Aug-18: Coley x 4

Pre-ride information.

I went to BJP to do my ~ 30-mile "TT" route.  A mild thundershower cut loose just as I parked. 

I read a book for ~ 20 minutes.  During that time it had stopped raining and the parking lot was drying out.  I visited the "Visitor's Center" to change into my new bibs, then I started prepping the bike and putting essentials in to the back pockets and just as I was ready to put on socks and cycling shoes, I heard the rain stampeding through the trees headed for the BJP parking lot, again.  I quickly got the bike into the car before it got wet; I got me into the car, mostly not wet. 

I gave up on riding, and left BJP.  But by the time I got to PUE, it was no longer raining and the road was barely damp.  I drove a loop including Nipper and Shooting Club and ... it was bone dry at the Old Creedmoor and Carpenter Pond corner.  I headed back to BJP.

I parked, again, but just as I began to open the door, remnants of the rains from Noah's time cut loose.  I gave up for real.  The look of the clouds and rain as I drove across Pleasant Union Ch Rd, again, made me think this rain would be an all-day event (I grew up in NW Illinois, and there, storms tend to be huge things, not these two-mile-across things that we typically get in NC -- try as I might, storm recognition tends to revert to that learned in childhood and teenage years). 

By the time I got to Strickland Rd, I could see blue sky to the nearby west.  I decided to drive to Shady Grove Church and see what things looked like there.  BONE DRY. 

On the way to Shady Grove, I learned that Carpenter Pond is finally being repaved.  They started at the Wake County Line, and are paving the westbound lane -- they did not get as far as Kemp Rd -- I would estimate that 1/2 mile of the westbound lane has been repaved.  One might want to avoid Carpenter Pond Rd the next few days, but after that ... I anticipate even faster "TT" times.
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The ride.

I will be sending this to Lt. Dave.  He would have loved the course.  NOT!!

Approx 0.37 miles from the church parking lot to the Carpenter Pond / Coley corner.  Then ... four loops down and up on Coley.  Return to the church.  Call it a day. 

Smooth road.  Almost no traffic.  One female turkey spotted as it crossed the road ahead of me.  Surprisingly, no dogs.  Light northerly breeze, meaning headwind downslope and tailwind upslope. 

What more could one ask for?
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Aug-18: 

Shady Grove Church:  Coley x 4; 30.0 m.; 1 hrs, 47 min in-motion time; 16.8 mph.  

Q-1 tot: 16 rides; __938.2 m.; _60 hrs, 39 min; 15.5 mph.
Q-2 tot: 31 rides; 2,263.3 m.; 151 hrs, 29 min; 14.9 mph.
Ju1 tot: 13 rides; __786.9 m.; _52 hrs, 36 min; 15.0 mph.
Aug tot: _4 rides; __328.6 m.; _20 hrs, 37 min; 15.9 mph.
YTD tot: 64 rides; 4,317.0 m.; 285 hrs, 22 min; 15.1 mph.