Oct-16: Leesville-Leasburg-Leesville 204 km Perm

Or, You Can See For Forever On A Severe-Clear Day 

Today would have been a great day for Dean to break in his Triple-L shoes.  [Phamous 10k Hound, headed for back-to-back 10k-Hound status (linking just for the clear pic), and he still hasn't ridden this hill fest known as "Leesviile-Leasburg-Leesville" ("L-L-L", or "Triple-L" -- even route-owner Byron is now referring to it as "Triple-L").]    

Today would have been a great day for Dean to break in his Triple-L shoes ... that is what I was thinking as I approached Leasburg, anticipating that the NW wind that had kicked up at about 10:15 as I approached Timberlake from Mt. Tirzah would provide a great tailwind for the homebound leg.  Then the wind changed! ... becoming a SW to S-SW wind.  Triple-L coming home, is mostly a "go south" affair ... headwind the entire way back.   

Regardless of the wind, it was a beautful, severe-clear day to ride ... unlimited clear views.  Hints of things turning color.    

As I approached Leasburg, anticipating a nice homebound tailwind, I even thought I might finish in 9h30.  That was not be.  I finished in 10h02.  However, that did best Irregular buddies Robert, JohnA, and route-owner Byron's time from last week by 6 minutes -- a little bit of bragging rights there vs. the Irregular buddies -- darn little actually since the best Triple-L times for Robert + JohnA are 9h58 in the HEAT -- and Robert had done Alan's picnic brevet the previous day in 7h46!  Sheesh!  [Fyi, all three -- Ricochet, JohnA and Byron can ride me off their wheel whenever they might chose to do so.]  

I had no legs to push-it-in and get under 10h00.  I tried as I really wanted to go sub-10; but no-go.  I think maybe that phamous Phun Physiologist article on using-it-or-losing-it may have come home to roost on me.  Only two 200k rides since Sep-01; not enough to keep the engine tuned for that distance. 
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A moment from the ride:   

0755 -- On Patterson Rd. -- PERFECT shadow for a "shadow panda" shot.  Unfortunately, no camera. 

There were other moments ... but none as memorable as the one mentioned immediately above.  
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Looking over the paperwork after the finish ... the cash registers at Hollow Ridge Grocery and Leasburg Grocery ... the time-stamps are even more inaccurate than last year.  Hollow Ridge is now off by 33 or 35 minutes instead of the 22 or 23 minutes it was last year.  Leasburg ... at 11:52 am, the cash register time-stamp indicates ... wait for it ... 1950 ... only off by 8 hours  :-O .   

The afternoon clerk at Hollow Ridge must have gotten confused.  She wrote that the time was 2:50 ... I know it was 2:03 pm when I re-mounted to leave the store.  :-o 
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It was a great day for a ride ... homecoming headwind notwithstanding.  I limited the off-the-bike time pretty well ... this was one of my slower in-motion efforts on Triple-L, but my fastest ever elapsed time.    

Did I mention that I was 6 minutes faster than Irregular buddies Ricochet Robert and JohnA were the week before?  Oh, I did.  Well, it is worth mentioning again.  :-)
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Oct-16:  Leesville-Leasburg-Leesville 204 km Permanen; 127.1 m.; 8h,54m in-motion; 14.3 mph; rando elapsed clock time:  10h02 - PR.  

Q-1 tot: _23 rides; _1822.2 m.; 123h,05m; 14.8 mph.
Q-2 tot: _30 rides; _2604.9 m.; 174h,22m; 14.9 mph.
Q-3 tot: _29 rides; _2479.2 m.; 161h,05m; 15.2 mph. 
Oct tot: __4 rides; __291.5 m.; _20h,00m; 14.6 mph. 
YTD tot: _84 rides; _7197.8 m.; 480h,32m; 15.0 mph.  

Assuming it gets approved ... this ride made R-15 for me.  (Also C-20.  M-32 was earlier in the month.)