The Wind was worse today than yesterday. But today, the course was not "35 miles out, then 35 miles back". Instead, the loop of Falls Lake, with additional side-loops to get the desired mileage, called for repeated minor or major changes of directions, thus allowing for periodic recovery from a pounding headwind. There would have been even more periodic recoveries, except . . .
Even after giving the orienteering scout trainer a cue sheet (hand-written after arrival at PUE, just in case the author suffered the same fate today as yesterday), the lead group of I'm-sure-this-way-will-get-us-lost-Wave, Snapper, Lee and JohnH managed to miss a key turn. While Whitt and Dove roads would have been mostly into the wind, I am confident that their tree-lined, elevation-changing, sinous paths would have been less wind-harassed that staying on Old Weaver and riding the most exposed part of Cash Rd was.
Smitty and I . . . okay, mostly me . . . considered several options, including:
1. waiting at the proper turn for the return of the directionally challenged four,
2. riding to within sight of the four, then stopping and glaring at them with arms crossed,
3. riding up to the four, and asking if anyone knew the way to Dove Rd, and
4. asking the scouting orienteering leader if he understood how cue sheets actually worked.
In the end, we . . . okay, I . . . settled for options 3 and 4.
Craziest comment of the day: "We couldn't understand how we could turn right twice and still get to NC-50."
Good grief ! This is not the Midwest where the roads are laid out on a square grid; this is central North Carolina where no road runs straight from more than a couple yards.
Good grief #2 ! How do you guys think you got from Creedmoor to PUE just LAST WEEK?
Answer: Creedmoor Main St (= NC-50), L onto Dove, L onto Whitt, L onto Old Weaver - three left turns to accomplish essentially ONE left turn. All one need do is reverse the process. Sheesh.
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What was different about today's ride as compared to yesterday's ride, other than that today's ride was ~ 30 miles shorter?
Answer: The guy that couldn't ride worth a flip yesterday did pretty darn well for himself today. Oh . . . he still got dropped on the climbs, but he did two long pulls / break-aways: the first from mile 18.3 to nearly mile 28; the second was the ~ 6 miles from DocNichols to Old Creedmoor. The second "pull" ripped apart the peloton (Snapper, Wave and Smitty came up with some lame story about Harvey losing a water bottle) and the "pull" probably would have been longer except "that guy" didn't point out or yell a warning about a pot hole in time and JohnH hit it full on and got a snake-bite pinch flat. So the "pull" ended after another mile (when Lee noticed that we had lost John) and Lee and I turned back to find John and see if his bike was still in one piece. We didn't get far before we saw the SAS crew coming from the other direction and they informed us that John was adamant that he was okay and just needed to fix his flat.
Maybe more will believe that the pre-ride comments on safety are not a lecture, but a reminder to ME to be safe and point-out and / or call-out road hazards. Yes, of course, the "that guy" above is me. :-(
Disappointing that despite all that hard work, the avg pace (for me) today was still so slow. But as Lee commented, "riding into 50 mph headwinds will do that".
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I got an e-mail that JohnH got home safe and sound. About 55 miles for him. Thanks for the ride.
Lee rode quickly up MVC and headed for home - about 48.5 miles for him. Thanks for the ride.
Wave finished his exercise day at PUE - about 43.5 miles for him. Thanks for the ride.
Snapper and Smitty did a 6-mile brick run after their 43.5 mile rides. Thanks for the ride.
Oh, btw, I think Smitty may have discovered something about back-to-back long or hard rides.
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Feb-28:
PUE: Falls Lake Loop counter-clockwise + Strawberry loop + Northside loop + Redwood loop; 43.5 m.; 2hrs, 52min; 15.2 mph.
Jan tot: _4 rides; 208.5 m.; 12 hrs, 54 min; 16.1 mph.
Feb tot: _4 rides; 222.0 m.; 14 hrs, 47 min; 15.0 mph.
YTD tot: _8 rides; 430.5 m.; 26 hrs, 43 min; 15.5 mph.
I am well behind last year's pace. And SOOOOO far behind in my planned "training", . . . I guess one must bow to the weather and head cold, though.
Now that I have beaten the bit about Wave, the scout troop orienteering trainer, getting repeatedly lost on rides, into the ground, I will stop.
ReplyDeleteUntil the next "lost" or "missed turn" incident. Which, if recent history is any indication, ought to be about ... next week.
...M
First day of back to back riding since last fall. However, those days were not nearly as windy. What doesn't kill us only makes us stronger right? Everything else aside, two good days of riding with good friends.
ReplyDeleteSmitty
Looking forward to next weekend. Upper 50's and no wind - hopefully. Anyone up for a 11 mile brick afterwards? Wave? I have some extra running shoes.
ReplyDeleteCheetah
Word Verification = oserr
As recorded on my GPS:
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/irregulars-02-28-2010
(Click on the red marker for stats.)
As I told Martin, my flat change was fairly swift (by my standards). I was indeed adamant that the others continue on. It had been my plan all along to peel off onto Old Creedmoor for my return trip home. So it didn't make much sense for everyone to stand there watching just so they could accompany me for one more mile up the road.
That was one hell of a crater. Completely understandable that it sneaked up on us given we were dealing with cars up, back, left, and right, while in a very tight formation. My hands were still stinging from absorbing the shock through my handle bars, so I went to a bar to watch the gold medal hockey game and kept them wrapped around cold pint glasses with occasional elevation towards my mouth.