Ride Deaf 2014

Yesterday, I rode the Ride Deaf Challenge metric century.  It was very chilly at the start. Not just the temperature, but the wind.  Also, it didn't help that for 15 of the first 20 miles, I had a very full bladder which made climbing torture. Temp 50-68°F (didn't reach 60°F until last 8 miles), strong wind from NW (meaning headwind for first 36 miles), max grade 5.7%, 1323 ft of climbing, HRM zones 3-5 2:56. 64.93mi (104.49 km) in 4:19:16, avg speed 15.03mph (24.19 km/h), max speed 28.5 mph (45.9 km/h).

Steve Barbour Memorial Tour 2014

This is a ride I've never done before.  They run 3 distances, a metric century (actually 60.6), an 80 miler, and a century.  I chose to ride the metric.  It was very humid today, by far the most humid ride of the year, the fog took over an hour to burn off, temp 68-86F, wind from NE @ 7, max grade 4.1%, HRM zones 3-5 3:11. 60.61 mi (97.54 km) in 3:44:34, avg - 16.19 mph (26.06 km/h), max speed - 32.1 mph (51.7 km/h). My goal was to complete the ride in under 4 hours and I accomplished that with plenty of time to spare.

 

Pedal with Pete 2014

I went out with every intention of riding the metric century despite the encounter with the deer earlier this week (maybe I'll do a separate blog post on that later), but when I heard thunder at the 24mi food stop and my knee was beginning to stiffen up, I decided discretion was the better part of valor and decided to try to beat the rain back to the finish (which I did), so I ended up doing the 47 miler again (for the 3rd year in a row).  I actually really like the ride and it is pretty flat.  This year, despite the crash earlier this week and being even heavier than last year (by 2+ lbs, making this the heaviest I've ever been for an organized ride :-( ), I shaved another 3:23 off my time, so I guess I'm in half way decent shape.  The temperature was perfect and I was under an overcast (as the rain tried to catch me) for the last half of the ride, so conditions were nearly ideal.

DCFT 2014 - 64 miler

My 3rd organized ride of the season already.  Of course, having spent the last week at Dad's to celebrate his 80th birthday, I haven't gotten any more riding in since the last organized ride (where I already paid dearly for the lack of miles).Temp 62.6-87.8F, moderate wind from S, shifting to W. HRM zones 3-5 3:37. 64.54mi in 4:22:23 (14.76mph). First hour I averaged 14.7mph, 2nd hour - 16.1mph, 3rd hour - 14.6mph, 4th hour - 14.1mph, last 22 min - 12.6mph. I have some words for the sadist who designed the course where nearly half the climbing was in the last 1/4 of the ride. There was a stretch about 10mi from the finish where I felt like a sprinter on Hautecam.

Tour de Cause 2014 - Adventurer course metric century

I haven't ridden anywhere near as much as I had hoped for the last 6 weeks and I really paid for it after the rest stop at 49mi today.  My legs just felt like jello and I ended up losing 0.6mph in that last stretch.  There was more climbing in the first 7.5 miles than what I have in my 30 mile loop (which I've only ridden once this year).  The temp ranged from 64°F at the start to reading 95°F at the finish, though it was probably just 89-90°F.  HRM zones 3-5 3:05 though it was a little flaky right after that second rest stop and was reading in the 90s-low 110s for a while when I'm sure it was in the 140-150s. 64.7mi in 4:52:01 for an avg of 13.28mph, max grade 9.6% (even worse than the Lancaster County Covered Bridge Metric from 2012 where max grade was 7.8%, though that had 1200+ more feet of climbing than this one in total).

