I woke up late yesterday. It was just one of those mornings. Ladyfriend has class in the evening, so we don’t carpool. Time to bike. If I was smart, I would pack my clothes and food at night instead of scrambling in the morning. But I’m not smart like that. I’m never sure if I’ve got everything I need.
The weather was a balmy 39 degrees (that’s Fahrenheit, folks), but the wind was calm. Donning my full length bike thermals, I shot out the garage door… only to realize I forgot to put on my bike shoes. Dirt clogs (shut up, I’m not a hippie) just don’t work that well.
I warmed up quickly. After about a mile I was comfortably generating heat. Windproof gloves are a must for me. Since I had a late start, I put a bit more effort into my ride. I tried to stay around 18-19mph. This is pretty easy for the first few miles of the way in. There are few hills and the overall grade is negative. However, the second half of my morning ride is quite the opposite.
My own experience has taught me that starting out hard is a bad idea. Warming up and gradually working up to my cruising speed always works out better in the end. This is especially true in the morning when I’m out the door within 30-40 minutes of waking up. There is probably some physiological explanation for this, but I’ll let people smarter than me carry that conversation.
The crux of my morning ride is the Summit Road hill. It’s about half a mile long and ascends just over 200 feet. By the time it hit the hill, I was pretty much done. It reduced me to a near crawl, and my 38T x 32T gearing doesn’t provide the mechanical advantage that I could have used.
The ride home was great. A 10mph tailwind does wonders for the stamina. Combining that with a couple of errands, I logged 25 miles for the day. Not a bad way to start off the week.
Monkey with Chainsaw 