Apr-17: Raleigh Region 200 Pre-Ride

So ... I had a good "training" ride on the 10th, 

But I didn't ride anything the next day??? 

[That may have been because during the ride on the 10th, 

My hands hurt, my butt bothered me, and I got hot-foot / feet for the the first time in ... a long time.] 

 

Most every day between the 10th and the 17th would have been 

A good day for a short (25 - 30 miles) ride, but
The only rides I did were a couple errand rides
[But at least I did those 8.3-miles in 39/13 gearing and standing the entire distance]. 

 

Part of the reason for not doing any rides AFTER the afternoons of the 13th + 14th 

Was that my friend Bob contacted me to ask if I would be interested in doing a pre-ride 

Of the upcoming brevet (because Bob was going to be out of town on the 24th). 

 

So ... change of plans. 

No additional "worthy" training rides. 

It would be straight into the frying pan. 

 

Commute to the Ride  

 

As usual when I cycle-commute to the brevets that start in Morrisville, 

The plan was to take it easy, expending "no energy" on the commute. 

"Recently," several of the commutes have turned into adventures themselves: 

• click here for the most adventuresome commute -- scroll down to the commute section. 

From the first pedal-stroke of the commute, approx 5:15 am (maybe 5:20 am ?), 

I was perplexed and disappointed by the amount of light coming from my headlamp. 

I was concerned the lamp had gone into a failure mode. 

I knew it was fully charged (rechargeable battery via USB connection). 

 

Luckily, my usual commute to Morrisville from north Raleigh 

Is primarily (exclusively) on city streets / roads with decent street lighting. 

However, about 7-miles into the commute, just after I had crossed Glenwood Ave, 

I realized why the lighting from the headlamp appeared to be sooo dim. 

I HAD MY CYCLING GOGGLES / SUNGLASSES ON !!! 

As soon as I took them off, everything became much more visible. 

 

I completed the 19.6-mile commute in 1:24 in-motion equating to an avg of 13.9-mph. 

Bob was at Alan's putting the finishing touches on prepping his bike (and himself). 

Alan appeared and (under pandemic protocol) accepted the waivers that we had printed. 

[We had also printed our own cue sheets and brevet control cards to limit interaction with Alan.] 

 

Bob and I may have left on time (at 0700), but I think we were actually a few minutes late. 

Bob and at least one of the bikes at the start.

 

The Brevet 

  

 

Outbound 

 

In the prelude, I mentioned "straight into the frying pan" -- but that is a misplaced metaphor. 

I had "The Weather Channel" on the TV while I was getting ready to ride. 

TWC indicated that the temp in Raleigh was 47 or 48 F. 

I chose my old, old knit cotton long-fingered running gloves under my short-fingered cycling gloves. 

During the commute, my hands and fingers had gotten chillier than I preferred. 

THAT got worse early in the brevet ride. 

 

My hands were cold and hurting and I was changing my hand position every few seconds. 

Luckily, just as we reached Falls Lake, I needed a natural break. 

Bob held my bike as I found a discrete place to do my task. 

And when I returned to my steed, put on the two pairs of gloves, 

And started riding again, my hands were warm!  

 

I commented on the phenomenon to Bob -- he indicated that he was having the same experiences. 

[I later learned that the actual low temp that morning in Raleigh was 42F -- 

I reckon that there is a big difference between 47 / 48 versus 42. 

IF the Weather Channel had indicated 42, I would have chosen a different pair of long-fingers. 

Here is a kicker -- comparing TWC to the local TV stations, 

TWC always reported a low temp this past Spring and Summer 2 to 5 degrees higher than the TV!] 

 

Eventually, somewhere on the outbound, I don't recall where, 

Bob and removed some of our chilly-weather kit. 

Snow Camp outbound control.

 

Nothing much happened on the outbound leg until: 

• about 4 miles before reaching the Siler City control / turn-around, me leading, an unseen bug or piece of dirt zipped under / around the bottom the of the cycling goggles / sunglasses, and zoomed up between my left eyelid and eye. 
• I immediately uttered one work.  Either "dang" or "darn" -- Bob might know for sure.  But one thing I do know about myself:  when something actually bad happens, I don't use any cuss words (but I acknowledge that I sometimes let out a few when the "bad" thing isn't actually serious -- what kind of personality flaw is that?) 
• I pulled over onto a convenient side-road; Bob followed and inquired as to what had happened.  I'm pretty sure that I wasn't all that responsive. 
• I tried to flush my left eye with water from one of my water bottles.  You might know what happens when your right hand tries to surprise the left eye with a sudden squirt of water.  The left eye knows and reacts by closing before the water reaches the open eye.  I was not able to flush the eye. 
• OR, if I did manage to flush the eye, the eyeball was already scratched (and painful). 
• I rode most of the remaining way to Siler City with my left eye closed.  I did manage to open that eye the last mile or so -- I figured things were improving / would improve. 
• At the Siler City control, I again tried to flush my left eye.  Not successful. 

Siler City.  Bob in the background.  My steed making an appearance in the lower right corner.  --  Also, given what Bob is still wearing, maybe we did NOT remove any clothing on the outbound leg.

