

First ever mountain rides this year. Ended with 5 mountain rides.

For first time ever, I ended a year with more rides with others than I had solo rides. 

My avg pace for all rides combined was slower this year than either of the previous two years.