After the Storm

This Ride: 22.3 miles
Kona Distance: 2,225.8 miles
Month to date: 438.0 miles
2010 Total: 2692.3 miles
Pace to 5254.8 mile goal in 2010:(23.5 miles behind goal pace)

Yesterday afternoon a line of thunderstorms rumbled through with high winds, lightning, and rain.  Over 23,000 households in our country still don’t have power this morning, and I think many of them live near our Mosey Monday route.  Our ride was impacted as well.  The 72 degrees felt great, even if the humidity was high.

Mike and I met at the Rusty Bridge and pushed off a few minutes after 5:45.  We picked up Chris and Chip at the Ranger Station, and somewhere along the way Dave showed up.  Chip hit a pothole and I’m not sure what mechanical issue it caused, but he sent us on ahead.

There was a good deal of tree debris on the trail this morning, and occasionally we caught a stick or bunch of leaves that were thrown off the wheels.  We had a nice pace going, good conversation, and then we saw that the trail was closed just before the last bridge (after Glen Oban).  From what we could see, a downed tree was completely blocking the trail about 75 yards past the bridge.  It was here we picked up another rider (AJ?), saw Alex, and traveled down B&A Blvd south until it met Ritchie Highway, then U-turned and followed B&A Blvd back into Severna Park.

This is where it got interesting … and pretty scary.  The traffic on B&A Blvd was much heavier than usual, which also meant that people who were traveling on it were unaccustomed to the road and the presence of cyclists on this narrow winding road with no shoulder.  More than once, we were not given 3 foot clearance as vehicles (mostly pickup trucks) accelerated hard past us, then slammed on the brakes once they were ahead.  It turns out that part of Ritchie Highway was closed by the police.  Tree down?  Power line down?  We saw the flashing lights, but didn’t have a clue as to what exactly was the reason for the closure.  It simply made the ride pretty dangerous and we remained hyper-alert.  I’m glad to report that there were no incidents, just close calls.

Because of the abbreviated group ride, and in an attempt to continue to increase my usual distance, I added a few miles at the end of the ride.  If you look at the split times, you can see that I pushed up the pace once I went solo.

The Look pedals are still performing fine … except … the cleat/pedal interplay is squeaking/creaking under stress (such as hill climbs or standing in the pedals).  I’ve read online that some people apply talcum powder to minimize this noise.  I imagine it can be quite irritating, especially on long rides.

The forecast high for today is 88.  If the schedule works out, that could mean an afternoon/evening ride.