SS Wendell Ride Aftermath

[JayC]

Holy crap was it windy! Karen, Tracy and I rode the 30 mile route. I was keeping a nice steady pace on the way out even tho the crosswinds were kind of brutal. At the end of Lizard Lick Rd, I stopped and waited for Karen and Tracy and we rode the rest of the way pretty much together. We averaged almost 17MPH on the way out based off my rough calculations of time rode vs distance traveled.

That store sucked. They didn't have a freakin bathroom! I had so many layers on, I couldnt even get them off to put a rubberband on my unit to get me back.

The return trip was brutal.. wind in our face pretty much the whole way. After the first half mile or so, I looked back and Tracy and Karen were pretty far back. I was cold and the wind was moving me all over the road, I thought "Screw it, every man for himself" and picked up the pace. I still finished around 15.4-15.5 with the wind dead in front of me the whole way. When I crossed over 64, I thought I was going to get blown off the bike.

Im anxious to see what the elevation profile looked like for the ride. I think I could have averaged a lot higher had it not been for the wind.. I felt pretty good climbing today. In hindsight, I kind of regret not doing the 40 but there's always next time I guess.

[KarenG]

holy crap is right!! that wind was damn awful today. i felt decent on the way out, but as usual i have a really hard time breathing in air this cold and my knee (the 'scoped one) started hurting too. hills weren't that bad and i think i could've done better had the wind not been like it was. i don't think i'm gonna ride tomorrow - gonna be another windier day. better go to the gym and work on the cardio...

jay, as usual, was feeling his cheerios, and went on ahead and left me & tracy after the rest stop at the "frozen toilet" store. that's ok, tho, cause the return trip was awful with the wind in my face and cross winds making me feel like i was gonna get knocked over. Tracy and i pretty much stayed together, but after we crossed riley "something or other" we stayed together a short bit then sort of split up. i was just motoring on and looked back and he wasn't there...

motionbased elevation chart. (http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/chart/get.mb?xy.domain=totalDistance&xy.ranges=elevation&xy.histogram=false&xy.legendVisible=false&xy.primaryRangeAxisVisible=true&xy.secondaryRangeAxisVisible=true&xy.rangeTitlesVisible=true&xy.domainAxisVisible=true&xy.plotForegroundOpacity=0.75&episodePk.pkValue=2093092&xy.plotForegroundOpacity=0.75&xy.autoFit=true&xy.width=1000&xy.height=450) up & down, up & down, repeat....

i also left one of my Polar bottles at that store :mad:. didn't realize it till i saw jay had some dogs come after him and i reached down to get the bottle so i could spray the dogs with it and it wasn't there. i was hoping that the other guys who were riding would've picked it up for me, but seems they bailed on the 30 miles :( and just rode with Zonda and the new guy (can't remember his name). oh well, i've got 3 more........

if it hadn't been so windy, i would've done the 40. but as it was i didn't want to spend any more time out there than i had to. i was just cold. (i know...wa, wa, wa ;) ) had one finger on my left hand that just wouldn't get warmed up; the back of my legs & butt were cold as well as my arms. that jacket's going back to Performance tomorrow or Monday - it's too short and a little too snug. i finally found a Gavia online and ordered it today.

[JayC]

That elevation graph looks about like it felt. It wasnt THAT bad.. the wind just made it miserable.

[TracyW]

I for one am glad we decided to do the 30 instead, even though I would have gone for the 40 if that's what was wanted. It took about an hour and two cups of coffee for my toes to warm back up. The wind was mean on the way back and it seemed to find me when I was on the uphill slopes and no energy left.

I don't think I did too bad for being off the bike (except for the trainer) for almost 5 weeks. I thought it was 3 earlier so no wonder I was taking a beating.

I do want to do that ride again, less the wind.

[KarenG]

That elevation graph looks about like it felt. It wasnt THAT bad.. the wind just made it miserable.

i didn't think it was THAT bad either, it's just the wind was a beotch! i would definitely like to ride that area again but only when it's not windy:)

[JayC]

Yea.. I feel pretty confident with someone to share the pulling I could have averaged at least 2 MPH faster on that route.. Might could even have done it on my own. We were really cruising on the way out and we had some small bouts with the wind there as well.

I believe we were in a frontal crosswind all the way up Pilot Riley Rd and when we turned onto Lizard Lick Rd, it went from a frontal crosswind to a straight on head on wind. I thought the climb on that road would be much tougher, especially at the end but other than fighting the wind, it wasnt bad.

[TracyW]

I feel pretty confident with someone to share the pulling I could have averaged at least 2 MPH faster on that route.. Ouch :p

[JayC]

I meant without the wind :)

[KarenG]

Ouch :p

uh oh! tracy has picked up on the Jayisms....see his sig now:D

[Zonda]

The wind was a little treacherous on the return, but I'd definitely like to ride out there again.

[TracyW]

uh oh! tracy has picked up on the Jayisms....see his sig now:D
:) :D :p