On Saturday, February 6, 2021, 04:01:41 PM EST, <skiffrun@yahoo.com> wrote:
Whopping 18.8-miles today.
Repeating roller climbing miles.
All in the 39/14 gearing.
[I pretty much needed to short the ride because I decided to NOT shift from the 39/14.]
IF I had used gears, or had ridden in the 39/15, I could easily have gone further, but ...
I was being a bit stubborn.
Actually, the 39/14 was not even a hint of a struggle -- although I did do a fair bit of just spinning / grinding on several climbs, e.g., the third climb outbound on Honeycutt Rd, Bay Leaf Ch Rd back up to Bay Leaf Ch from the lake -- until after I rather unwisely decided to include Deer Trail Rd in the mix.
Deer Trail gets steep before getting to the stop sign at Honeycutt -- I recall Lynn expressing how difficult / steep that was a year or two or three before she did her first rando ride in 2009. We used to do almost all our riding on the roads I've been "keeping" to since late July-2020.
Anyway, I thought I was fine, despite the speed having dipped to 5.4-mph on Deer Trail just before the stop sign (and 4.6-mph as I turned onto Honeycutt without actually stopping at the stop sign), once on the FLAT section of Honeycutt and then on the flat of Brassfield Rd, and was going to do some more rolling / hilly stuff, but then I realized that I had forgotten to bring my phone with me and I remembered that my last real ride was in mid-December and I want to be able to walk tomorrow, and whatever.
So I turned to take the 1.3-mile decline on Durant Rd to return to Honeycutt. The first mile or a bit more on Honeycutt is a climb, with varying percentage inclines of course -- and although I kept the pace up to a semi-reasonable one, I was tempted to shift to an easier gear, but I refused to do so.
Honeycutt on the southbound return flattens considerably once it gets to / crossed I-540, and suddenly it felt as if I was moving quite quickly -- a check of the confuser revealed 12+ mph. That was not the first time on the ride that I had experienced an apparent fast speed only to find that I was only going 12+ or 13+ mph.
However, Honeycutt's southbound flat is rather long and I may have been motivated by the slowness of the "fast" pace and suddenly I was going 14+, then 15+ -- I don't know if I made it to 16+, but if I did, it would have been just before cutting through the gas station at the corner of Honeycutt with Falls of the Neuse Rd (and after the gas station, it is almost all sidewalks to get back to my hovel.
Sheesh!
I was intending a simple three or four or five line / sentence summary, but suddenly found myself explaining and explaining and explaining.
18.8 miles -- 1h29 in-motion -- elapsed probably the same -- a whopping 12.6 avg mph pace.
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The route?
Honeycutt - Bay Leaf Ch down and up (but without the extra loop onto the side residential road) - Possum Track to the bottom -- back up to Lindley Rd to Shallowford (actually, I missed the turn onto Shallowford, but that only added a couple hundred yards as Lindley cul-de-sacs shortly after the intersection with Shallowford) - Shallowford to Pendelton to Hardee to Raven Ridge to Brassfield - straight on Deer Trail - right onto the flat section of Honeycutt - left on Brassfield - left on Durant - right on Honeycutt.
I think I'll draw a RWGPS track just to get a gross climbing estimate -- but I won't save the route.
To get an idea of what the course entailed, this RWGPS track is a longer version of what I did today:
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Anyway, training has renewed. I think.
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I conclude that I got in a decent workout.
Maybe?
Enjoy the ride,
...Martin
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