Smitty, Lee, JohnH and I rode at noon from PUE on a "Shadow" course. We tried to take advantage of the North wind by going downslope into the wind on Coley and Baptist, and upslope with a tailwind on those two roads. We were somewhat successful in this strategy, but there definitely seemed to be a westerly component to the wind that was annoying during the upslope on Baptist and the second time we did the upslope on Coley.
Early in the ride there was much discussion about nostalgic days of yesteryear -- mostly about running epics. (Lee was retiring from competive running for Carolina Godiva Track Club at about the same time that I was becoming involved as part of the Godiva leadership. Lee was a LOT faster runner on his worst day than I ever was on my best days. But, that is just part of the nostalgia equation.)
We rode all the way to bottom of Baptist (negotiating the speeds bumps to do so) so we could see how full the lake is. It is VERY FULL. The flood waters covered half the road surface on the downslope side of the circle at the bottom. If the lake had been two inches higher, the road surface there would have likely been completely covered.
The frog serenade while crossing the creek on Southview Rd was quite loud. I'm thinking that it may become nearly deafening when it warms up in a few weeks.
John turned off when we went passed Hickory Grove Rd on the way back to PUE. He had ridden to the ride from his home.
Lee skedaddled directly on home when he got to the top of MVC next to the school.
My thighs were each tight and stiff and cold from the ride, and when I started up MVC to the school, some of the little muscles in the front of my right thigh started doing involuntary twitches. I immediately dropped into my triple and rode up to the school in my 30-23 at an almost no effort 7 1/2 mph. I told Smitty that I was confident that sometime this evening that my right thigh would cramp on me. As I write this, I no longer think that, but the ride left me very tired.
Smitty (who had run 8 miles in the morning) described similar leg aches and said he was more tired after today's 50-miler than he was after the 200k ride last October.
Thank goodness it was SUNNY for the entire ride!
p.s. During the ride, Lee asked "where is Iva?" After the ride, I concluded that Iva was likely watching the UNC @ Maryland game on the tube. I'm thinking he may now wish that he had gone on a cold bicycle ride instead. :-o
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Feb-07:
PUE: Coley-DocN-marina-Southview-Virgil-Coley; 50.2 m.; 3hrs, 13min; 15.7 mph.
Jan tot: _4 rides; 208.5 m.; 12 hrs, 54 min; 16.1 mph.
Feb tot: _1 ride; __50.2 m.; _3 hrs, 13 min; 15.7 mph.
YTD tot: _5 rides; 258.7 m.; 16 hrs, _7 min; 16.1 mph.
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John provided this link for the ride .
It is not exactly the route the rest of us rode since John started from his home.
Be sure to click on the various "links" to the left of the map,
especially the "End" link.
Smitty provided this link for the ride .
He forgot to turn his Garmin on until we got to the bottom of MVC,
but interesting information is available, including pace vs elevation vs where on the map.
One thing I always find interesting from Garmin readouts is . . . how much the elevation of the same place changes over time. :-o
I proved yesterday that I'm not in shape to go out with you guys. Worked on some projects until a little after noon, then took off on my own bike ride in 40 degree weather...heading towards Greenville on a new route and having ECU daughter at home this weekend pick me up on her way back to school. She called me from home as I was barely past Zebulon and we rendezvoused in Bailey...did not even get to Wilson. 35 mile ride, pretty much cross wind most of the time, and serious diffiulty on any hill more than 2% grade. Feel OK today. Actually, adding most of the morning out in the cold on Saturday at Krispy Kreme Challenge and yesterday afternoon...you would think it would have been bad on my cold. But I'm feeling better today with little congestion. Weather's not any better this week.
ReplyDeleteIceMan
re the cold: you may have been at the point of recovery where an extended outside period helped clear out the lungs, tubes, etc..
ReplyDelete(I'm pretty sure that that remedy is of "old wive's tale vintage", but . . . )
Earlier this morning, I looked at the weather forecast for the week and next weekend. Yuk.
I may think about getting full shoe-boot covers for the coming weekend.
I'd hate to do that and then
have the weather warm up such that the toe-covers are sufficient for the rest of "winter".
I am sure you are in more than adequate condition to stick with us.
I knew I wasn't going to ride the "scheduled" 80 miles yesterday (the 80 was actually scheduled for Saturday, Sunday was scheduled to be a recovery 45), so I was willing to "push it" periodically. Guess I did an interval workout. JohnH barely pedaled the whole ride. Lee rode easy. Smitty ran 8 miles in the morning, and claimed he felt under-strength all ride -- I never noticed any flagging on his part.
Next week, back to sensible and steady for me! And the "wrath of Martin" be upon the hammers (which is just about every rider in the "crew").