Oct-05: Denny's Burros Sortie

NO wind or breeze early on.

Falls Lake, about 10-miles into the ride.  In person, this looked a lot better.

I was riding well.  Maintaining a good pace.

I stopped to get a pic of the "Range Wall" -- this photo taken at about the 21.2-mile mark of the route (click-here for RWGPS map).  Photos never show a climb to best effect.  The climb you can see is only about 140 or 150 feet of elevation gain; however, there is a bit more that you can't see.  And when that ends ... the route climbs another 200 feet or so mostly via false-flats to Moriah, and then climbs some more to Mt. Harmony Baptist Ch.  Sometimes, it seems the climbing during the first half of the route never ends.  Today, however, I covered almost all that distance and climbing in the 50/15 gearing, and it was easy.  Or so it seemed.

The old tobacco barn valley and hillside (about 31-miles into the ride) is one of my favorite vistas on this route.  Although this photo sucks, the scene, in person, was not very interesting today, either.  I think this vista looks best in March and April, when everything is all "Spring Green." 

I arrived at the first intermediate control, at the Allensville Store, 2-hours, 51-minutes after starting.  I think that is the quickest I've gotten to that control.


I didn't take a photo, but I was pleased to see the flag at Denny Cemetery -- it was a semi-happy flag, and the breeze was from the WNW.  That made me happy because I was anticipating combining the no-breeze outbound with a tailwind homebound.

I spotted the burros about a mile north of Berea.  They were quite skittish, and moved away from the location, beneath a copse of woods alongside the road, to the location you see here.  Unfortunately, the bright sunshine flooded the upper half of the photo.  This cropped version isn't too bad. 

I kept the quick pace all the way to Berea.  I was sure that a sub-6-hour was in the cards.

But a funny thing happened when I completed the de tour and turned onto Culbreth Rd.  Despite what the flag at Denny Cemetery had shown, and despite what another flag or two near the Culbreth crossroads indicated,, loose leaves on the roadway were being blown directly AT me.  Darn!

My legs started to bother me.  Both quads suddenly felt quite fatigued.
I geared down, and backed off the effort.
My confuser doesn't work, but I estimate that I went from 16-20 mph to 12.
Ugh!

The only good thing I can think of regarding the rest of the ride is this:  AFTER I backed off the effort, my legs did seem to recover, and near Creedmoor (just after, if I recall correctly), there was no longer any ache in the quads, or elsewhere in my legs.

However, there was no "giddy-up" in them, either.

So ... I brought the ride into the finish, happy to have been on the bike on a beautiful day., but disappointed that I had not been able to deliver the sub-6-hour-tour.
====================================================
Oct-05: 

--> Denny's Store Sortie 138k Perm-Pop -->; 108.7 m.;  7h19 in-motion; 14.8 mph.
 - pre-ride commute:  9.0 m.;  0h35 in-motion; 15.4 mph.
 - - DSS:  87.6 m.;  5h51 in-motion; 14.8 mph; DSS elapsed time:  6h17.
 - - - post-ride commute:  12.1 m.;  0h53 in-motion; 13.7 mph.

Q-1 tot: _11 rides; _940.3 m; _64h42; 14.5 mph; 1275 RUSA kms.
Q-2 tot: _18 rides; 2293.9 m; 158h18; 14.5 mph; 3142 RUSA kms.
Q-3 tot: _19 rides; 2027.8 m; 134h34; 15.1 mph; 2383 RUSA kms. 
Oct tot: __1 rides; _108.7 m; __7h19; 14.8 mph; _138 RUSA kms. 
YTD tot: _49 rides; 5370.7 m; 364h56; 14.7 mph; 6938 RUSA kms. 
 
P-22, i.e., 22 consecutive months with at least one qualifying RUSA populaire.  
M-56, i.e., 56 consecutive months with at least one ride that was at least a Metric century.  
C-44, i.e., 44 consecutive months with at least one ride that was at least 100-miles long. 

I am too wiped out after today's ride to contemplate a solo 200 tomorrow.  
I'm volunteering next weekend at the Taste of Carolina 1200.  
The weekend after that, I'm house (and more importantly) dog-sitting.  
That leaves only the last weekend of the month to find an R-ride this month. 
Time squeeze?