chicaskia road loop

i headed out this morning around 6:30. the wind was out of the southeast at about 10mph. the sun was shining. the temperature was around 75. the humidity was hovering near 90%. almost perfect conditions for a longer ride.

i headed east into the south-southwest wind with plans to complete one of my favorite loops, the chicaskia road loop. it's one of my favorites because of the rolling hills on the bottom side of it. they give me a bit of a challenge and a change of scenery.

on the way to chicaskia road, i pushed hard and got my average up to 18.3mph. i gained speed the whole way. i even gained a tenth or two chargine up antichrist hill. just before i reached chicaskia road, my tire started acting weird. it felt like i was hitting little bumps when the road was as smooth as smooth can be. i looked down to see if the tire was going flat. it looked firm. i kept going and the bumping got worse. i was about to stop when BANG! the tire blew. (see picture above.)

i rolled to a quick stop and changed out the tube. there was no sense in trying to patch the old one. it had a three or four-inch hole in it. not much fun changing a tire on the side of the road, but at least i didn't have much trouble getting the tire off the rim. about nine inches of it were already off. a friend from argonia stopped to see if i needed help. i thanked her and sent her on. i had everything under control.

after fixing my flat, i rode around the corner and headed south on chicaskia road. the going was much slower. i could hardly hold 13mph most of the time. for eight miles it was me versus the wind and the wind was winning. my average dropped to 16.3mph.

then i turned west. the westward journey was much more enjoyable. i had the wind off to my left and it was pushing me a bit. the hills slowed me from time to time, but i was able to keep a fairly decent pace. by the time i reached argonia road, i was ready for a tailwind.

my speed at the corner was 16.6mph. i put the pedal to the metal and flew the rest of the way home. my only frustration was that my crazy cateye computer started acting up. it would be working fine and then stop reading. so i rode a little over a minute longer than what this workout shows and probably covered just over 35 miles. i decided it wasn't worth the math to fix the problem. (34.87 miles @ 17.3mph)