Of course, the "highlight" of this year was my collision with the deer. I guess I didn't really write about that here, so let me summarize. I was 42 miles into what I had planned to be another 60+ miler doing about 22mph on a flat-to-slightly downhill stretch of Palmer Rd, when a 6 or 8 point buck came bounding out of a corn field on my right, one hop and it was right in front of me with no time to react. I'm glad I was on my recumbent and not on by road bike or I suspect I would have been hit by the antlers instead of having them pass 6 or 8 inches in front of my face. Also, fortunately for the deer, I was on the big chain ring or I think I would have ripped its abdomen open. The buck absorbed most of my momentum so that when I went down, I had some road rash on my right shoulder, elbow, hip, and knee and a cracked rib, but did not rip the shorts or jersey. The only real damage to the bike was a bent large chainring and the fairing was destroyed. This was day 4 (Tuesday) of what I had planned as 8 straight days of 60+ miles, I took it easy thereafter, I rode 26.5 on Thursday and then the Pedal with Pete 47 miler on Saturday.
Anyway, I'll summarize my year again as I have the last several. I actually did one more organized ride this year (6), than the last 2 years, but ended up with fewer total rides this year than last.
- Ride 2 Recovery Honor Ride - 36.24mi (58.32km) in 2:22:28 = 15.26mph (24.56 km/h), Erin rode the first half, some hills right after the rest stop
- Tour de Cause, Adventurer course - 64.70mi (104.12km) in 4:52:01 = 13.28mph (21.37 km/h), I paid for lack of base mileage, the hills (~1900 feet of climbing, max grade of 9.8%), and the heat (it was up near 95°F). I lost 0.6mph just in the last 15 miles because my legs felt like jello.
- Delaware County Friends of Trails (DCFT) - 64.54mi (103.87km) in 4:22:23 = 14.76mph (23.75 km/h), I hadn't ridden in the 2 weeks between the Tour de Cause and this one, but at least there were fewer hills (only 1055 feet of climbing), though half the climbing came in the last quarter of the ride. This was to be the start of 8 days of 60+ mile rides, it didn't end up that way.
- Pedal with Pete - 47.56mi (76.54km) in 2:53:37 = 16.44mph (26.46 km/h), I cut this one short rather than do the metric because of the thunder I heard at the rest stop, I just beat the rain back to the finish.
- Steve Barbour Memorial Ride - 60.61mi (97.54km) in 3:44:34 = 16.19 mph (26.06 km/h), humid (foggy at the start)
- Ride Deaf - 64.93mi (104.49km) in 4:19:16 = 15.03mph (24.19 km/h), very chilly and windy (didn't reach 60°F until last 8 miles, and headwind for the first 36 miles)
- Total # of rides = 36 (down from 43 last year)
- Total mileage = 1112.80 miles (down from 1115.10 last year)
- Total time = 72:22:41 (down from 73:16:41 last year)
- Total climbing = 19,281 ft (up from 18,033 last year, but down from 21,660 in 2012)
- Avg. speed = 15.37mph (up from 15.29mph last year)
- Avg. time of ride = 02:00:38 (up from 01:42:15 last year and 02:00:08 in 2012)
- Avg. length of ride = 30.91mi (up from 25.93 last year and 29.64 in 2012)
- Rides over 20 miles = 28 (same as last year)
- Rides over 29.75 miles = 16 (down from 18 last year)
- Rides over 50 miles = 6 (up from 2 last year and 2 in 2012)
- Rides over 01:30:00 = 23 (down from 24 last year)
- Rides over 02:00:00 = 10 (same as last year)
- Rides over 03:00:00 = 6 (double the 3 from last year)
