August 24th rides!

[DDH]

I so don't want to skip two days in a row, but it is still 100 degrees outside and I don't want to ride in this heat. I think I will take a short 10 miles ride about 7 this evening, hopefully it will cool down some by then. Someone give me a good swift kick for not taking off early this morning.

[Kalidurga]

To paraphrase Tolstoy: It was the best of rides, it was the worst of rides... Today I hit two personal bests, and then was seriously humbled.

Drove up north of Baltimore today to a little town called Monkton, planning to ride the Northern Central Rail Trail up to where it becomes the York County Heritage Trail in Pennsylvania. Pulled into Monkton only to find that the parking lot was packed with other bikers, people going tubing on the Gunpowder River, etc, etc. Bah. Sooo, I turned around and headed back to the road that parallels the river and rail-trail. Drove almost all the way to the PA line, headed down a twisty side road, and voila! An empty parking lot along the WMRT, just 1.5 miles from the PA border.

One of the first things you read about the NCRT/YCHT has to do with the deceptively difficult gradient, and I learned about it the hard way today. Starting out heading north on the NCRT, I pushed a little hard in the upper gears of the small ring for about 1.5 miles. When I hit New Freedom, PA, though, all of a sudden it was like I was peddling through "buttah". I switched to the big ring and maintained 19 mph with a cadence between 95-105 for long stretches between road & rail crossings. And it felt sooo good! I was amazed at my own performance. Aside from having to stop at a lot of road crossings, I didn't take any breaks until mile 11 or so, at which point I looked at the seemingly flat trail and wondered if I had been pedaling downhill. If that were the case, of course, I was gonna pay for it heading back.

I then pedaled on another 4-5 miles to Hanover Tunnel (scroll down for a picture that doesn't do it justice). Beautiful spot. Chatted for a few minutes with an older gentleman I had passed, who then passed me during my break. This guy was a hard-core distance biker. Riding a Raleigh touring bike, no chamois, no gloves, no helmet, no Camelbak. He apparently does 40-50 mile rides on the NCRT/YCHT on a regular basis and is planning to ride the 184 mile C&O Canal towpath in a total of three days. Let the humbling begin...

On turning around at Hanover Tunnel, I quickly learned that I had indeed been riding downhill and was now going to have to ride 15 miles up a 2-3% grade. Sounds like no big deal, doesn't it? Ugh. I stayed in the big ring for as long as I could, even though I was in the granny gear of the cassette and knew I was cross-chaining, then finally gave up and switched down to the small ring. At one point, while pedaling as furiously as if I were being chased by dogs, I glanced down at the computer and realized I was only going 11mph. Could the humbling be any more thorough?

With about 5 miles to go back to New Freedom, I began cussing and whining to myself. "This was so eeeeeasy on the first half, why is it so ratzen-fratchet-fricken-frack hard noooowwwww??" Fortunately, things leveled off again in New Freedom and with a loud "Wahooo!", I shifted back up into the big ring and ran it back up around 19mph for the last few miles. Of course, as I approached the parking lot I decided that I couldn't live with just 33 miles, I had to hit 35 for a new personal record. So, I pushed on for another mile, managing to sprint up to 21mph, my fastest speed yet on a "flat" surface (unpaved, to boot).

And then I made the mistake of turning around to head back to the car. Which put me in the position of heading up that #$*@ tiny gradient again. After doing over 20mph, I found myself struggling to get it over 10mph during that last mile, but I made it, thighs screaming all the way.

From euphoria to frustration and back again, it was a fun ride. Oh, and did I mention the dust? By the time I got back to the car, my black beauty had been turned into a grey ghost. Seriously, the only parts not covered in white dust were the saddle and the handlebars.

And I'm already trying to figure out when I can drive up there to ride again

[DDH]

Okay I finally got my butt out and rode. I went on a really short ride, but wanted to do at least something. 8 miles at 7 pm and still 98 degrees outside. Wind was blowing 12 mph so of course I had to buck the head wind one way and it pushed me the other.