Yesterday was a Very Big Day. We were scheduled to ride 45 mi up in Cartersville, which is my second most favorite ride (behind Silk Sheets, and only because it's farther away). The BL and BBC routes are relatively flat, with slow rollers, and it's just FAST up there. S, T, and D are in from out of town for this week's Master's Tournament, and all arrived yesterday. S was supposed to get in around 1, and I fully anticipated not being able to get back before 2 or 3 at the earliest (I'd forgotten just how fast the route is AND that Coach wasn't going to be there so that we would start closer to "on time"). With this in mind, I begged off after 18.5 miles or so, and then rode back to the start on my own. It hardly made a bit of difference, based on the speed of the ride, dropping those extra 8 miles. I totally should've just done it, and am kicking myself. If I had just checked the time of day at mile 18 when I made the decision to turn around, I would have realized that there was PLENTY of time to ride with the rest of the TEAM for 45 miles.
But I didn't, and the fact remains that I didn't quite ride the full distance when I could (should?) have. In the end, though, it's OK ish, because it gave me more time to get mentally ready for the Minute to Win It Challenge fundraising event that B and I put together. I don't have the money and haven't gotten the final count, but based on the number of people who showed, I'm calling it a success. It was a LOT of fun to plan and I think it was executed pretty well, though I am hardly impartial (at the same time, I am incredibly self-critical, so my assessment is probably fairly well balanced).
I'm so grateful to everyone who showed up and participated. I had a blast, and I'm optimistic that similar events in the future would also be successful. The sponsors were SO generous, too. They were great and incredible to work with, and I hope that they are as helpful the next time I need them. The whole thing was just awesome.
I digress. The point of this post was the training ride. All the stats are from a (different) app on the phone. I liked this one, because I got a voice update on total mileage and speed every mile (and, I'll tell you, those updates were coming really quickly -- I was flying).
Stats:
Maximum speed: not recorded (I can't find it)
Average speed: 15.2 mph
Distance: 37.05 mi
Time: 2.26.36
There's a neat graph, too, showing my (avg? current?) speed over time; I was over 17 for a little bit there. I don't know what that means, though, because my maximum speed has to have been greater than that. Anyway, I think I like this app better than the last one, though I'm still not sure about stopping time. Clearly, it was a good ride. Look how fast I was! I especially am pleased with this one because I was alone for the second half and still maintained a really good speed with some very strong headwinds and a few rises in the road to do all on my own. That's a big deal: it's hard to keep up speed when you sometimes feel like your bike is going to be blown out from under you.
Yes, I am patting myself on the back. I'm looking forward to riding more this week (though it was supposed to be a bye) because I've ridden so well the last couple of days. There's nothing like a few good rides to serve as some awesome motivation.
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