Ride 2 Recovery 2014

Erin & me at the rest stop

Erin and I rode the Ride 2 Recovery Honor Ride this morning.  You can read all about it over on their website, but essentially, the ride is about supporting wounded veterans, which is appropriate on Memorial Day weekend.  It is also a good reminder that as we celebrate those who gave their lives in defense of our country, there are many who made it home, but not necessarily all in one piece and not all those wounds are visible.  Remember, in 2012 (I haven't seen the statistics for 2013) more active duty members of the military died due to suicide than died in combat.  I still thank God daily that Shane made it back from his two tours with no visible scars.  It turned out to be a beautiful day to ride, temp 60.8-84.2°F during the ride itself, though it was only about 50°F as we were putting the bikes on the car.  Winds were light.  Because Erin was with me (and because, with the lousy weather the last couple of weeks, I'd ridden a grand total of once in the last 2 weeks), I decided to ride the 35 miler rather than the 70 miler.  If you click through the widget below, you'll notice several very slow miles in there, mostly on the hills shortly after the rest stop.  I obviously had some issues with some of the hills (and the fact that my weight was actually the highest today that it has been in over a month due to eating out several times this week and no exercise to speak of), though overall, I did still average 15.3mph, 36.24mi in 2:22:28 (I spent the 45 minutes at the rest stop waiting for and then sitting with Erin).  I raised a little money for the cause and the website remains open, so perhaps I can reach or beat my goal, please consider helping out at http://www.active.com/donate/columbus2014/JClausing.

The year in riding

Just like last year I did a fair amount of riding this year.  I wasn't as successful in losing weight by riding this year, but I did enjoy myself.  This year I rode a bit further than last year, but only had 2 rides of 50+ miles (and neither were over 53) and 5 organized rides again (same number as last year).  I mostly rode 2 days a week (usually Tue & Sat), next year, maybe I'll try for 3 (add Thu).

• BikeMS Central Ohio Challenge 50 miler - 52.74mi, 03:41:22, avg = 14.29mph, some rain and thunder in the middle of the course
• Pedal with Pete 47 mile route - 47.47mi, 02:57:01, avg = 16.09mph, rain for the first hour of the ride, but beat last year's time
• Tour de Donut "Full Donut" - 30.71mi, 01:43:43, avg = 17.77mph, a race where 5 minutes gets deducted for every donut eaten, I finished 2nd in raw time in the recumbent division (4th in donut-adjusted time)
• CHA Pedal for Pets - 45.00mi, 02:56:42, avg = 15.28mph, very chilly 45°F at the start
• Ride for Reason Alzheimer's ride - 47.93mi, 02:59:48, avg = 15.99mph, very poorly marked route

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• Total # of rides = 43
• Total mileage = 1115.10 miles
• Total time = 73:16:41
• Avg. speed = 15.29mph
• Avg. time of ride = 01:42:15
• Avg. length of ride = 25.93mi
• Rides over 20 miles = 28
• Rides over 29.75 miles = 18
• Rides over 01:30:00 = 24
• Rides over 02:00:00 = 10
• Rides over 03:00:00 = 3

Ride for Reason 2013

I rode my last organized ride of the season this morning.  It was called the Ride for Reason, a fundraiser for Alzheimer's research (if you want to contribute to my effort, you can do so at http://act.alz.org/goto/jclausing).  It was chilly at the start, but nowhere near as cold as the CHA ride last month.  Temp 54-75°F, light wind from the ESE which meant headwind relatively early in the ride.  I have to say, the folks at the Trek store didn't do a very good job marking the roads for this one.  If I hadn't uploaded the route onto my GPS, I'm not sure I would have been able to find the route.  I think I can count all the arrows I actually saw on the rode on 1 hand (certainly on both).  They were purple and very difficult to see.  Having said that, it was a great day for a ride and a relatively nice route.  The distance was supposed to be 47 miles because the original ride 25 years ago was 4700 miles, I missed one turn (added less than 0.1) and ended up riding 47.93.  See the details here or below.

Flight Log - 2013-10-04

I had every intention of a making a much longer flight, but by the time the plane was free and I got to the airport, there were showers and possible embedded thunderstorms moving in our direction, so I decided to just do the requisite 3 trips around the pattern to be current and go back for the previously planned flight another time.  Temp 28°C, winds 270@04, alt 30.05, few at 4500, overcast at 6500 when I started, lower than that when I finished, just 25 minutes later.

 

 

Takeoffs & landings: 3
Time: 0.4
Total time: 223.4

2013 Pedal for Pets

I had registered to ride this one last year since this is for the shelter where Shane & Jen volunteered at the time, but something came up late and I wasn't able to ride it.  This year, it was pretty darn cold at the start (especially considering that we reached 92°F earlier this week).  Temp at the start was 45°F and got up to 66°F by the end of the ride.  There was a light wind out of the SW.  45.0mi in 2:56:42 (15.28mph).

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1798136