Inbound 

I choose to finish this blog post by copying in the pre-ride report that I sent to the NC-rando-list-serve: 

 

The following may seem long, but it should be a quick read, and the contents of the post scripts have been noted previously either here on the list-serve or on Facebook, and Alan may repeat similar instructions in the next day or two, but I think it is worth repeating the information. 


BobB has a LIFE conflict re the 24th, so he inquired if I would be interested in joining him for a pre-ride on the 17th.  I said yes, and then we contacted Alan who agreed to same. 


One amusing item before the ride-proper and the associated report.  I pushed off from my sleep quarters at about 5:25 am for the approx 20-mile cycle-commute to the ride start.  You'll understand that it was quite dark.  I was disappointed with the lack of illumination coming from my headlight, but even on the low setting, which is what I have always used in non-mountain situations, I could see the road / street surfaces well enough to avoid debris, etc..  I'm riding along, just over 30-minutes into my soft-pedal commute, when it suddenly dawned on me that the reason the headlight appeared to be so dim was that I had my tinted cycling goggles on!  I took them off and suddenly everything was much clearer and better lit! 


On to the report, which will be entirely about road conditions, with just one exception: 

1.  Bob and I encountered no free-range dawgs anywhere along the route!  (I did, however, notice there was a warning about Free Range Eggs at one spot -- no eggs came out to chase us.) 

2.  The first thing to be aware of / prepared for, you will notice even before you arrive at the start location (see Alan's website if you don't know where that is -- either the page with the directions or the RWGPS map should ID said place), is the road construction and hazard barrels just outside Morrisville Square.  Bob and I started our ride at 7 am and found it easy enough to ride through as there was no car traffic that I can recall -- although I'm confident there was likely more than zero vehicles. 

3.  Castle Rock Farm Rd, the chip-seal section is as it has been since the beginning of time -- the last eleven years , anyway.  Instant drop of ~ 2 mph in pace for the same effort.  There were two notable inadequately filled-in potholes along the first "half" of that chip-seal -- they were easy to skirt around, and I do suggest that you do the same. 

4.  Still on Castle Rock Farm Rd, there is one 20 or 30 foot section of the westbound (outbound) lane that is a patch-work quilt of pot-holes.  I don't recall how I got around them -- probably by sliding over to the double-yellow -- Bob apparently followed my line. 

5.  Old Switchboard Rd -- Veteran riders will recall that the surface of the road as one approaches the stop-sign at and turn onto Lindley Mill Rd has been sliding down the slope, leaving annoying holes in the surface. GOOD NEWS!!  There has been significant well-done patching on that downslope and the surface down to the stop-sign is smooth! 

6.  Lindley Mill Rd.  Immediately after the turn onto Lindley Mill, one encounters the first of the two bridges on that road.  That first bridge has (what I deemed) some significant gaps at the abutments -- I got out of the saddle to help my steed and its wheels better deal with gaps. 

7.  LONG-time veterans will recall that in 2010 (and prior), Siler City - Snow Camp Rd was rather rough -- I recall that it was infested with Tar Snakes.  Then, unexpectedly for 2011, the road was re-surfaced and we had many seasons of smooth riding.  However, the Tar Snakes have now returned.  As double-L might say: "Ugh." 

About 5 miles before reaching the Siler City control / turn-around, some tiny thing came in under / around my now appropriately in-place goggle and zipped straight into my left eye, under the eyelid.  I ended up riding the last 70-miles of the route with my left eye closed.  After that incident, I did not look around at any scenery, and I was likely not the best of company.  I concentrated on the road and pedaling -- our avg pace for the entire ride slowly crept up all during the return leg. 

8.  Lindley Mill Rd (on the return).  These are the only things I noticed on the return leg.  First, immediately after passing the large, blue grain silos at Lindley Mill Farm (?), the bridge is worthy of attention and careful choosing of your line.  There were chunks of surface missing next to the abutments.  I do not recall noticing a similar situation outbound -- perhaps only the southbound lane is affected?  Second, I don't really recall the second inbound bridge just before the turn onto Old Swithboro Rd, but I'm rather sure that I stood to cross that bridge just as I had done when outbound. 

9.  Castle Rock Farm Rd -- the aforementioned patchwork quilt area.  I recall noticing the outbound quilt while riding a smooth surface in the inbound lane -- well, what passes for smooth on that road. 

Finally, there were many small potholes scattered along the route.  Each was dry and had no debris surrounding it (on our journey).  Most of those potholes seemed to be in-line with where a cyclist would likely be riding their steed.  Keep your eyes open and stay aware and you should have no problems with those small potholes, nor with any other less than perfect road conditions. 

Yes, although I rode 70 miles with one eye closed -- my stronger eye, btw -- I did just type "keep your eyes open." 

 

To the above, I add two photos 

Snow Camp inbound.

Back at the finish.  Bob, parts of both steeds, and "someone's" front door captured.  Alan appeared a minute or so later to collect our signed cards.

 

I also note that the ride back, with the eye closed, and me not letting Bob lead for even one minute, was faster, both in-motion and elapsed time, than the outbound ride.  I guess that I was concentrating on the riding / pedaling to help block the pain in my left eye and that led to keeping the cadence, etc. effort at a higher level. 

 

The above is my story for this ride, and I reckon I'll be sticking to it.