Kamakazi Bunnies

This Ride: 20.1 miles
Kona Distance: 2,773.9 miles
Month to date: 435 miles
2010 Total: 3,240.4 miles
Pace to 5,254.8 mile goal in 2010: (107 miles ahead of goal pace)

Last evening, Lori and I went to Ruth’s Chris in Annapolis for dinner (Baltimore Restaurant Week) and on the way home, I drove to see “THE WALL“.  “THE WALL” is apparently the steepest hill in Anne Arundel County and it is so close to the usual route we ride that it would be easy to include it.  Mike B did it for the first time over the weekend.  Now, this hill is not as steep and long as the 16% grade we saw cyclists doing time trials on in Ellicott City last weekend, but it is impressive none-the-less.  I’ve heard of “THE WALL” but it wasn’t until Mike posted the Garmin map of his ride that I could figure out where it was.

I awoke before 5 am with “THE WALL” on my mind.  I was a little slow getting out the door this morning and was still thinking about “THE WALL” when I saw Jeff on B&A Blvd.  He saw me first and did a nice job avoiding a collision.  I think I was about 5 miles into the ride when I decided that I would keep my ride a bit shorter this morning so I could get home before Lori had to leave at 7:00.  That meant “THE WALL” would have to wait until another day.  In great relief, I picked up the pace, and made sure that I pressed into the hills that I do ride.  At the same time, I really didn’t want to get my heart rate into the red zone.

The trail was relatively quiet this morning.  I saw only 5 people by the time I got to the end of the trail.  I saw more bunnies than that.  Bunnies are funny little creatures.  They sit quietly on one side of the trail waiting for you to get close, then hop across the trail with either panicked breakneck erratic fits and starts or, as nearly everyone of them did this morning, a leisurely, patient, and purposeful hop.  I didn’t come close to any of them, but they kept me alert.

I made it home in time to see Lori before she left.  She refused the offered hug from a sweating, dripping, stinky me.  Now for a long day of things other than riding.  (Last night Lori accused me of being addicted to riding.)

Garmin Connect isn’t working right this morning, so I’ll not post a map of this very familiar route, just the link.