Last week I got 2 days of commuting in. That’s about 45 miles RT on each of those days. While that’s an OK day total, it’s not breaking the hind-end into many hours on the bike. I consider 4 hours sort of a milestone to get across to call it a long ride – one that is callousing up the sit-bones. I’m hoping to keep up something like that pace of commuting for the next many months – twice a week as an average.
But the real work of long base miles has to happen on the weekends, and this weekend I got my first longer ride in. Just shy of 70 miles takes me on a loop around Denver, from Parker to Chatfield, then downtown, and back along Cherry Creek to Parker. My best time for that loop is a little under 3.5 hours – averaging a little over 20 mph. That’s in a state of good fitness for me.
Saturday, for this ride, I needed to wait until about 10 to start, to let the temp get up to 40. That way, I can do the ride with a ls jersey and a windbreaker. Unfortunately, this meant that my timing of the loop, and the timing of the wind shifts during the day, would have me facing the wind for most of the ride. And in fact, this is exactly what happened.
That’s OK though – I enjoyed the extra workout. And the big bonus for me was meeting my daughter downtown and having a nice lunch with her. It was a beautiful day. Total elapsed time was a little over 6 hours. Average speed 13.6 MPH. The new computer is nice, as it let me see that the total climbing for this ride is just under 2000′. I have always assumed that it was half that, since I start at 6000′, then fall to about 5000′, then climb back up. Just goes to show that the little ups and downs of a ride that feels pretty flat can add up more than you think.
Now, the forecast for this week sounds pretty iffy – I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
Still working on coming up with a name for the big ride this summer.
Dave And Neil’s Epic Ride (DANER?)
