July 22 rides

[Crankin]

I just got back from my annual trip to the Berkshires. Can you hear climbing???
Our friends had mapped out all new routes. I won't make a long report, but on Friday we rode 52.5 miles and did about 4,000 feet of climbing. I found out I do better with shorter steep hills. There were 2 long gradual climbs and I decided my strategy on these will now be to keep my speeds down and save my legs. Not that I am super speedy, but I am not going to try to up the speed on this kind of riding. Yesterday we rode about 32 miles, with 3200 feet of climbing. This included one of the longest climbs I've done since I was in Austria. I was not happy, but I did it; about 4.5 miles. Then we did the "Tyringham Wall," aka, Main Rd. in Tyringham. At one point the Garmin said 25% grade, but I think it's more like 18 in spots. But, it's the third time I've done it. Today we did a 24 mile ride with about 1700 feet of climbing. One really long one, about 3-4 miles and then another one, about a mile that was steeper, but gorgeous. All of the scenery was awesome and the food was outstanding, too.
I am up to 1745 miles for the year. I predict I will hit 2,000 by August 10th, maybe before.