Oct-17: Get 'Er Dunn Permanent Populaire

A very nice day for a bicycle ride.  A bit chilly in the early going, following our 8 a.m. start.  Starting to get warm by the end (an approx 12:48 p.m. finish).  Very little breeze; certainly no wind.  Good company (route owner and still pursuing 10k hound Dean, local RBA Alan, recent SR Maria, her friend Blake, and RUSA veep and newsletter editor and already successful 10k hound MikeD for a "friendly" ride -- someone described the ride before the start as a "friendly" -- it may be MikeD that made that comment -- I assumed that "friendly" meant Mike would ride with us and not drop off our front -- that's what he did -- until near the end, when I suspect that he desparately needed to "stretch his legs". 

More "terrain" for a course from Garner to Dunn than I expected.  When I mentioned that to Dean, the route owner, early-ish in the ride, MikeD commented "and it has hills, too!"  I didn't come up with a timely retort. 

About 4 or 5 miles into the ride, Alan and I were sharing the load, chatting while riding side-by-side, when Dean suddenly came by us in a mad rush.  I thought he was trying to lift the pace.  No ... only trying to get the Johnson CL green jersey points.  He allowed as how, due to having to wait for traffic to clear, that Alan and I shared the CL because his rush fell short.  Neither Alan nor I knew a CL was coming -- well, I certainly didn't -- Alan may have known, but I suspect, based on a later comment, that he didn't actually know WHERE the CL was -- no sign.  Anyway, that was pretty much the end of my opportunity for the day to chat with Alan.

Little rollers, Mike and Dean "stretching" their legs on uphill / upslope sections.  An information control -- what color are those __ , anyway?  And pretty soon we were thru Erwin headed for Dunn ... and then we were at the turn-around control in Dunn.

Nibbles and drinks and chat -- don't ask me what about -- and we were soon off for the control in Erwin.  I didn't recognize the convenience store / gas station until Maria mentioned that she had first stopped at this location on the 600 km brevet in May.  Aah ... now I recognize this store.  [See ... I (almost) never stay in the same tense, or person, for an entire blog post.  If you have a problem with that ... go away.]

Riding again toward Coats and then Garner.  But first there was a CL to be contested:  Harnett into Johnson County.  I have no idea what occured on the outbound leg, but on the inbound leg ... big fun.  Alan was leading, Maria second, then me.  I don't know if Dean or Blake intended to participate, but neither did.  I suspect that if Mike had "sprinted", it would have been N.C. (no contest).  Anyway, I saw the CL sign and thought to myself "I need to mark Alan, and jump when he jumps".  No sooner had I had that thought, than I realized that Alan had almost imperceptably picked up the pace; I thought "oh, he's trying to 'sneak' away and 'steal' the CL".  Even before completing that thought, I realized that Maria had realized Alan's game before I had ... and she was already accelerating.  "Irregular" "sprints" have taught me a few things -- including the value of seruptitiously shifting into a slightly lower gear some distance BEFORE the CL -- the lower gear allows (me) faster early acceleration.  I hit my pedals HARD, and was almost instantly overtaking Maria and had Alan in my sights.  I dug hard, stomach clenched, as I accelerated and smoothly shifted a couple times to faster gears.  Alan later mentioned that he had a disadvantage as he is 13 years older than me -- I reminded him that I owed him some revenge from the Howling Grits ride -- that made Alan laugh.  I also owed Maria some revenge from the Sauartown ride. 

We provided amusement to the three non-participants -- I heard one of them, probably Dean, starting to laugh as the three of us dashed ahead. 

After that CL, we regrouped and rode "friendly".  Mike finally decided to stretch his legs in earnest the last half-dozen miles, and Dean launched me off the front of the remainder of the peloton.  I thought they were all right behind me, but ... when I couldn't see them in my mirror, I just kept pedaling. 

A 100 km ride is a nice distance.  As Mike commented about riding 200 kms, "it's not the distance, it's the time."  True enough.  A 100 km ride, on the other hand, is far enough to get in some good training and some just plain enjoyable cycling, but doesn't take ALL day.

Thanks to Dean for organizing the ride.  Thanks to everyone else for the good company on an enjoyable ride.
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Oct-17: 

Get 'Er Dunn Permanent Populaire; 63.1 m.; 4 hrs, 7 min in motion time; 15.3 mph; rando-time:  4 hrs, 48 min elapsed clock time. 

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.
Q-3 tot: 37 rides; 2,293.2 m.; 156 hrs, 31 min; 14.7 mph.
Oct tot: _7 rides; __580.5 m.; _38 hrs, _4 min; 15.2 mph.
YTD tot: 91 rides; 6,075.2 m.; 406 hrs, 42 min; 14.9 mph. 
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One year ago today, I completed my first ever 200k ride.  Not a RUSA thingy.  Much more important -- an "Irregular" ride.  Click here to see the post.  
 
When I started to type the above sentence / paragraph, there were two things I wanted to mention.  I can't recall the second.  Must not have been that important.
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