Getting My Metric On
My friend, Lakshmana, and I made plans to hit the clubs tonight, so I headed out on my ride very early (for me). In order to beat him to my house, I decided to leave at noon, but I didn’t really get out the door until 1. In order to add a longer ride to my chart, I decided to do a metric century.
It was about 72°F (22°C) outside when I headed out. It was quite breezy, but that seems to be the norm lately. I kicked away and told myself to take it a little easier than I usually do, fearful of burning out on one of the two climbing sections of the route. I headed past Google’s campus, steamed down into Sunnyvale, and continued on to Saratoga. It was out of Saratoga that I began to get wimpy. I chugged up over Mountain Winery, limp-wristedly switching to my 30/32 gear and limping up the hills at 4 mph. By the time my climbing had finished around the Stevens Canyon loop, my average speed was only about 17.2. I poured it on in the descents, inhaling some kind of flying insect at 32 mph in Cupertino, which stopped me in my tracks long enough to cough up a lung.
The winds increased significantly after I made a water stop at the Outfitters. I gained some of my average speed back by the time I passed my 12000 mile marker and I rolled up the easy climb to Portola Valley with some power. I also knew that I had less than 20 miles left of my ride and some speed to gain in that distance. The Portola loop’s headwinds continued to bear down on me at 20 mph, but I ducked out of it as best I could.
I had hoped to post a speed over 40 miles an hour on my descent of Woodside Road, but crosswinds were so bad that I topped out just under 36. I must not have been properly hydrated on the last three mile sprint home, because on Atherton Avenue, I got cramps in my right hamstring, lower back, right calf, left thigh, and shoulder simultaneously. Ouch.
Still, I had a good ride, despite the headwinds. It really feels like spring is coming, which makes me excited. Spring should have already been here a while ago, but with 78°F (25.6°C) on the mercury, I’m not complaining today.
Today: 62.23 mi; 3:23:19 (18.4 mph avg; 35.5 mph max)
May : 379.60 mi; 20:04:58 (18.9 mph avg; 46.0 mph max)
2005 : 2810.27 mi; 151:00:02 (18.6 mph avg; 46.0 mph max)
Goal : 5000.00 mi (2189.73 mi to go : 56.21% complete)
No Comments Yet