May-28: Bahama Beach

"I'm Always Up For Anything At The Beach"

That was surfer-dude Snapper's comment as he was first to vote for a route this week.  (We don't usually vote to choose a route; usually, whomever is "leading" picks a route, announces it, and see who follows.  But this week, I felt no "siren call" from any particular route.)  IvaHawk quickly e-mailed in a concurring vote.  If I recall correctly, that was the end of the "voting." 

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I met "Ricochet Robert" at 6:45 for a pedaling exercise.  Robert is still entertaining the idea of going to Paris, but recognizes that in addition to further distance training, he needs to work on being more relaxed on the bike and needs to improve his pedal stroke.  Well, Robert might not be convinced about those two things, but his "all-things-cycling" advisor (Gary) and his most-frequent-long-distance-partner (me) are. 

Robert doing a pedaling exercise also meant that I would be doing a pedaling exercise.  A couple more miles in the bank for each of us.
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Returning to PUE to be ready for the 7:00 am start.
Parking lot over-run with more Irregulars than had been expected.
Was expecting nine plus me.  Ten.
Twelve showed plus a guest plus me.  Fourteen.
Also there was a group of about five women "Team in Training" triathletes.
Parking lot NOT over-run; but certainly twice the people milling about as compared to expected.

7:00.  Groups of people spread across much of the parking lot.
I wished aloud that I had my old referee's whistle.
Paul "the Mallet" suggested that I just start riding ... people would follow ... or not.
That's essentially what I did.
Shouted out loudly "it is seven and I'm leaving."
IvaHawk replied "wait, wait, wait."
"Nope.  No 'wait, wait, wait'.  I'm leaving."
Everyone followed.

Snapper and Lee took the lead of the scraggly double-pace-line.
Part of the reason it was scraggly was people were riding offset to avoid the rooster tail from the bike ahead.
Apparently, Snapper and Lee made prediction about who would come around, or try to anyway,
To snag the Durham County Line (some four-plus miles into the ride).
They predicted me and Ricochet.
I was in the second row, but boxed in by the Mallet.
I suppose I could have done a "Robbie McEwen" and head-butted everyone out of the way.
But, even though I made comments about being blocked in, I had no CL sprint interest.
Ricochet was further back in the line.  He is an unlikely sprinter.

Three little "ups" on Kemp Rd.  Regrouped at the highway.  I think no waiting was required.

I don't like going only 13 or 15 mph on the highway.
I made sure that we didn't.

Onto Patterson Rd.  Social shuffling of the groupings.  Continuing chatter.
Some tried to turn right onto Cheek Rd.  Wrong direction.
We waited to regroup.
Crew leader decided to ride backward to make sure that Gary and Wendy knew we were waiting.

Regrouped, onto Cheek Rd, headed for Burton Rd.
Across Burton Rd.
On the downslope, I couldn't keep up in my 39/15 faux single-speed.
But I was determined to continue faux single-speed to at least Stagville Rd.

Iva dropped back for me on Geer St.
We worked our way back onto the crew.
Getting nicely sucked along by the twelve in front of us.
Snapper decided he'd had enough of being up or near the front; he drifted to the back.
As soon as he pulled in behind Iva and me, "oh, man, this is completely different back here."

Sometimes, oft-times, I wonder why I bother making a cue sheet.
Confusion approaching Old-75.
Irritated, I went around and led across / down Old-75 to Stagville Rd.
On Stagville, several of the speedsters asked what I had been shouting about two miles earlier.
"I was asking 'why are we slowing down?'"
"Oh," said the Mallet, "we were slowing down because we couldn't hear what you were saying."
"Well," I replied, "I initially was 'cautioning' one ride to stay closer to the fog line,
and not suddenly veer into the middle of the lane and force another out to the double-yellow."

Stagville Rd put an end to my faux single-speed ride after 25 miles of the "course-proper."
32 miles including my ride to get to the ride.
I think I could have gotten up Stagville staying in the 39/15, but my legs would have been toast.
I used the gears for the rest of the ride.
But I did a LOT less shifting than I have traditionally done.

Near the bottom of the "ZOOM" down to Lake Michie, Snapper commented
"I really like this road.  But where is the beach?"
I pointed and said, "under the very full lake."

UP the Michie Wall. 
At the top, Ricochet and Lee seemed intent on collecting bonus miles. 
I decided to let them.
Perhaps Ricochet thought he was doing the Triple-L course.
After different starts, the 26 or so miles (until after the Michie Wall) are the same course.
There are only two decent and safe ways to get from north Raleigh to the north side of Falls Lake.
And there is only way, really, to get to Bahama.  Esp. if you're doing a rando-like course.
So ... the Bahama Beach route duplicates the beginning of the Triple-L.
(Byron and I have discussed this.  He is fine with it.  I am fine with it.
The only question is:  "will I ever make it into a rando permanent populaire?"
There are some extra life circumstances causing complications.)

