i had one goal in mind as i rolled down my driveway this morning: beat my dailymile friend kandappa. sorry, kandappa, but it's the truth. i decided when i got my work done early that a strong finish to the 'first to 500 miles' challenge would do me good. so i put my interval training on hold and set out to ride the 50 miles i needed to finish.
the first 25 miles were almost unbearable. the wind was almost directly out of the west and it was all i could do to get up to 14.2mph before the turn around. the brief respite from the wind, a three-mile trek south, helped restore some energy before the final six miles to my u-turn.
as soon as i turned, the day suddenly became the best day ever. the wind was ever so friendly and i was up to 15.1mph before i turned north for a short three-mile suffer fest. i didn't lose a tenth on that stretch and once i turned east again in harper, there was no turning back.
about eleven miles from home, i realized that if i could keep my speed over 22mph, i could make it back in less than three hours. so i pushed hard and maintained well over 22mph. the only time my speed dipped below 22mph was when i approached my driveway again. my brakes brought me back down to earth.
(as an added bonus, i discovered that this ride moved me up in a coupld of dailymile challenges. i completed the '200 cycling miles in march' challenge and moved into second place in the 'most miles by the giro d'italia' race. i'm less than 20 miles behind kris!)
i'm happy with my performance, pace and distance. can't wait to ride again tomorrow. go lady raiders! win state! (50.20 miles @ 17.0mph)
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