Finished.

Some of the 383 participants before the start.

I don't think you could have asked for a better day for a ride. Temperature starting in the mid 50's and rising to about 70 by the end, low humidity, air quality in the green, and not a cloud in they sky. The organizers told me that they were a little worried that 500 people might show up because the weather was so nice. They didn't get that, but it was still a record turn out by about 20 riders.

I started about in the middle of the group and started moving up. After maybe 10 miles, and passing what seemed like 70 or 80 riders, I had made it into a group of 10 or so that was going at a comfortable pace. Then, my chain came off. When I stopped to put it back on, everyone passed me again. I never made it back into a group, so I spent the rest of the ride by myself - I caught and passed a lot of other riders, but never found anyone going close to what I wanted to go.

At about mile 57 there was a point where, if you were on the 75 mile ride you could turn onto the end of the 40 mile loop and finish with a 60 mile ride instead. I felt OK, so I continued with the 75 miles. As I was deciding that, I somehow managed to turn my left foot so one of the rear wheel spokes caught the back of my shoe. Of course, this locked the rear wheel, and I slid to a stop. It also bent the spoke. I spun the wheel, and, sure enough, it was now out of true and rubbing the brake. Bending the spoke back a little gave the wheel enough clearance to stop rubbing, and off I went.

About 5 miles later I was starting to struggle. It didn't help that this last 17 miles included hills steeper than anything I had ridden in the past 4 years, and it was all into a headwind. It was really hard to keep going, and I figured I'd really screwed up my pace and didn't have enough left to finish. I did make it, though, although the last 10 miles were all in the small chainring. Total miles: 76.82 @ 16.7. My average up to when I bent the wheel was 17.7.

When I got home I discovered that the rear wheel had actually deformed even more and was making hard contact with the brake in two places. I wish had known that on the ride! That is probably the reason those last 17 miles were so tough to complete.

My legs are beat today, but I did enjoy the ride. Now, I have to go true my wheel.

Goal

Well, it didn't really matter if the last ride fulfilled the 18 mph goal; Tuesday's did. 33.17 miles @ 18.0, and it was on one of my harder routes. So, now I have to set a new one. Tuesday's ride even met the ride to work criteria, as I stopped off at CK and checked on a job that was running.

Tomorrow is the 75 mile ride. I think I'm ready, although Tuesdays ride was the only one since last Saturday. The weathers been uncooperative. I guess as a rest week, this qualifies pretty well. It's supposed to be 78° and sunny tomorrow, although it's going to start out around 50° so I'll probably freeze at the start.

Does It Count?

One of my "why not, might as well try" goals for the year was to ride 30 miles and average 18 mph. Well, yesterday. at 36 miles I had exactly an 18 mph average. But.... I was 2 miles from the end of my ride. Those last 2 miles were mostly uphill into a 15 mph headwind, so the ride ended with a 17.8 average. That's what gets recorded into the training log. Does it count as an accomplished goal, anyway? Does it matter? Maybe the goal gets changed now to get one of that distance - or longer that I can record.

Next Saturday is the Tour De Lions 75 mile ride. I think I'm ready, I rode 65 miles on the 3rd and felt pretty good after. I skipped last Thursday's ride because of the impending storms, we ended up in the path of a Doppler indicated tornado, but the storm fell apart before it got to Liberty. Greensboro wasn't so lucky. We've been under another tornado watch most of today, so I didn't go out- the storms pop up so fast. I did drive into town this morning, it was raining and the wind was probably 25 mph, and I saw a group of about 15 cyclists battling it to get a ride in. I almost felt a little guilty - almost.

I watched the Giro on Versus today - now I have to wait until next Sunday to see what happens this week. Too bad about Dave Zabriskie, hope for a quick recovery. His loss will hurt Slipstream a lot.

Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day.

To ride or not to...

Twice a year one of the biggest antique festivals on the east coast takes place right here in Liberty. The spring version is today and tomorrow. It has expanded so much that there are mini festivals and flea markets all along the surrounding roads and almost everyone has a yard sale (except me - I threaten to , but I'm too lazy to drag the stuff out of the house). This leads to much traffic with not much attention being paid to anything on the road. Even last night when I went for my ride the traffic was heavy - mostly with incoming vendors, I guess, and they sure were not shy about seeing how close they could get to someone on a bike. I may skip tomorrow - I hate to miss a Saturday, but it's not the kind of traffic I feel comfortable playing in.

I had to work in High Point again yesterday, this time doing more fun IT stuff instead of just running cable. I didn't get out for my ride until almost 6:30. It was about 78 degrees with no wind, the most perfect conditions yet this year. I got in 20 miles at 18 mph. Oh, Tuesday's ride was 27.5 @ 17.3, and I got rained on again, but Wednesday I WASHED MY BIKE - that is a first, for any bike I've ever owned.

Different Stuff

For those of us that believe that real race cars don't have FENDERS, the past month has been one good thing after another. First, the two competing U.S. open wheel series finally unite. Then they make headlines when Graham Rahal becomes the youngest driver to win a major open wheel race in the U.S., in his very first start, followed, of course, by Danica Patrick becoming the first woman to win a major open wheel race - anywhere. I hope they get some mileage out of this and open wheel racing can become relevant again. You can't by positive publicity like this.

Now, if only there were some decent bike racing coverage...

3 Quarts Low

Being a good bike trainee, I consistently weigh myself before and after each ride to see how the hydration thing is going. I think I stared it because in the summer a lot of my rides are in the evening with temps above 90, and high humidity. Today's ride started with the temp at 57, and ended at 77. Not exactly hot. I rode 60.79 miles and averaged 17.3, and when I got home, I found I'd lost 4 pounds - that's 2 quarts. During the ride I drank 40 ounces of Gatorade, and 20 ounces of water. Not enough. I mowed the lawn after the ride (push mower), and decided to weigh myself after that, and discovered I was down another 2 pounds.

That 60 mile ride was the longest I've been on since the beginning of September, 2006. Since I'm hoping to do the 75 mile ride on May 19, I need to get the miles up. I am not sure I could have done another 15 today. I've still got some time to get better, though. Tomorrow, though will just be an easy 30 or 40 miles.

The jury is no longer out on the seat that came on the new bike. It's not great, but its light years better than the one I was using on the other bike.

4.5 Short.

A perfect day for an after work ride. 76 degrees, sunshine, and almost no wind. I had to work in High Point today(at least I got to take the motorcycle), so I didn't get out until exactly 6:00, which is about 40 minutes later than if I work in Liberty. That was too bad, since one of my goals for the year is to do 30 miles at an average of 18 mph. Tonight's ride ended up being 25.5 miles with an average of 18.2. If I'd gone for the last 4.5 miles it would have been getting dark by the time I got home, so I stopped. Maybe next time. It's fun to go fast.