Typical Tuesday

Yep.  Rode yesterday.  Didn’t post anything about it.

This morning the streets were wet as a result of some overnight intermittent showers.  I was so tempted to remain in bed, but habituation gets me up and getting ready before my brain fully engages.  It was chilly.  The past two days I’ve worn arm warmers and long fingered gloves (although the gloves might be just a bit much).  There was a threat of more rain.  The ominous clouds were moving fast.

The initial pace of the 7-8 riders was quick, but not unreasonable.  The wet conditions kept us tentative around the curves and on the paint.  Trail traffic was pretty heavy the first third of the ride, requiring a good deal of attention in the early morning gloom.  When we got to Old County Road, I thought I’d have company when I continued straight, and I did, but from an unlikely source.  Jim was ahead of us, and I soon caught up and we chatted along Old County Road.  When we hit the trail, he asked if the others were riding hard this morning, and I responded that I didn’t think so.  A glance in my rear view mirror told me otherwise.

What happened next helped me to set a personal speed record on one of my Strava segments.  There was some confusion as some of the riders passed us.  Dan was in front moving fast (I thought he was sick).  Jim was behind me and although I wanted to jump onto the fast group, I hung back with Jim.  After a few moments of hesitation, Jim accelerated past me, and now I’ve been gapped and am off the back.  I had some moments of indecision also, but eventually decided to catch everyone, so I started to spin up and maintained the distance of about 30-40 yards behind.  As the group slowed to cross Joyce Lane, I kept the speed up and closed some of the gap.  My Strava segment starts at Joyce Lane and goes to the end of the trail.  I accelerate to close the gap once we cross Joyce Lane, and I notice I’m riding at more than 26 mph catching them.  I pass a couple of the slower riders and latch on to the wheel of the last rider in the main group.  Just as I’m settling in, the sprint to the finish starts.  We move up to around 28 mph and hold that for a time, eventually easing near the finish line as the leaders sprint for the bragging rights and the rest of us work to catch our breath.  I thought then that I might have had my best time on the segment, but at the same time was fried.

The ride back wasn’t pretty.  I got dropped and dropped hard.  I only saw any of the others late in the ride because Bryan had a flat.  I stopped to help and then cut the ride short to get home.

We did encounter a few brief passing sprinkles along the ride, some of it reminiscent of last Wednesday’s ride across the Eastern Shore.

Once I got home I checked on the Strava segment, and sure enough, turned in an average speed of 25.5 mph for that 0.88 mile segment, beating the old record set in March by 6 seconds or 1.1 mph average.  Nice.

These Rides: 41.6 miles
Month: 41.6 miles
2012: 2516.7 miles
Total since 1/1/2010: 16,370.3 miles