The remainder of August, I did several perm-pop rides, and also volunteered at the RUSA Birthday Brevets + Picnic. The rides of August were enjoyable; but I can recall little in the way of details; I probably couldn't have told another much in the way of details if I had spoken with someone the day after each ride. I guess one could assume that I did each ride "in the moment," enjoying each ride as it came. Not a bad way to do some bicycling about: "enjoy the moment," "enjoy the ride."
During the summer of 2018, I did quite a few "Raleigh - Berea - Raleigh" 109-km perm-pops. Most of them I started at 0430, 0500, 0530, or thereabouts. That meant at least an hour of riding in darkness. However, in the middle of the summer, the time in darkness was not quite an hour, which proved nice -- not so much because riding in daylight is better (which it probably is), but because the summer early daylight allowed me to watch the gradual construction of a couple houses / homes on Dove Rd. I could also see the houses / homes on the return legs (which were obviously always in daylight), but the dynamics of the terrain meant it was much easier to glance over at the houses-under-construction outbound while going up slight inclines than it was to look over those houses when rocketing down the return declines. That's my opinion, and I'll be sticking to it.
On a couple of the August perm-pops, I serendipitiously crossed paths with the same friend, and rode at least some together. On the August 12th "Bay Leaf - Oxford - Bay Leaf" 104-km ride, with pedaling along chatting with serendipity, Paul "the Mallet" caught up to us, and then slowed for a few minutes to chat, before he powered off with the intent of completing his 100-mile training ride before noon. I recall Paul mentioning that the 100-miler was his long-ride training for the upcoming August 18th Brevet.
The other perm-pop I did in August 2018 was the "Bahama Beach" 103-km 'free-route.' My first ever route, and one that has been quite popular over the years. Partially because, for quite a while, it was the only north of Raleigh perm-pop. Partially because there were several active RUSA members pursuing K-Hound awards that liked the route. Partially because "Bahama Beach" is a good half-day hill training exercise. And finally, partially because it is a nice ride.
Anyway, the only thing I recall from the August 22nd "Bahama Beach" ride is that IvaHawk #7702 expressed the desire to do the standard route instead of "winging-it" on one of the popular variants. IvaHawk wanted to keep the ride a bit shorter than any variant versions would have been, and the standard route has less climbing than the variant we would have done.
The above outlines the memories I do have of my August 2018 perm-pops. Other than I enjoyed my rides, that is. Although I recall next to nothing, the rides are noted in my Excel log (with almost no annotation) and of course the rides are recorded on the RUSA website: two rides on my "Oxford" route, one ride on my "Bahama Beach" route, and two rides on "Lynn's" "RBR" route.
| RUSA-T83518 | RUSAT | 104 | 2018/08/12 | NC: Bay Leaf - Oxford - Bay Leaf | 04:40 | ||
| RUSA-T83590 | RUSAT | 109 | 2018/08/17 | NC: Raleigh - Berea - Raleigh | 04:57 | ||
| RUSA-T83694 | RUSAT | 103 | 2018/08/22 | NC: Bahama Beach | 05:13 | ||
| RUSA-T83736 | RUSAT | 109 | 2018/08/25 | NC: Raleigh - Berea - Raleigh | 05:06 | ||
| RUSA-T83779 | RUSAT | 104 | 2018/08/26 | NC: Bay Leaf - Oxford - Bay Leaf | 04:38 |
August was an enjoyable month -- well, at least the perm-pops were enjoyable.
Did I mention that before?
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