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?