15 miles before darkness fell. 46 degrees felt good. The roads are still drying out...just in time for the predicted rain tomorrow...followed by freezing rain and ice...followed by anywhere from 1" to 5" of snow on Thursday. Yay, Ohio! We suck!
15 miles before darkness fell. 46 degrees felt good. The roads are still drying out...just in time for the predicted rain tomorrow...followed by freezing rain and ice...followed by anywhere from 1" to 5" of snow on Thursday. Yay, Ohio! We suck!
I was riding with this guy, who was way too macho on the bike. We rolled easy for the first mile, and then he took off, running 25 mph. It was all I could do to stay with him, since I needed a much longer and slower warm up. I finally just let him go and slowed down to 15 mph so I could catch my breath. We were doing a metric that Saturday. He continued riding ahead of me with me shouting out what roads to take. Eventually, we made the turn around to head home and now, the moment of truth set in. We were facing a 25 mph head wind. He took a pull on the front, but slowed down and started riding erratically, I pulled around him, put my head down and poured on the steam into the head wind. I knew he was behind me so never looked back. When I realized he wasn't there, I went back for him. He was coming along but struggling. I would drop him 3 more times. He never came out again for another ride. I don't know whether he thought me too weak, or it was that he got dropped 3 times. The moral of that story is that just being fast at the outset doesn't mean a thing if you can't finish the ride.
I used to like snow, but since I got on the long distance riding kick, I don't want to see any snow. All we're getting right now is rain. I can ride in the rain if I have to, but will only do so if I need to get in a ride after a lay off of 2 days.
The moral of that story is that just being fast at the outset doesn't mean a thing if you can't finish the ride.
I guess it really depends what you're trying to accomplish. If I slacked off for some time, I want to go home feeling like I just got beat up. Sure I could have just went at a slow pace and stayed in survival mode for the entire ride, but thats rather bland.
BTW, I've taken punishment many times and will come out for more, sometimes even the next day.
I see a nice shinny hill and charge up it like a dog chasing a bone, I often feel it 10-20 miles later down the road. If I can enjoy a ride for 40 miles and be in misery the last 10, I still enjoyed 80% of the ride.
Both of my Garmin's read 3°-4° lower than the actual temperature.
A base layer in 91° air? We Ohioans would agree with Ron! I would have gone out in short sleeves and not even have bothered with arm warmers if I knew it was only going down to 64° at the summit. You must have really thin blood!
Yeah, 20 miles of climbing at any percentage takes its toll on the legs and lungs. Long climbs are just another thing I miss about being out West. And the views in your still pictures are awesome.
Plus a little video of GMR.
Nice video, but those tight turns at speed you take when you're going around a sharp curve with the cliffside facing you, whoo! I'd be tapping the brakes around those places. I guess you have to get used to the climbs and the high speed descents. I unfortunately don't have mountains like that to ride in unless I want to drive 170 miles west every weekend.
Well I had Wednesday off so I figured I'd make the best of it. But when I woke up in the morning I was laying there wondering if I really wanted to do GMR ha ha! I managed to get out there and figured maybe I would do the easy option of 2300 ft. If I felt good I'd go the distance 5,000 ft. But as soon as i parked my truck, a friend Ron came rolling by. Ron is a good climber so I figured he'd jam up the road and I wouldn't see him for long. BUT! He says his plan was to ride up for an hour then head home. BUT! Once we got in an hour of climbing he asked how far I was going. Uhhh I dunno! Ah screw it, let's go the distance. So we hit Baldy Village after 21 miles of climbing He went straight down Baldy Rd but I took the GMR route and doubled back. Once I got to the bottom I had 4950 feet! Dammit! I turned around and climbed back up a bit. Another 70 ft to get my 5,000 for the day. I did the extra 20 cause you never know what Garmin is going to do with the gain.
I outweigh Ron by 70 pounds so I told him if I was holding him up, he was free to go on ahead. He said no I was doing a good pace and he was happy. Said if he pushed himself any more he'd be feeling wasted at the end of the ride. Plus the chatting made the climb go quicker he said!
41 miles, 5033 ft gain in 3:45.....with about 30 minutes of rest and picture time.
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