Monday, June 1, 2009

Mission Accomplished!

Well, at least the 1st mission of the season. The FLETC/PUT ride was grand, one minor crash (had to bail off the bike when a fellow rider crashed on some rail grade in front of me in the pouring rain, I was OK, my bike, well, some nice deep scratches on the frame and fork). Here are the final #s from the entire ride:

Ride time: 67 hr 32m 43s
# of days riding: 11
k calories: 37,746
HR: 122 avg/174 max
Speed: 15.5 mph avg/47.5 max
Distance: 1,069.3 miles


We should have ended at 1,060, but a group of about 10 of us (yeah, Dennis, you know it was fun!) had to hammer through DC traffic, near the Capital, across the 395 bridge, with a police escort (read: one squad leading us) at 22+ mph nearing rush hr traffic to get to our hotel. Crazy hammer time. Wild, I wish we had video of it! The long days, we actually hammered out some decent avg MPH's. Like day #1, 118 miles total, 16+ mph average speed.

It was a blast, not much time for much else other than this typical daily routine:

Get up, eat/have cup of coffee, ride all day (almost 8 hrs on the longest day), hit the hotel, shower, eat, pack for next day, clean the bike (some nights), wash the jersey (some nights!), have a couple beers, go to sleep.

Get up, repeat.

The hills in SC and NC were CRAZY at times, like nothing we have around SE WI. One of the females had a Garmin GPS, she said we did over 16,000 feet of climbing, all in about 2 or 3 days. The grades were steep, 8-11 % at times, possibly a 12-13% for the steepest sections. Imagine a 4-5 mph climb in your biggest gear, yep, thats it, crawling along. Bombing downhill, you could easily hit 50+, if you hammered it, one stretch you could have seen 60+ (near Lowe's Motorspeedway at the NC/SC border, Mecklenberg CO), I topped out at 47.5 mph without trying. Crazy steepness, crazy long hills. I got the front wheel "death wobble" once at about 37 mph, scary scary stuff.

All in all, a great trip, one I will remember the rest of my life!

Oh, one other stat I should post; we finished off 15 cases of beer on the trip as well (well, during the 1st 8 days, that is ;). 18 riders for the 1st 8 days, but about 3 or 4 did not like beer.

Now, on to running as well, started my Milwaukee marathon training (Oct 4th). First, I've got the Trek 100 century (benefiting the MAAC fund, battling childhood cancer in SE WI) this Sat June 6th. Then, the Spirit of Racine Tri in mid July, and the Dairyland Dare Aug 15th, this will be a 200k ride in central WI with 15,000 feet of climbing! Yeah, it will be a fun summer!

1 comment:

  1. it's about time! i've been wondering how you did, what you thought about nc/sc. sounds like those hills didn't give you too much trouble. believe it or not, you were still in the flatlands. around my side of the state, we have more 15 - 18% grades than my legs can take. we're thinking about moving to raleigh just to get into some flatter rides. and you know there's more work for me there, family, etc.

    still, that sounds like a great trip. beer is good carbs for riding fuel, right? that dc traffic sounds tough.

    great job brother. it is going to be a fun summer.

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