Cycling season is definitely gearing up. It wasn't that long ago that I couldn't wait for all of the organized rides to get started, and now I've got something almost every weekend. March 25 started it all with the Lost Valley Luau, then I had two free weekends before the first BFC ride out in Wentzville on April 15th. But after that, the next weekend was the CAC, then 4 days after that I drove out to Jefferson City for a century with the Team Virtus crew (report coming soon!), then 4 days later was the next BFC ride, this time over in St. Libory, IL. I think my next weekend without some sort of ride isn't until Father's Day! So while I'm a little bit out of order with these ride reports, I'm hoping to catch up on a few of them before I get so far behind I don't know what happened on what ride.
This was the third time I've done the Spring Chicken ride, and the first two were very much a tale of two rides. The first time I did it in 2009, it was my second "long" distance ride on my road bike, and I was originally planning on doing the middle route of about 35 miles. Well, there was a pretty strong wind out of the south that was pushing me down the road at 25 mph to the decision point, and I was feeling pretty good, so I opted for the 45 mile long route and paid the price as soon as I had to deal with a huge crosswind that turned into an awful headwind as I turned to head back to the car. It was so bad that riders who had finished were coming onto the course to rescue people coming in, and I caught a ride with a nice stranger to save me from the last couple miles.
The ride wasn't on the schedule in 2010, but they brought it back last year, and the weather was beautiful that day. I had just gotten my bike it's spring tuneup before that ride, which included a professional fitting, so I was hauling a$$ that day. Being 20 pounds lighter didn't hurt either. When I had arrived, Amy (the recently departed coordinator of the Bicycle Fun Club rides) had informed me that George had left just a few minutes before me, so I decided to see if I could catch him. There was a slight wind out of the west, so I was averaging 18 + mph on the early stretches, and while I never caught George on the route (I think I dilly-dallied too long at the first rest stop), I made it back to the car right as he was loading his bike up after averaging about 17 mph over the 45 mile route. I think this may still be my fastest long ride ever.
This year, it was a rainy weekend (in fact, parts of metro St. Louis had significant hail the day before), and I was obsessively checking the hourly forecast to see if I would be getting wet or not on the ride. While there was rain in the metro area, the Weather Channel was saying that Washington County would stay dry until about noon, so I headed over there early hoping for another dry ride. George and I met up just after 8, and headed out on a cool and foggy morning. This year, the wind was blowing out of the east, so it made the initial leg the tough one. It was slow going to the first rest stop, and while we had another rider join up with us for a while, I think he wanted to go faster than we were, so he took off before us at the stop. While I've lost 40 pounds since I started riding, I think my size still puts up a fair amount of resistance when it comes to hills and wind, because both of them still slow me down more than I think they should at times (or maybe I just have a warped sense of reality since George is still 50 pounds lighter than me).
After we chatted with Hank, the driver of the SAG wagon for a bit, we headed off on the next leg of the ride. We had a couple more miles into the wind before we got to head north a bit and have the headwind turn into a crosswind. I had a decision about ride length to make along this leg as well. My knee was still a little tender after the CAC and the century ride from the previous week, and I didn't want to put myself in too much pain because I didn't want to drop out of Cedar Cross before the ride even gets underway. While the knee was mostly okay, there were a couple times where I put a sudden pressure on my foot that caused a jolt to go up through my leg, and that was making me nervous. Strangely, it seemed to be happening when I start up after my rest breaks. I think this means my best bet at Cedar Cross is to do the 112 miles without stopping. I just need a personal support vehicle in charge of refilling my water bottles. With the occasional jolts of pain I was getting, I decided to cut the ride short and do the medium route back to the car. When the routes split, I assured George that I would be okay getting back and we said our goodbyes.
The added bonus of the medium route was that it immediately headed west, so I had a nice tailwind for a mile or two that I took full advantage of before heading up towards the small town of Venedy that was the other rest stop. Since I still had plenty of water and the knee seemed to be okay so long as I didn't stop, I rode right by this rest stop and headed back to St. Libory. The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful as I think I saw about 4 other riders after splitting off from George, and about 11:30 I made it back to my car dry (except for my sweat) and with only a slightly sore knee.
I did get rained on during the drive home, so it's probably a good thing I took the shorter route, although I think George said he did stay dry. I also got my first Orange Sherbet ice cream cone of the season from Dairy Haven in Caseyville, so that did a pretty good job of easing what pain I did have. I've mostly stayed off the bike this week, only doing a short little ride with the family Tuesday night and riding into work today, so hopefully I'll be good to go this weekend.
Good luck this weekend! Hope the knee is all better by then.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I have a feeling I'm going to be in pain Monday, but that's okay.
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