This last weekend three of us rode from Duncan Falls to Marietta and back -- 70 miles each day. It's a fairly challenging ride with scattered steep hills. More challenging was riding with only three people -- two of which (not me!) are darn strong riders. We averaged 17+ mph on the first hillier day, 18.5 on the second -- we were absolutely flying. To average 18.5 we were usually going 19-21 mph.
I'm not great at short steep climbs as I lack the power of my cycling buddies -- so on rollers I go as fast as I can on the downhill to get as far up the next climb as I can before I have to pedal again. Which means invariably that I'm passing the very folks that have been pulling me along! So we laugh a bit about momentum.
Sunday we zipped down a nice hill with a hill right in front of us to climb. It didn't look nearly as steep as it was -- but it ended up being VERY steep. I zipped by Rick and laughed about momentum as we started up the other side. Rick didn't shift in time and got literally stuck by being in the wrong gear -- he laughed and said he had lost his mojo! Which got me chuckling which is very hard to do when you are struggling up a climb! He chuckled the whole way up the climb.
He recovered his "mojo" to pull later at over 22 mph. We descended down a climb I remembered from last year and shouted a warning for rough road. I passed both of them to the left -- just as a squirrel made a suicidal dash across the road. I had a quick flash of me going down at 30+ mph and knew it wasn't going to be pretty. I left out a scream -- which the squirrel heard and -- poof -- he flipped/bend over absolutely backwards and somehow made it back the way it came. I swear it happened in such slow motion it was like that cartoon that speeds by and then suddenly goes into slow motion and you see the wide eyes and look of horror in his eyes as it stands straight up to look at you! That poor thing bent so far - wow I don't know how either of us made it! Then another made a dash from the right side of the road -- and THEN a chipmunk dashed across -- we were laughing so hard at this point we were barely staying upright! It was the darndest thing.
Earlier in the day -- on another downhill -- Jim was to my right when a pilated woodpecker made a dash at his head! Closer to Duncan Falls I was pulling up front as we zipped along the river -- I caught a movement to my left and saw, 1/2 way up the hill and bounding over the tall grass -- a white tail deer. It ran alongside us for awhile and then darted left (thankfully!) into the woods.
We came across a dog in the road -- totally disinterested in us running the opposite way! Found another about 2' from the road just watching us ride by. A couple bunny rabbits ran away, a couple of cows checked us out -- it was an animal adventure! Which of course is easier to enjoy when you have two guys pulling you along!
Rick definitely found his mojo -- we finished first, noone passed us, and one of the guys running the ride asked if we had rockets -- I said no just those two -- as I pointed to Rick and Jim!
The Money Shot -- Jim and Rick at Big Bottom State Park!
I rode for the first time in a long time last night. No where near as impressive as your run. I rode a few loops around the park. The only wildlife I saw was people. I didn't average 18.5mph either, as I would have probably died.
ReplyDeleteWhat - no raptors??
ReplyDeleteWOW ~ I rode my stationary bike last night and thought I would die :-) Only wildlife I saw were my cats :-)
ReplyDelete