indigoiis
09-22-2008, 12:21 PM
The Seacoast Century starts at the very base of New Hampshire, on the border with Massachussetts, and swings up lovely route 1A into Maine. An 18 mile loop can be made in either the beginning or the end of the ride to include the Seacoast area of Massachussetts. Then, the route heads North on 1A, quickly losing the honky-tonk beachfront to rose-hip swept coves and big beach houses. The route returns through Kittery, Portsmouth NH, Rye Beach, and then swings West through a residential/rural area, and then back down 1A again to the finish.
We started at 7:39 - cold and sunny - after examining a freewheel issue on DH's bike. It is eighteen years old and the freewheel wasn't catching. We decided to do the Mass. loop first as it would put us back to our car after an hour and we could check and make sure his bike was doing alright. So, we did the first loop - 18 miles of flat fairly smooth road surface in a little less than an hour - averaged 18.75 mph. DH told me to slow up the pace or I might blow up. I've been averaging 17/18 on my 30 mile commute once a week so I had to force myself to pace myself.
We paced at around 16/17 for the next 25 miles. The rest stop at Ft. McCleary was very welcome and appreciated. We were still fairly fresh. A knot of riders slowed everything down in Kittery and then later in York; the same group of riders (sorry, but they were mostly guys) clogged up the works heading back down through Portsmouth. I managed to keep up with not only DH for the first time, but with a pack of guy riders. They would lose me on the hillettes (there's not really hills around there) - it's not that I am not strong on hills, I just slow way down and take my time going up. No need to stand and get exhausted, right? Anyhow, guys like to stand... they like to pass.
At mile 65 I got a little burnt out and slowed to about 14/15 mph. Then, after a fig newton and a gulp of gatorade, I suddenly had a burst and the last five miles did 19/20 mph! My poor DH was dragging at that point and I was fighting to sprint to the finish. I know it is not a race but it was important to me to do better than last year. We did. Last year we averaged 16.5... this year, 17.5!!! Yippeeeee!!!
A beautiful day, good riding. All that commuting paid off!
We'll be back next year!
We started at 7:39 - cold and sunny - after examining a freewheel issue on DH's bike. It is eighteen years old and the freewheel wasn't catching. We decided to do the Mass. loop first as it would put us back to our car after an hour and we could check and make sure his bike was doing alright. So, we did the first loop - 18 miles of flat fairly smooth road surface in a little less than an hour - averaged 18.75 mph. DH told me to slow up the pace or I might blow up. I've been averaging 17/18 on my 30 mile commute once a week so I had to force myself to pace myself.
We paced at around 16/17 for the next 25 miles. The rest stop at Ft. McCleary was very welcome and appreciated. We were still fairly fresh. A knot of riders slowed everything down in Kittery and then later in York; the same group of riders (sorry, but they were mostly guys) clogged up the works heading back down through Portsmouth. I managed to keep up with not only DH for the first time, but with a pack of guy riders. They would lose me on the hillettes (there's not really hills around there) - it's not that I am not strong on hills, I just slow way down and take my time going up. No need to stand and get exhausted, right? Anyhow, guys like to stand... they like to pass.
At mile 65 I got a little burnt out and slowed to about 14/15 mph. Then, after a fig newton and a gulp of gatorade, I suddenly had a burst and the last five miles did 19/20 mph! My poor DH was dragging at that point and I was fighting to sprint to the finish. I know it is not a race but it was important to me to do better than last year. We did. Last year we averaged 16.5... this year, 17.5!!! Yippeeeee!!!
A beautiful day, good riding. All that commuting paid off!
We'll be back next year!