Double Day

To keep eveything balanced on the home front I did not ride yesterday since today I was going for a double ride and spend more than four hours away from my lovely, understanding, patient wife on a preciously short weekend in the middle of a grueling semester.

Salem Lake

The first ride of the day was with Eric. He's been off the bike for several weeks for health related issues and wanted to get back with some excerise. We met at Salem lake around 11AM and did just the lake circuit. It's the first time I've been around the lake in several weeks and the lake level is down something like 10' as the new dam contruction project gets underway. It was both disturbing and gratifying to see a little of what is/is not on the bottom of this lake. The lake bed has huge thick layers of what looks like petroleum residue in some of the shallow creek inlets and was quite aromatic. On the plus side, I was expecting to see tires, trash, drums etc. but there were none. People really seem to respect the lake, now if only industry could do the same.

We took a brief detour to a part of the greenway that was flooded a few days ago. The creek from the dam was very full and the parks dept. had blocked it off. Good thing too. The level was much higher than the day Mike Furr and Eric got swept downstream and Eric lost his bike. Took it very easy to allow Eric to enjoy the ride and planned a ride up Hanging Rock for next week with him and Janine driving SAG for me.

Road ride

Got kitted up for the road ride with full winter gear, after lunch with Janine, around 2pm. Long tights, base layer, jersey, arm warmers, jacket, thick socks with toe warmer chemical heat packets, long fingered gloves, riding gloves, and skull cap. Still was not enough. By the end of the ride I'm pretty sure my toes were stage 1 frost bite despite the temperature claiming to be low 50's F. Had three goals on this ride. One when not climbing, keep the HR below 82% and cadence above 85rpm. Two, when climbing a hill stay seated and spinup @ 90+ cadence every time. Three, recon a new segment to add to my rides. This would allow me to mix things up a little more regularly so I do not get into a rut of riding the exact same roads in the exact same way to get in a ride of a certain distance. Plus, by adding this new segment I would be able to put 70K ride together. Was actually successful on all three.

The coolest thing about the new segment was that while I went one direction, and there was a lot of up and down, the last part of the new segment was all down hill to the point where I thought that if I came in the other direction I would have my first local categorised climb. Did a quick check on Map My Ride and Happy Day! I've got me a Cat 5 climb. Finally something I can do with out driving some distance to do it. Sure it's just a cat 5 but it is a start.

The legs were really tired after the ride and as I sit here I'm thinking tomorrow I'm going to be very very sore. But I demonstrated to myself that I could get up everything in a high cadence so now it is just a matter of getting faster and maybe alternating sitting and out of the saddle work.

Salem Lake

Distance: 16.9 km
Speed:  22.81 kmh
Cadence:  77 rpm
AVG HR:  131 bpm
Weight:  201.8 lbs

Road Ride

Distance: 55.94 km
Speed:  25.94 kmh
Cadence:  92 rpm
AVG HR:  156 bpm
Weight:  201.8 lbs