One of the reasons for the short fast ride is that I wanted to get home to be able to watch the final day at the Tour de France on television. The overall results are pretty well determined with Alberto Contador being the overall winner. But the Green Jersey sprint competition is still very close and will be decided today in Paris. I’m thinking it should be an exciting finish today. But the first half of the stage will likely be more like a parade or procession. The riders will joke around with the cameras. Contador’s team, Astana, will likely bring out little plastic cups with champagne or sparkling wine and the riders will mug for the cameras. As they get closer to Paris the pace will increase until they are finally on the Champs-Élysées, at which time they will do multiple laps up and down at incredibly high speeds that will make my 17 mph average look really pathetic.

Marcella and I have a sort of tradition on the final day of the Tour. We get some brie and a baguette, some fresh fruit and berries, some champagne, and we have our own little Tour de France party. By the end of the race I’ll probably need rest pretty severely.

One last note, there’s about 60 days until the Tour to Tanglewood. This is an event I participate in. Please go here to learn more about why I ride and how you can support me at this year’s Tour to Tanglewood.

Ultimately I managed 70.5 miles of riding, with an average speed of 16.2. The maximum speed achieved was 35.1. I was on the road for 4 hours and 20 minutes.

I felt pretty good out there. I think that I benefited from more moderate temperatures. It was probably high 80’s by the very end of the ride, but until then it had been a bearable temperature. Plus, the cloud cover for most of the morning kept the sun from baking me. Also, I never felt that I turned into any unbearable headwinds. Those can suck the life out of your legs in a few miles.

I refilled beverage bottles twice while I was out. Once at the store on top of Caraway, and again in town about 15 miles from home.

I didn’t have any lower back-ache, which means that the yoga is helping, although I did start to feel a little tired in the neck and shoulder area. I definitely need to continue doing the yoga. I think it’s made me more relaxed and supple on the bike.

This was a good test of my progress for riding the century (100 miles) at this year’s Tour to Tanglewood. I figure if I can manage a solo 70 miles I’m headed in the right direction. Now I just hope that I stay healthy and continue to build strength. The ride is about two months away.

Speaking about the Tour to Tanglewood, I hope I can encourage anyone reading this to contribute to the cause by supporting me in my ride there. I’ve set an ambitious fundraising goal, and am hoping to do a great ride and raise money to fight MS. If you can only spare a few dollars right now, that’s okay. Any contribution is appreciated. Please go here to learn more about why I ride and how you can support me at this year’s Tour to Tanglewood.

I added an extra loop on the return home to add some additional miles. All total I rode 58.47 miles with an average speed of 15.9. I lost two tenths off that average in the last 5 miles, I think. Probably goes to show I was tired at the end. But it was good to bump up the mileage a little bit and push myself.

I started early to stay ahead of the heat, although the last hour was still pretty hot. Better to be hot the last hour than for the entire ride. I was on the road for about 3 hours and 40 minutes.

Aside from the expected lower back ache and general soreness that comes with spending that much time on a bike, I’m still having problems with my feet and shoes. I keep moving the cleats around on the bottom of my shoe, but every ride of more than 45 miles or so I get hot spots that become really annoying. I’ve got to get that problem figured out if I want to keep increasing my mileage.

Now I’m watching the Germany vs England match in the World Cup, and after I eat something I bet I’ll fall asleep hard for part of the afternoon.

Anyway, I made my way back home. I think my average was 16 or 16.1 mph.

Sights on the road today. I saw a goat playing king of the mountain on a fallen tree. He had climbed up on top and was standing proudly waving his tail around. I also saw several box turtles. I sort of related to them today. I felt a little turtle-ish.

This week was much hotter than last and that did take it’s toll in the later part of the ride. I felt generally more tired at the end of this one than a week ago. Also, even though there’s a small mountain at the far end of the Caraway ride, I actually did more climbing today. Although only about a hundred feet more.

The ride to Caraway is always pleasant because there’s a lot of nice scenery, particularly in the second half of the ride. At least with the route I prefer. Lots of horse farms and the like. The ride around Hagan Stone Park has it’s own scenic feel too, but I guess it’s more similar to what I see on a lot of my rides, so the Caraway one has a slightly different vibe which makes it stand out.

I did have my camera along today, and took a couple of shots when I stopped at the park, but I never can bring myself to stop very often to take a picture. There’s just too much energy expended in the process of stopping and starting, so I just keep the pedals turning and think how nice it would be if I did stop and take a picture of whatever beautiful scene I’m passing. I was thinking today that it would be really cool if I could attach a video camera to my helmet or something and record one of my rides, but I’d probably have to turn the sound off. Nobody would want to listen the the roar of the wind across the mic and the sound of my wheezing for three hours.

At about mile 23 today something hit my thumb and there was a sharp pain. I’m pretty sure I was stung by something, but I don’t know what. I was concerned that I might have an allergic reaction, but nothing ever happened and the pain went away a little while later. I checked when I got home and there’s no sign of anything, so I guess it was just some weird random experience.

On both rides I stopped around the 30-35 mile mark at small convenience stores to buy a bottle of cold water to replenish. I’d never stopped at either one before, and both times I discovered that not only were they convenience stores but they appeared to be head shops as well, with display cases full of pipes and bongs. I had no idea. But it made me laugh.

The other thing I’ve noticed the past two weeks is that somewhere around mile 40 I start to feel a little hot-spot on the bottom of my left foot where my cleat is in contact with the pedal. So it seems like I need to make a small adjustment there. These are the sorts of things that are really difficult to get dialed in just right. I might make a tiny adjustment to the position of the cleat on the bottom of my shoe, but I won’t really know that it was effective in relieving the pressure spot until I’ve ridden another 40 miles or so, and in the meanwhile there’s always the fear that the adjustment might upset some other part of the mechanics of riding…like at the knee.

Anyway, since I never managed to post anything last week I thought I’d kinda catch everyone up on the past two weeks worth of riding. There have also been a few rides in the evenings during the week. I got Marcella out on the bike yesterday evening for a little over 11 miles. That’s her first ride of this season to start gearing up for Tanglewood at the end of the summer.