A beautiful Friday Ride

This Ride: 76.1 miles
Month: 172.9 miles
2011: 2,380.4 miles
Total since 1/1/2010: 8,500.1 miles

The SPP Friendly/Fixie Friday Breakfast Ride is the high point of the week.  Today didn’t disappoint.  It was a nippy 42°F at the start, but at least 11 riders were out to start, with 7 going to breakfast.  I wore my new SPP long sleeve jersey without a jacket, and it was just right for these temperatures, although I wasn’t sure it would be warm enough when I pushed out of the house.  We’ve got daylight now at 5:45 am, and the only lights we really need are to be visible to others.  That’s getting to be pretty nice also.

At the Hard Bean, we were once again treated.  This time is was Red Velvet Cake and Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake with vanilla ice cream on top.  Yummy!  I’m starting to like dessert with breakfast!

We’ve got at least 4 and maybe 5 SPP riders doing the300K tomorrow.  I chose not to because I didn’t know the impact of that distance on being able to work the next day.  As I think about it now, the demands on me for worship Sunday are very light, and I might have been able to do it.  Other activities have now encroached and I’ll have to live vicariously through the reports of the riders.  Bonne Route!

The return trip was relatively uneventful except for seeing a fox cross our path.  I rode with Clint to the turn off to his house, then continued on to Veterans Highway and around the river counterclockwise.  I really needed to stay alert for traffic, especially once I got back into Annapolis, but all vehicle drivers were courteous and left me plenty of room.  My goal was to end up at the Hospital in Glen Burnie with about 65-70 miles on the day.  After crossing the Naval Academy bridge for the third time this morning, I proceeded to St. Margaret’s Road and the out and back to Sandy Point State Park.  By the time I got to the park, it was warming up nicely and I peeled off my head/ear covering and opened the front of my jersey to let some air in.  I continued back via College Parkway and when I got to the trail at Jones Station, I pulled off my long fingered gloves and decided to make a quick stop at home to change jerseys (into short sleeve), pull off the tights, grab short fingered gloves, remove toe covers, eat a banana, refill water bottles, and use the bathroom.

After all that was accomplished, I pushed off again with 63 miles under my belt and hit the hospital area with 69 miles.  It was 10:35 am and it made sense to ride until 11:00, so I continued on toward the airport, turning around before getting to the viewing area/park, and ended up with 76 miles at about 11:05 (green traffic lights headed toward the airport, red traffic lights coming back).  It was a nice ride, with plenty of energy throughout.  Skies were a nice blue.  Winds started to pick up from the south mid ride, but were never a serious matter.

Throughout the ride, I thought a lot about Randy’s participation in the Race Across America (RAAM) in about 6 weeks.  I rode about 1/4 of the distance he intends to cover each day … for 10 consecutive days.  Amazing.

This ride put me at 286 miles for the past 7 days.  That’s respectable.  It is the highest distance in any consecutive 7 days this calendar year.

Lori called shortly after I got home, wanting to know how the ride went.  She told her co-workers that I’d probably ride 50 miles today.  Even she was surprised that I rode 50% more than that.  Now … off to mow the lawn.