“Ride #45: Wowza, That Was Awesome”

Well my oh my my my, this was one incredible ride. I tacked another five miles onto my training ride (I was at 43+), but still managed my highest average speed of the year. In fact, that's my best average since 2002 (when I had a number of rides that averaged 20+ mph, at the end of the season, though they were all about 30 miles).

This bodes very well for my plans to keep up with Steve in the PMC this year. ;-)

My new (free upgrade) cycling computer has a cadence meter. First time I've ever had one! I'm not planning to track my cadence as one of the "official" stats, but since this was the first time I've used it I'll report what it said (for Daniel's sake, mostly). Apparenty my average cadence was only 79 rpm. I thought that seemed rather low, but I guess it's not. When I'm just spinning (pedaling) I keep it between 85 and 100, but when I'm out of the saddle (such as when climbing a hill) my cadence is down around 65.

Max cadence was 137, though. Sheesh, I'm surprised my big feet didn't fly right off my ankles. ;-)

On the way home, about three miles from the house, I passed a very old couple sitting in their car at the side of the road, reading a map. I turned around and went back, and asked them where they were trying to go. They didn't seem to know, except that it was "on the water" on the Stonington side of downtown Mystic. I gave them the very easy directions to the general area they wanted, then he (the driver) seemed to consider shaking my hand in thanks. He thought better of it when he saw the sweat running off me in a small river, though.

Stats: 48.3 miles (77.76 km) in 2h 26' 1" for an average speed of 19.84 mph (31.95 kph).