Two days short of my first year of riding decided to go out with whatever I could muster and hit Harbison this morning for one last rookie ride. A late night last night listening to live music and a few drinks at the "Dam Bar and Grill" put me a little behind schedule and wasnt able to hit the trail head until 10:30 but was ready to set a new distance personal record or drop trying.
Rode at a steady pace and hit every trail and fireroad I could to keep it going, even tried to head down that section of the bluffs that has the sign saying "Now leaving HSF", only to come to what I thought to be a dead end at the bottom of a ravine. That section isn't bad just wish I knew if there was another way out and after gazing around a bit had to head back out the same way I came in. Wasnt in any rush and hit a couple sections I hadnt been just to see where they led and the first part of the ride was able to add a little exploration to the mix.
When I was at 30 miles decided to do spider woman again and thats when I realized I the miles were starting to take a toll on me, hit it the more familiar clockwise direction and very quickly found my lines drifting all over and reaction time sloppy. By the time I got to the rock garden it put it on me good and although no crashes I was bouncing all over and at that hardest section had to dismount and just walked across. After getting out of there things started really slowing down and just stuck to the outerloop trails.
Heading in for this ride I was just focused on being able to maintain energy to make the distance but I soon realized I have other problems to deal with once I past the 30 mile mark. Even though its just another 10 miles past 30 I found those the hardest 10 miles I've had to ride in awhile. Also found my left foot starts going numb, my hands start cramping and my seat starts killin me. Just when I was set on upgrading my pedals to something lighter now I'm going back and forth and my need to get a better seat first.
Stats:
Distance: 40.54
Time: 4:08
Avg Speed: 9.7
Max Speed: 23
Avg HR: 148
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3 comments:
Nice ride man. 40 plus at Harbison is a haul. It's hard to stay fresh mentally that long when you're already ridden those trails so many times. You thinking about trying a 6 hour or 12 hour race next year?
thx, Maybe something around the 50 mile mark would be good, not sure about those marathon rides though. I'm more interested in improving my speed for the shorter races just wondering if I start pushing longer distances it may help out going harder for the duration of the shorter rides too.
Big time - Awesome ride. Agree with A+ 40 miles on trails you know so well and solo is tough. Passed you the Stewardship connector.
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