Monday, June 25, 2012

Elm Mills: a great turnaround...

I got up at 5:00 with a singular purpose: to ride at least 35 miles. Why, you ask. I did the math yesterday and I needed 35 miles to make June the biggest cycling month of the year so far. That's no a great big feat this year since I'm running more than cycling, but it is a feat.

I left the house before 5:30 - I didn't get on dailymile first - and rode south on Howard to Sixth Street. I turned there and when I got to the turn off for Sixth Street park, I took it and wound my way down to the edge of town where I turned south onto Highway 281.

The wind was greatly diminished compared to Saturday's suffer fest! I rode up the hill out of town at nearly 15mph. After than, I rarely dipped below 16mph. I mostly rode at 17-18mph with moments of 19-20mph.

On Saturday I rode 7.52 miles in the first 38 minutes. Today I rode 10.73 in the same time. I rode to and on through Sawyer in less than 48 minutes. On Saturday it took me 1:08 to get to Sawyer where I turned around. Today I rode way past Sawyer to Elm Mills, turned around and made it to 19.77 miles before 1:08 showed up. Ugh! That hill up from Elm Mills! It's a killer! I dropped down to 13-14mph climbing it.

My trip back to Pratt wasn't quite as fast today. I didn't have a 20mph or better tailwind to help me along. Still I managed near 20mph most of the way. There were five miles that I did at or faster than 20mph. Miles 32, 33 and 34 were all over 21mph. I love dropping down the hill into town! Wheeeeee!

Once I got into town, I backed off my effort quite a bit. That gave me a nice cool down before I got home, my mission accomplished. With a little extra loop I did just because I still had time, I ended up with over 36 miles. It's official! June is the biggest cycling month of 2012! (garmin data)

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