Real good ride today. Set out with the intention of hitting a new milestone to complete 30+ miles which would be my longest ride todate and actually hit a couple other milestones along the way too. Monty and I left the front lot around 7:45 at a controlled pace which was working out good considering I was set on completing 30+ miles and wanted to have enough steam left to keep it going. First half of the ride was able to pick up some good pointers and tips and try a couple new techniques (trying no breaking at a more controlled pace), this actually seemed to make Lost Creek an entirely different ride where I didnt realize how much I normally was off and on the brakes. Next we cut across firebreak to Midlands and did the bluffs in both directions for a total of navigating thru it 3x. In reverse that was a rough one and didnt make it up that inner short left climb without a dismount, however was still feeling fine at this point. Thats where my new 1st milestone came up next, taking the back side around midlands to spider woman I cleared ALL the downed trees/logs with the exception of this new one that was more like a freakin wall that needs a bridge to get over. Anyway, this was the first time I made it over all the normal downed logs that break across this trail without a dismount or crash. From there hit my 2nd milestone and finally made it all the way UP thru the rock garden without a dismount then we exited thru the fireroad. This is when things started to get difficult, me and my big mouth made a comment about wanting to do a time trial on spider woman sometime just to get a reference. Well, that was good enough for Monty, he was now just getting going and ready to bring out the hammer so we rode back to the entrance and decided on a time trial hammer down run including inner loop. It was on that inner loop when the legs started letting me know I have already been riding 14+ miles and was work to maintain the push and ride out concious of the clock. My cycle computer didnt have a reset just for the clock so when I rode out Monty was graciously standing spinning his front wheel to get my time for me. My time and now baseline for spider woman with inner loop is 22.5 minutes.
After sucking down a couple ounces of hammer gel (with caffene) and a breather I was ready to roll again. Cutting back over Midlands on the switchbacks we ran into Jason, stopped and talked shop a few minutes, got some insight on the heart rate monitors and cycle computers and off we all went. Getting hot from the lack of wind on the short stop, never has the quick spritzer splash thru the creek at the bottom of the switchbacks felt so good. When we got out of stewardship to hit the long gravel road up I was ever so greatful that Jason took the lead and pulled ahead with Monty. Dont recall the mileage we were at here, but I was feeling it and was all I could do to stay 40+ yards behind them, it was time for a shot of the caffene (gel). But hey, I was gaining ground on the inital goal to hit those miles and just kept going.
Ok, almost there 6 or 7 miles togo to hit 30, another nice easy ride thru lost creek and back will put it there. One mistake, I neglect to really think about who I'm riding with, Monty is ready to bring on some more hammer and wants to do another time trial run thru Lost Creek. Oh geeze......, so were all there across the road saying bye to Jason who needs to get some food, Im sucking down any remainng drops of cafeeen I can squeeze out and Montys anxiously pacing in circles ready to bring it down, Im thinking oh man.... this is gonna be a tough tail end of my ride. Well, I signed up for this event so off we went... Thats really about it though for me, I did finish and pushed it where I could, but Lost Creek definately got the upper hand on me and had to face humility pushing it in granny on the way out on a couple of the climbs. Think it was somewhere around 39+ minutes but really cant be certain as it was such a disapointing effort that I didnt dwell on it and just gave this one to the Lost Creek +1 , Jim -5 . All was not bad though and Monty nailed his run somewhere in the twenties and made up for us riders and put the score back in our favor, Monty +10, Lost Creek -1 . From there it was parking lot or bust for me, 3rd and final distance milestone achieved!
Self Note: Dont try to set a new distance record ride and do hammer down time trial runs in the same ride.
Overall Ride Stats: (Now with an acurate cycle computer setting)
31.72 miles
10.3 average
26.0 Max speed
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3 comments:
Sounds like you had a great day on the bike! Never underestimate Monty's threshold for hammer dropping pain. That boy lives for that stuff :)
We should all plan a ride over from Lexington on our bikes to Harbison, ride all the trails, then ride back. It's around 45 miles total from Lowes and mostly in a bike lane the whole way.
Good job today! You pushed through another wall. You'll be racing with podium finishes soon.
The round trip route sounds pretty good but I'll need to work on geting comfortable with this 30 mile mark for a few rides first. I normally was averaging around 18-20 miles per ride and just going up another 11 seems to made an immpact.
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