I did a 36.5 mile club ride along the NH seacoast. Since the seacoast is 18 miles long, it was a loop from Seabrook to Portsmouth and back. This is part of the Seacoast Century route, so it's familiar.
What a gorgeous day. We are in the middle of cooler, dry beautiful New England weather. This is what I left AZ for . Anyway, there were 45 people on the ride and since it's flat, the pace was a bit faster for this social group. We stopped at Odione Point for a while and looked out over the ocean. There's a park there and 2 little boys were riding their very teeny Treks around and around a path, so we cheered them on! Then we went to Fort Constitution, which is on the Coast Guard base in Portsmouth. Another pretty spot, and one I had not been to before. We headed to downtown Portsmouth for lunch, where I had a very good sandwich (turkey and mozzarella) and chatted with a few riders. Then I saw something I have never seen on a ride; in fact I had to look twice and blink. One of the riders was smoking . It was an older guy, who I had never seen before...
We headed inland for a bit on the way back and there were some hills for the first 5 miles. Little ones, but I was stiff from sitting. I could not latch on to the front group, and when I did, they shot me out pretty quickly. Every time I caught them, I would get caught at a light, or something, so I gave up. I was by myself for quite awhile, when a few riders passed me. I finally caught up with a guy who usually rides my speed, but just as I caught him, he died out, so I passed him. The cross winds were vicious, as we headed back to the coastal road. A couple of women stayed behind me for awhile, but eventually, I told both to go ahead, my legs were toast. When we got back to the cars, I found out it's a tradition with this group to "race" for the last ten miles. Well, I tried, but my average was 1 mph slower then it was when we got to lunch, mostly because of the wind. And my hands, right between my thumb and first finger have been killing me on my last few rides. What is up with this? Why do these things happen out of the blue? I am doing nothing different..
The car ride home was traffic free and took me just over an hour. Now to rest.