Sunday Ride
After church today I had vowed to myself that I would get some yard work done before I even considered taking a bike ride. Yesterday was a complete rainout and our yard was looking pretty trashy with leaves and vegetation from last fall that had never been cleaned up. I decided that I would knock down a bunch of the stuff, then mow and bag the yard and leaves, then decide whether to take a bike ride or not. The wind was the questionable factor….the temperatures were great…with the high today in the low to mid 70′s.
I finished the yard work by a little before 3:00, so I decided to go ahead and get a ride in. This week is looking kind of “iffy” weather-wise, so I didn’t want to let an opportunity pass me by. The wind was pretty strong from the southeast, so I decided I would ride out toward the Elm Grove Church. Doing so would mean slogging into the wind the entire way out there, but would let the wind push me pretty much all the way back.
Getting across the river and out of the hills against the strong wind was a chore at best. By the time I got to Mentor, I felt like I had earned those 5 miles. It was hard work! From there, I went ahead and crossed over to County Line Road and headed east…again bucking the wind. I really expected a pretty hard ride when I left the house, and this one didn’t disappoint. I met my goal of churning out some hard miles today.
Elm Grove Church
After passing Elm Grove, I turned back to the north on Highway VV and having the wind at my back made a huge difference. During the three miles between Highway U and Rogersville, I watched my computer and never saw it drop below 20 mph without too much effort. It’s too bad I can’t do that all the time!
Turning Point...from there the wind was at my back!
Zig-zagging back home over very familiar roads, I was a little disappointed that Pam hadn’t joined me, but I realized that the slog-fest out to Elm Grove wouldn’t have been a lot of fun on the tandem. Maybe next week!
As I got over toward the top of Turners, I saw the turkey flock that we’ve seen out in that area several times. I counted either 12 or 13 birds, which is about the same size it was last year.
The Turkey Flock...do you count 12?
I made it home in exactly 2 hours after riding 31.5 miles at an average speed of 15.9 mph. Here is a link to the GPS track.
God bless….
TW
Tags: bicycle, Cycling, Fitness, Road Bike, Rogersville, weekend
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