Apr-08: Tour de Wood Valley (and More)

The plan was to meet IvaHawk at 1:30 pm at the Bay Leaf CVS. 

But I was a bit behind schedule, and receiving multiple texts, 

Which I thought were from an impatient Hawk,

So instead of the intended Honeycutt - Durant - Coachman's neighborhood - Norwood routing 

To get the CVS, I took Durant to Six Forks to Mt. Vernon Ch to Norwood to the CVS. 

That cut a mile or more from my commute.   

Even so, it was nearly 1:40 as I approached the CVS and discovered the Hawk riding toward me. 

He had concluded that I might have mistakenly gone to PUE instead of the CVS, 

Had sent me one text indicating that he was heading to PUE, and had just started that short trip. 

 

Seeing Iva, I call out, "let's go west on Norwood." 

Iva reversed his course; we got through the stop-light at Creedmoor Rd, and started our ride. 

 

I asked if Iva if he would be interested in riding past his former home. 

That became the initial plan. 

Turn onto Macon Rd and then the east end of Wood Valley Dr and onto Blossom Hill Ct.  

 

Drifting along on Blossom Hill Ct., Iva pointed to the wrong house. 

I remarked, "that doesn't seem right, Iva.  I thought your driveway was opposite that other road." 

"Oh," exclaimed Iva, "I pointed out the neighbor's house." 

[That's not exactly how that moment transpired, but reflects the actual event.] 

 

We took Evergreen Chase Way, the road opposite the aforementioned driveway, 

Back to Wood Valley Drive, where we made a right turn to complete the "Tour de Wood Valley." 

[This wasn't the first "Irregulars" "Tour de Wood Valley" ride. 

The first was more interesting than the ride this post is about. 

However, much of the interesting stuff from that 2009 ride is NOT in the blog post.] 

 

After completing the "Tour," we "wiggled" from Wood Valley Dr.onto Victory Church Rd. 

 

Local randonneurs that have ridden the old "Leesville-Leasburg-Leesville" perm 

Might recognize that "wiggle," which outbound, comes just after Boxelder Dr, or 

Conversely, inbound, the reverse "wiggle" comes just before Boxelder with its steepest bit of L-L-L. 

[RWGPS does not indicate that the steepest climb is on Boxelder, but 

After 123-miles, it certainly seems like it is the steepest bit of Triple-L, and 

Boxelder is the ONLY part of Triple-L that I have ever walked up! 

If one zooms in on Boxelder Dr, RWGPS does indicate a 5.3% incline at mile 123.05.] 

 

Victory Church Rd becomes Kemp Rd at the county line. 

The climb on Kemp to get up to Carpenter Pond Rd, 

Which traverses the crest of a ridge at that point, is a non-trivial climb, and 

I was concentrating on pedaling when Iva exclaimed, "look at that pollen cloud at the stop-sign!" 

 

As I coasted into the stop-sign amidst the pollen cloud, 

I looked to the left (since we would be turning that direction on Carpenter Pond Rd), and 

It was my turn to exclaim, "Iva, LOOK at that cloud which we are about to ride into!!" 

 

That turned out to be the last heavy cloud of pollen on the day. 

But there was always yellow pine pollen floating or blowing about. 

Eventually, the pollen got to Iva (and perhaps a little to me, too). 

 

Gonna' short-cut this post by copying in some text from an email I sent to the "Irregulars": 

A little over 9 years ago, I wrote this: ( https://irregularveloadventures.blogspot.com/2012/03/yellow.html ). 
And 13 months later, I posted that to Facebook (on April 8, 2013). 

I had completely forgotten about the original post until FB popped up the "memory from 8 years before". 

Yesterday, April 8th, 2021, Iva and I did a early/mid-afternoon ride, starting from the Bay Leaf CVS, and riding Norwood, Vct Ch/Kemp Rd, Carpenter Pond and Leesville roads to Panoramic, where we turned around and reversed the route back to the CVS. Iva wanted a few more miles, so we took Norwood to Mt Vernon Ch Rd, which we took down and up to turn around at Peed Rd, where we again reversed to go back to the CVS.

Early in the ride, on Kemp Rd approaching Carpenter Pond, Iva remarked, "do you see that pollen cloud ahead?" 
It was palpable. 

Upon reaching the stop-sign and looking left in anticipation of our turn, I said, "Iva, LOOK at that cloud we are about to ride into!" 

It was an enjoyable ride -- IF one could ignore the pollen, which did get to Iva's eyes and to a lesser degree, mine, too. 


Actually, what I wrote 9 years ago is an apt description of our ride yesterday: 

"YELLOW 

EVERYTHING in central North Carolina is YELLOW, now. 

The cars, the buildings, the trees, the grass, the air, the roads. All YELLOW. 
The surfaces of quiet ponds and ... of the backwaters of the lakes. All YELLOW. 
The surfaces of the water reservoirs. YELLOW. 

As one rides their bicycle down the road, 
The center-line of the tyres become YELLOW. 
White skull-caps become YELLOW. 
Black ones, too. 

YELLOW because of the pine pollen. 

