After the roads dried out from the overnight and morning drizzles, I did sneak in a short ride late in the afternoon. Delayed afternoon start even more because I noticed that my phone was almost out of juice. Started riding at about 2:55 pm, intending to ride about 30 miles and finish around 5:15 pm. [A 30-ish mile ride would have looked something akin to this from the other day.]
However, almost from the first, I recall it was on Durant Rd, so between 2.0 and 3.4 miles into the ride. I felt the occasional water droplets alighting on my knees, so I became amenable to something shorter, and if I was going to go shorter, I should "attack" the ride with more gusto.
Similar to that shown in the above-linked GPS route, I did ride down Bay Leaf Ch Rd all the way to the lake (or rather to where the gate is across the road), and then rode thru the neighborhood off the west side of BLC Rd. However, while descending Possum Track, the occasional water droplets became a mist, and then a heavier mist; then, as I transited the finger of the lake that Possum Track crosses, I could see the rain drops splashing on the lake and thought, "oh, it is going to actually rain; I definitely better cut this short and head for [the barn]." So I turned onto Raven Ridge to head to Brassfield, Durant, Honeycutt and then on in via the sidewalks.
When I turned onto Raven Ridge, I was averaging 15-mph, but the incline on Raven Ridge (which is not all that steep, but does keep going and going), put me at least a minute behind 15-mph pace. Flat-tish Brassfield and downslope on Durant got some of that back. But, then, on the steep part of Honeycutt (near the bottom), I lost momentum and cadence and pace. In-motion pace dropped to 7-mph (or maybe slightly less) and, combined with the sidewalk riding and navigating a car or two blocking said sidewalks while they waited for traffic on the road cleared them by, I ended up two minutes over the time that would have meant a 15-mph avg pace for the entire 16.6+ miles rather hilly ride.
I can't avg near that pace for 40 or 60 miles, but shorter rides are the time to practice speed, right?
Oh, stayed in the 39/14 gearing the entire ride today (and also did that on the ride shown in the GPS linked route). [Earlier this year, I did some similar rides staying in the 39/15 all ride, but 39/14 always seemed too hard. I don't understand how the 39/14 could have felt more-or-less almost comfortable the last two rides, because I haven't been cycling about enough to get into reasonable enough shape that might make 39/14 logical.]
So, yes, a boring / annoying ride report.
No comments:
Post a Comment