I got out yesterday morning for a two hour ride on the bike path. Started at Peden at 6:15 and rode up to Nelsonville and back. I haven’t spent a lot of time on my Schwinn this year, so the fit felt a little awkward. After 45 minutes or so, my body seemed to dial into the bike, and the bike was really comfortable as I had remembered it. At that time of the morning I didn’t see a soul for 20 miles. It was the kind of quiet long ride that I needed. Below a some snaps that I took with my phone.
1. I avoided texting Mac to tell him I wasn’t going to meet him at 6 a.m. I would have loved to have gone back to bed.
2. I made it up Rock Riffle, despite very tired legs from three days of workouts/rides, and copious amounts of morning phlem blocking the airways. We both sounded like a freight train of asthmatic smokers pushing up that climb.
Like yesterday, we met at Athens Bicycle, climbed Rock Riffle, and turned right onto Longview Heights. This morning we stayed on Longview, and took Mulligan down to Richland, then back to the car via a trip through campus and a roll down Court Street. About 7.5 miles in 45 minutes, but our major success was making it out in the early cold two mornings in a row. Here is the route
I met Mac at Athens Bicycle at 6:00 this morning for a quick ride up Rock Riffle Road, out Angel Ridge for a bit, and back. I rode the Yukon, as I’m trying to get it dialed in for the Gravel Rouser in a few weeks. The climb up Angel Ridge was awesome, though we both hocked up lots of snot at the top. I peeled off my coat at the top, only to put it back on 5 minutes later. I wore shorts, tights, wool socks, long sleeve base jersey, short jersey, long sleeve jersey, and the windbreaker. My 5 dollar Home Depot gloves kept the digits warm. The layers worked pretty well, and I appreciated the extra warmth on the 35 mph downhill back to the car. This was also my second time on the new WTB Speed V seat, and thus far I am really liking it. It’s much better than the stock seat on the Yukon. We were only out for only 45 minutes, but it was a good quick ride. I’m growing more comfortable with the fact that not every ride has to be 25 miles or more. It’s just great to get out when I can.
This was also my first ride with the Geoman Gear Magicshine light. The light really lit up the road very well and I we were both able to see very well. I’ll post some more info about the light later, but thus far I’m happy with it and feel safe riding with it on the Athens back roads in the dark.
I didn’t clock the ride with my odometer or phone, but eyeballing where we turned around on Map My Ride put us around 7 miles or so.
With temperatures close to 60 and sunny, and with an actual hour for lunch, going for a ride was a no-brainer. I rode from Grover down to Casa Lopez. I was tempted to extend the round trip by two miles by going to Holzer and back, but I’m glad I didn’t. The ride down to Casa Lopez was fast and I felt like I was flying. After a quick swig of water, I turned around and headed back, only to find myself facing a massive headwind. No wonder I was hauling earlier. On the way back, it was all I could do to roll at 10-12 miles an hour, and I bet at times I dipped into the single digits. The picture of the flag doesn’t really do the wind justice, as it was really whipping around today. While only a brief 34 minutes on the bike, it felt great. An yes, that makes two days in a row on the bike!
The details:
8.14 miles
34:32
500 calories burned
14.1 mph average speed
Had about an hour, weather was nice, and my wife said “go for a ride.”. So I did.
Rode a warmup lap around the neighborhood loop, then down 50 to Ervin. Turned around at Radford, and rode back to mentally prepare for the climb up Stagecoach. Stagecoach hurt pretty bad, but I managed to muscle over it. Took me a really long time to return to normal breathing. Some folks on Stagecoach have gotten some new dogs since the last time I rode. They came to the road to greet me, but fortunately I had caught my breath enough to give em the old “get back on the porch this is my road” yell. Rode back down 50, with another hurt-so-good climb up Wonder Hills Drive. I arrived at my house out of breath, and a bit disappointed that I didn’t even clear 10 miles. I was tempted to ride two laps around the neighborhood to get the mileage over 10, but figured I had done enough for the day. Considering I have not ridden since August, making it over those two hills were huge victories. I also took the Jamis instead of the Schwinn, which has a 28 versus the Schwinn’s 32.