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?