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05-20-08, 05:55 PM
Today was gorgeous out, and I couldn't stand the thought of spending the afternoon at my desk reading papers, so I threw on some shorts and a tee, grabbed my shades and tunes, and hit the road. Into the wind seemed like the right way to start, and then I found myself passing near a local bit of singletrack that I'd never been through but heard good things about, so I decided to go for it. Lots of very tight trees (tough on a big man), some stream crossings, and then once I started hitting a few swampy bits I decided that it's best not to try going deeper on my 26x1.25 slicks (I'll go back sometime on knobbies and see what I can do). Some mupping to the only real hill in the area, and then a quick climb and a fun descent :)
Decided that I'm still feeling great, so headed away from home instead of towards, reached down for a drink, and realized that I must have lost my bottle in the woods. I did grab a bottle of gatorade and a chocolate bar for fuel at about the 15km mark, and then drained both of those pretty quickly. The best part of the ride was up next, a fast run down a riverfront MUP with the wind at my back, and then I decided that I enjoyed it so much that I would head back along the river for another downwind run :D
Midway through the second run I must have hit some tiny bit of sharp debris because I flatted, and then had to walk my bike a couple km's to the nearest gas station (time to invest in a frame pump) to change out tubes.
Decided that I had had enough of the frustration of walking the bike instead of riding it, and headed home. But once I got close, I checked my distance and I was so close to the 50km mark that I decided to take a trip through the woods nearest my place, and a quick trip around my subdivision, to make it over.
Final tally:
Ride Time - 2:45
Distance - 53km (19 km / h average)
Average Cadence - A clydeworthy 67
Losses - 1 tube, 1 water bottle
I'm sure that my average would have come up quite a bit if I hadn't done a few km of slow singletrack, and if I had paid attention to proper nutrition and hydration, but it's making me feel good that I can make my goal of a century by the end of summer.
Thanks to everyone on this forum for making me take my cycling just a little more seriously (is there such a thing as serious fun?). I probably would only have done 20km a couple months ago.
Decided that I'm still feeling great, so headed away from home instead of towards, reached down for a drink, and realized that I must have lost my bottle in the woods. I did grab a bottle of gatorade and a chocolate bar for fuel at about the 15km mark, and then drained both of those pretty quickly. The best part of the ride was up next, a fast run down a riverfront MUP with the wind at my back, and then I decided that I enjoyed it so much that I would head back along the river for another downwind run :D
Midway through the second run I must have hit some tiny bit of sharp debris because I flatted, and then had to walk my bike a couple km's to the nearest gas station (time to invest in a frame pump) to change out tubes.
Decided that I had had enough of the frustration of walking the bike instead of riding it, and headed home. But once I got close, I checked my distance and I was so close to the 50km mark that I decided to take a trip through the woods nearest my place, and a quick trip around my subdivision, to make it over.
Final tally:
Ride Time - 2:45
Distance - 53km (19 km / h average)
Average Cadence - A clydeworthy 67
Losses - 1 tube, 1 water bottle
I'm sure that my average would have come up quite a bit if I hadn't done a few km of slow singletrack, and if I had paid attention to proper nutrition and hydration, but it's making me feel good that I can make my goal of a century by the end of summer.
Thanks to everyone on this forum for making me take my cycling just a little more seriously (is there such a thing as serious fun?). I probably would only have done 20km a couple months ago.