Another lap of the usual

        This morning I took one of my usual Sunday morning bike rides. I rode up Caraway again, which has become one of my favorite routes when starting from home. I can usually get a good 50 mile ride in, with a decent amount of climbing, and with options for extending the ride if I wish.

This morning the ride was nice, except in about the last hour the clouds started to change tone and texture, and I decided I wouldn’t extend the distance. I had been considering pushing on to maybe 70 miles again.

One thing I observed today is that there were an unusual number of dump trucks on the road during one part of the ride that usually has very little traffic. I think one of the farms was harvesting their corn and they were filling the trucks full. They were all headed in the opposite direction from me, so they didn’t really cause me too much of a problem. I just put my head down into the headwind when they blew past.

I decided to head back via Jamestown, which I haven’t done in a while. That route has a couple of not too long, but really sharp little climbs that give a nice bite near the end of a ride. But I had forgotten that Guilford Road was being repaved, and there was a good mile to mile and a half section that was incredibly rough. I likened it to being the cobbled section of a race in Belgium or Northern France.

Ride stats: 54.74 miles with an average of 16.1. Climbing 3,025 feet, and the fastest speed I hit was 34.1.

Here’s my usual request for support at the Tour to Tanglewood— Please Support me if you haven’t already by clicking this link.

Up and around Hanging Rock

Usually on Sunday morning I’m sending out twitters from wherever I am on my bike ride. This Sunday I’m sitting at home on the couch writing a quick post about the ride I did yesterday, and haven’t gotten around to posting anything about yet.

So I met Scott N yesterday morning at around 8:30 AM at Moratock Park on the Dan River. It’s about an hours drive from my house. The sky was grey and cloudy, and we expected there was a chance of some rain at some point during the ride. We started from the park and were immediately climbing. Very soon we reached the turn to head into Hanging Rock park and we turned towards the mountain. Looking back on it, I think it would have been better to leave the mountain until later in the ride. I feel like we were only just starting to get warmed up at the time the route turned seriously uphill.

All I can tell you is that it’s a hard climb up to the visitor’s center. There may be more climbing to do in the park at around the top, I don’t know. I made it to the visitor’s center, but just barely, and not without stopping. I blew up at what I learned later was about two thirds of the way up the mountain. My heart rate had spiked to 205 beats per minute and I was gasping for breath. I looked up at the road before me and it just kept going up, and I looked down and confirmed I was in the lowest gear I had (for you gear weenies out there I ride a double chainring and my lowest would be 39-25). Farther, I could see a curve that went out of sight, but I couldn’t tell if it leveled off after that. I didn’t think I could even reach that curve, so I got off the bike. I walked it maybe 100 feet to a stone ledge at the end of a fence and took my helmet off, drank some water, ate some of my Clif Bar and just rested for a while. I almost decided to just head back down the mountain, but I kept looking at that curve at the top of the road that I could see and wondering what was around it? How close was I to the top?

So I got back on the bike, I had to aim it back downhill to get started – I couldn’t even get clipped into the pedals facing uphill, and then I started to climb again. The rest-stop had done the trick and I was able to make it over that patch of road and around the curve. It didn’t flatten immediately, but pretty soon there was a less steep part and I was able to recover enough to keep going. Finally I reached another really steep kick up. Unfortunately I can’t tell you what the grade was there, but I would guess it was plus 10% grade. Luckily it was just short enough for me to make it over without getting off of the bike again, and pretty soon I saw the sign to turn left into the visitor’s center. What a relief. I circled around and found the water fountains and refilled my water bottle and then started back down.

After all the exertion of climbing I was drenched in sweat, and the downhill quickly became very chilly, but that’s okay because it went very fast as I hit nearly 40 mph. There were a couple of left hand curves that made me flinch just a little bit.

Once we made it out of the park the rest of the ride, all 36 miles or so of it, was just constant rolling hills, some of them not insubstantial, as we essentially circled the perimeter of the park. Given all of the climbing this was not a fast ride. We did about 46 miles all total and it took us nearly three and a half hours. We climbed around 4600 feet over the entire route. I think it was a really good test of my climbing strength. I can see I may not be amongst the best climbers, but I can hang in there. Maybe with some repetitions I could be pretty good.

I’m also thinking that if the route were re-arranged some it might make more sense. To not have Hanging Rock right out of the gate when we were barely even warmed up. I might even consider parking at the top and riding down to start. That way you would know you had to make it back to the top to collect your car. No way around it. That would be a kicker of an end to the ride and a nice reward once you made it.

Anyway, nothing in the Tour to Tanglewood should be this hard, just longer. I think it’s another good indicator that I’m in a good place prior to that ride which is now about 41 days away. Please Support me if you haven’t already by clicking this link.

Sunday ride August eighth

It was a nice day for bike riding this morning. I did the route to Caraway mountain, which usually is about a 50 mile ride, and which I can expend upon in the second half if I want to bump that mileage up a bit. This time around I rode 55.6 miles, with an average speed of 16.3 mph. My maximum speed was 36.9 mph, and I did 3,064 feet of ascending over the course of the ride.

It wasn’t the fastest ride I’ve done, but the miles were good, and I felt generally good on the bike. The scenery was the usual, some horses and cows, and a donkey and a goat. I didn’t witness anything unusual or out of the ordinary.

48 days to go to the Tour to Tanglewood Bike MS ride. I could still use your support. Click here to support me.

Early and out

I was up early and out for my ride. I was home before 8 AM having ridden 25 miles with an average speed of 17 mph. It’s a good ride for me. A little shorter mileage than some of the rides I’ve done recently on Sundays, but I worked hard to keep the pace high and make it an intense ride. I attacked the climbs, tried to ride in the drops of the handlebars as much as I could and keep the overall effort level pretty maxed-out. Ride time was 1 hour and 29 minutes. The fastest speed I hit during the ride was 32.4 mph.

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.

Tanglewood Prep 70

I had a great morning out on the bike this morning. I wanted to get in a long day in the saddle, but wasn’t sure how much I was going to be able to manage so I didn’t set too specific of a plan, but I did take along lots of energy snacks so that if I felt good I would be able to keep topping off my energy supplies and not worry about that.

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.