Lee and then Robert realized they had missed the turn on to Ellis Chapel Rd.
A very nice road to cycle.
And rando Byron claims that it is his favorite road to cycle.
A bit on Cassam Rd, then onto Robert's Chapel Rd.
Robert's Chapel is even better cycling than Ellis Chapel -- that's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it.
A mile on Range Rd to get to the "incredibly tough Little Mountain Rd".
Well ... with a name like that ... you might expect it to be "incredibly tough."

Into Stem.  The "A&W Grocery and Grill" has been sold.
Apparently to the same guy that owns the "Pizza in Stovall" gas station / convenience store.

The fast guys were very fast on Brogden Rd.
I caught them once.  But was so foolish as to try to pass Snapper on an upslope.
Quickly off the back.
Robert and I decided to try to catch them.
Robert noted, "oh, no, they're taking turns now."
I sat up.  "Oh, well, Robert, we could take them on a 600."
His reply:  "Not on the menu, today."

The fast crew (Snapper, Mallet, Ags, IvaN) apparently cranked it from Creedmoor back to PUE.
The Mallet sent me the following note:

Nice social ride catching up with some irregulars whom I had not seen in a while - hopefully Paul ["Iceman"] will join a ride again soon as I missed catching up with him. 

IvaN, Harvey, Ags and I pacelined home from Creedmoor - actually from Stem but I got dropped on that section so I don't count it ;)  I think only IvaN had any power left by the time we got to PUE, but it was an excellent second half of the ride.  No clue what we averaged, but IvaN took us to 32 on a slight down slope and we were zipping along on flats with Harv or IvaN on the front.  I soft peddled home.

Everyone except "the Iceman" had made a second stop in Creedmoor because the stock at the Stem store was sooo low.  Paul "the Iceman" had continued straight through to Grissom. 

When I reached Grissom with Lee, Gary, Wendy and guest Donna, I saw the forlorn looking Iceman at the picnic table.  I decided to collect him.  He told me he had been sitting there when the fast crew rolled past -- he doubted they had even noticed him.  He was also sitting there when the "old guys crew" of Tito, IvaHawk, Dr. Phil and Ricochet had rolled past -- he doubted that they had noticed him.  (Open note to "Dr. Codfish":  IvaHawk (64), Tito (64 in two months), Phil (62 ?), Robert (62) -- none of them seem "old."  Why do you, at 62, think you are old?  Of course, that post isn't really about you and your age.  I just couldn't resist.)

I doubt that Lee (62) noticed the Iceman, either.  He headed for home as if the wind was at his back instead of in his face.

Iceman, Gary, Wendy, Donna and I regrouped and mostly stayed together on Bruce Garner / New Light.  More ungrouping and regrouping occured on the road.

Donna was surprised that we turned on to Ghoston Rd.  "How do you think we get our hill training in?  And, this is why our average pace always falls about 0.2 mph in the last five miles."
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Everyone reported a good time.
"Iceman" reported that his Garmin indicated approx 2920 feet of climbing.
Compare that to the "TrimbleOutdoors" estimate of approx 1940.
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May-28: 

---> PUE:  Bahama Beach ---> ; 81.9 m.; 5h,06m in-motion; 16.0 mph. 

Q-1 tot: _23 rides; _1822.2 m.; 123 hrs, 05 min; 14.8 mph.
Apr tot: __7 rides; __793.8 m.; _52 hrs, 28 min; 15.1 mph.
May tot: __6 rides; __737.8 m.; _49 hrs, 53 min; 14.8 mph.
YTD tot: _38 rides; _3353.8 m.; 219 hrs, 28 min; 14.9 mph.

Clearly, someone did some very poor updating of the above stats on recent posts.  :-o
I doubt I'll go back and fix the previous entries.

Also, after today's ride, my Eddington Cycling Number is 74. 
Meaning, I now have at least 74 rides that were at least 74 miles long.
I need four more rides that are at least 75 miles to get to  E  =  75 .

I was going to copy the definition from Wikipedia.
However, the Wiki definition is WRONGLY worded.
A correct definition would be:
The Eddington Cyucling Number in this context is defined as E,
 _the number of days a cyclist has cycled AT LEAST  E miles.  (the "more than" on Wiki is wrong).
 _