Last long ride before the Transcon

My how fast the last couple months have gone by.  I was prepared to ride two more 100+ mile rides this weekend and then David and I realized Saturday evening that Sunday would be the last full day we would spend together until August 10th!  So,  I ended up riding Friday and Saturday and took Sunday off!

I rode 2 hours on Friday and included some drills and hill repeats.  I wanted to ride 100 miles, but I realized I had too many things I needed to do to/with my bike that had to be done on Friday or they would not be done before I had to ship the bike.  I ended up over at Jim's and got my new wheels and attempted to mount the Gatorskins on them - I couldn't do it and Jim struggled with it!  Back to the drawing board - I may end up just using the Serfas.

Saturday, I went back to Jim's and rode the bread ride.  I pulled my hip somehow Saturday night and slept the extra hour and drove to Ride South instead of cycling over there.  My hip was still sore, but I needed to ride, so off I went.  I started out with Doug on his new CA2, the Paiges on tandem and Keith on an upright.  We were hauling the first 20ish miles to Goshen Springs - I had a 17.5 mph ave going. I also noticed that I had no hip pain - riding outside is just theraputic! I knew I would be slowing down as we would hit the dreaded hills of 471.  I don't know why I hate this series of hills so much, but I do hate them.  Doug and I took off on our own at 471 and old 471 heading to Pelahatchie.  I checked my average again 50ish miles and I was staying steady at 16.5 with the hills.  The day was pretty with blue skies, but it was heating up quickly.  After getting to the Chevron, Doug suggested we head to Shiloh park.  I wasn't excited about it as I am afraid of the dogs on the hills over there.  I had seen emails discussing people being bitten by these dogs and that is the last thing I need.  I have always loved dogs until I realized the damage they can do to you on a bike.  Now on the 'bent, my leg is "big dog level" and very easy to take a bite out of.  Yikes!  Anyway we head to Shiloh park without incident.  The best part of the ride came when Doug showed me how to get to a gas station near Shiloh on 80.  New Perm, here I come!!!

I think I had dropped to  mid 15mph by mile 68, but it may have been higher than that as we had the worst of the hills and heat coming up.  Doug takes me on some great back roads just past the Methodist church on Shiloh rd. We took off on Bugg road and I have no idea where we went from there, but I sure liked the roads.  Very rolling fun hills.  Some were steep and some were just rolling - lots of fun!  We stopped at Dougs house for ice and I took off for Jims alone the final 15 miles.  The ride was adventurous in that I was riding roads that I had never been on - yet they ended up connecting to some of my well traveled roads.  It is neat to ride in new places that are just a turn or two off your normal routes.  After the transcon, I intend to scout out more new roads. 

So, I ended up averaging 15 mph for my 102 miles.  Interesting, this ride had 200 ft more climbing - one climb that had a 10% grade compared to only a max of 8 on my ride last Sunday in Texas.  I was able to take 2 hours off this ride.  It was not quite as hot - max of 109 to max 120 which was probably the biggest difference between the two rides.

So, I am hoping for cool temps on the transcon.  I really think I can ride at a decent pace in temps less than 90.  I am glad I had good results on this long ride.  I do think that I could have ridden much faster and pushed harder on the hills had it not been so hot on any of my last umpteen rides.  But, I am ready!  America - here I come!