All food has only one taste right now. 
You got it -- YELLOW. 
Yellow pine pollen. 

Come back from a bike ride, 
All one can taste is the yellow pollen. 
All one can smell -- if not "stopped up" -- is the yellow pollen."

 

 

Some ride stats (mine): 

• -> Honey-Durant-MVC -> CVS:  Norwd-Kemp-CP-Panoramic-CVS -> Coachman's -> 
• ride w/ IvaHawk @~1340, CVS to Panoramic & MVC to/Peed and back to the CVS 
• 40.5-miles  --   3:04 in-motion  --  13.2-mph avg pace 

Fin. 

Apr-04: Baptist Rd + Panoramic Drive

My intent was to do the same ride I did in late November.  

Except that in November, I used only one gear, the 39/14, and

For this ride, I purposefully intended to use as many different gears as felt appropriate. 

 

All was going well until when climbing the shallow incline of Virgil Rd, 

I suddenly had the thought, "why / how am I on Virgil Rd?  For this route, I should only be on Virgil once." 

 

Giving the matter some deep thought, I realized that at the 36.7-mile-mark of the "pseudo route" map 

Linked to from within the November blog post, I had turned right instead of left. 

 

More deep reflection and I realized why I had turned right when I intended to go left. 

On March 27th, I had ridden with the TLC group on a route that began similarly, but 

After breaking off from that group, I had turned right onto Kemp to get immediately to Virgil. 

So, when just clipping along, my mind apparently reverted to the most recent Southview to Kemp experience. 

 

So ... riding up Virgil, thinking I had messed up the potential to get in a 100k ride, I cooked up a new plan: 

• ride up Virgil, 
• turn right on Carpenter Pond to Leesville Rd, 
• take Leesville all the way to Panoramic Drive, 
• U-turn at Panoramic, then retrace Leesville to Carpenter Pond to Mt Vernon Ch Rd, then 
• Norwood to Six Forks Rd (the flatter way, but with significantly more traffic), to 
• Strickland Rd and back to my abode. 

That routing from Panoramic back to my abode would reduce the total climbing, but 

I would press the pace (as a "pretend training exercise"). 

 

The result would be my longest ride of the year so far:  59.8-miles. 

[Obviously, I could have easily gotten to 100-kms or more, but ... .] 

 

The ride would also become my fastest in-motion ride of the year so far:  15.0-mph. 

[ 3:59 in-motion over 4h03 elapse -- so you understand there was no stopping for photos, 

Nor for anything else EXCEPT the stop-lights on Six Forks Rd.] 

 

All in all, an excellent ride, that I started at 1149, and rode in 70+ F temperatures. 

Fast, for me, 

Long, for now, 

Warm. 

How much better a solo ride can one expect?

Apr-03: Possum Track + Deer Trail

I waited until the afternoon to ride.  Actually didn't get around to riding until later than I intended, but hey, at least it was 57 degrees, or supposedly so, when I rode. 

Turned out 57 degrees felt chillier than I expected.  I was wearing a long-sleeved jersey the origin of which I don’t know.  Anyway, wherever the black jersey with the full length zip came from, it seemed like it would be plenty warm, so I dispensed with any other arm coverings.  I did wear a short-sleeved jersey from a circa 2008 MS-150 ride over the black long-sleeved jersey.  To get to the point, my arms and shoulders were chilly from the get-go, and never felt as if they were warming up.  

IF I had been doing a 100k perm-pop, I probably would have finished the 100k.  IF I were doing a 200, again I probably would have completed that ride.  But I was only intending to do a 30 mile ride with a lot of repeat climbing near the south side of Falls Lake.  After about 7 or 8 miles, I decided that I would short the ride, but would "work" the shortened ride harder than if I were doing a 200k, or a 100k, or even a 30-miler. 

Btw, instead of staying only in the 39/14 gearing, while on a false-flat downslope at about the 5.5-mile mark. I decided I would use multiple gears on the ride.  Ha!  I ended up only using two gears during the ride:  (1) the 39/14 for the first and last mile of the ride and for all the inclines, and (2) 50/14 for downslopes and the few flat-tish portions of the route. 

Net result?  19.0-miles in 1:19 in-motion.  That works out to 14.3-mph average, which is the fastest ride I have done so far this year.  

Assuming 5m00sec for the first mile and last mile (almost all of which were on sidewalks), the 17.0 miles that made up the core of the ride was done at an average of approximately 14.7-mph -- I reckon that is pretty good given the climbing I did -- and I should acknowledge that there was 1.5-miles on the flat Brassfield Rd followed by 1.2-miles of gentle downslope on Durant Rd near the end of the ride -- those two sections obviously contributed to a significant increase in the avg pace of the ride, but hey ... fastest avg pace so far this year. 

My legs were a bit stiff a couple hours later, and that lasted until after I took a "nap" starting just after 8 pm Saturday night.  I am typing this at [now 12:50 am Easter morning -- yes, just after midnight] because I woke up a few minutes after twelve midnight needing to pee -- what does one expect when one retired for the night hours earlier than usual without one's evening discharge of bodily fluids?