The Weekend in Cycling

After rains in  Southern Indiana washed out a planned trip to Brown County for hill climbing on Saturday, Dr. Wilkes, Dr. Raynor and I decided to stick with the local hills around Traders Point (such as they are). We did each of the climbs - Preserve Hill, Wilson Rd., Fishback Hill, and the Fishback Rd. climb toward Raceway Rd. - four or five times. Because the two good doctors are in training for a ride in the Colorado Rockies next month, road them all in the big chain ring, at low cadence, with butts firmly planted in saddles. Fishback Hill, which kicks up at over 16%,  was a special challenge for this approach. After about thirty miles and 1426 feet of climbing, our legs were mush (at least mine were).

My legs still felt like mush when I awoke this morning. Consequently, I expected to get shelled off the back of today's ride, but for some reason or other that did not happen. On one of the best days of weather for riding so far this year - perfect temps, a moderate breeze (around 10 mph), and low humidity - we had a good size group of about 15 cyclists, including a couple of new guys who fit in well with the group. We averaged over 20 mph for the business part of the ride (46 miles, not including 6.6 miles of warm up and cool down). The fastest section, as usual, was the 4-5 mile section of Elizaville Rd from Elizaville down into Lebanon.

All in all, my rides this weekend were much better than last weekend.