"We're in the endgame now."
"We're in the endgame now." Dr. Stephen Strange, Avengers: Infinity War
“The board is set, the pieces are moving. We come to it at last, the great battle of our time.” Gandalf the White, Return of the King
I don’t think Dr. Strange could have summed it up any better. We’re in the endgame now! As the other great Wizard I know also said so eloquently the board is set and the pieces are moving, but instead of coming to the great battle of our time we are coming to an apex point in our timeline: we are less than a week from the 3F’s Century Ride and less than two weeks from when the movers arrive to finish the packing and we leave for Indiana. We are indeed without question in the endgame now.
90% of the house is packed up. Almost all the furniture is gone. After I finish here, I will reach out to Carvana and sell Snowflake, my 2012 Chevy Volt. The last stuff to pack is my clothes and my bike stuff, but we won’t pack the bike stuff until after next weekend. Chip has his ticket and will be here on the 19th. I have donated four cars worth of stuff to a local charity. I have also officially entered tapper for my ride training. So, yes, the board is set, and all the pieces are moving.
We finished off the big training on Saturday with a 48-mile tempo ride that was mostly flat. Amazing how much faster the rides get done when you aren’t climbing. It was a good ride, and it wasn’t the ride that I had planned but I think it was the ride I needed.
We ended up doing three loops of about 16 miles each from my house. During the first loop, which was planned, I told David that we should just do the same loop two more times so that way we could keep the climbing to a minimum and focus more on the tempo. We agreed to do this but the second loop we decided to ride one of the loops in reverse and add a couple of miles to it by riding out to Manning and back.
The wind was bad on Saturday. However, if the wind hadn’t been blowing so hard, we probably would have felt the 92 degrees heat a lot more. While, I won’t say we didn’t feel the heat at all, the wind kept us cool. The wind made riding a lot harder, but I think I will take that over not wind and straight sun and heat.
It was David’s idea to ride out to Manning, so I of course blame this all on him. The second loop was by far the slowest loop, and it had the most time riding straight into a head wind. So, naturally since David suggested it, it must have been his fault that the wind was beating on us so hard. I think it almost pushed him over a couple of time. It was a real bitch out there. Wind Goddess please take notice I am not calling you a bitch, I am just saying the wind made things hard. You are all powerful and very wise, I have nothing but respect for you. All hail the Wind Goddess. (Still trying to make up for calling her the C word last year!).
Even on shorter loops around my house we still had to deal with really rude bikers that didn’t call out. So, when you get to Manning you have to go up a little bit. So, David and I did the little roller to get the bridge we talked about stopping at and turning around. We waited at our stop until some cars passed, although I am 99% sure one of them swerved at us on the side of the road. It was a big truck and it got way to close for our comfort. What an asshole.
Anyway, as we are waiting for the cars to pass, we see to bikers back and I asked David if we should just let them pass and he said no. They were far back so I agreed we should get going. The issue is they were coming down the hill and we were just pushing off, so before we got to the dead man’s curve the lady was on top of me. She came around me close but didn’t say a word. Which irked me so I yelled out to David a bike was coming on his left. Then a dude passed me, he at least called out, but I think he only did it because I had called ahead to David. The lady went on ahead and passed David without saying a word.
Coming out of the dead man’s curve I was pissed off. I just had had it with rude riders. So, I started cranking and getting my gears right. I take off riding at a great clip. I was churning those pedals hard, and I caught the dude and I yelled out that I was on his left and flew around him. I was in the zone now and just kept pedaling and I went around David. I kept cranking and finally caught the rude lady and I rode up next to her and yelled left as loud as I could manage cranking as hard as I could. Then I proceeded to crank past her and blow her away. I felt so good. Not for yelling left in her ear but because I caught her and passed her. I don’t get to catch and pass a lot of riders, so I felt pretty bad ass. David came around with me and we left the rude riders behind us. I kept the pace up for a while and put some good distance between us and them.
The third loop was uneventful. I told David we weren’t taking his way again because the wind was just too much that way. It was ok though the wend as it somehow always does in the valley turned again just so it could stay blowing in our face. So, even though we changed directions the wind stuck with us. I think we both tired out on the last loop. I also almost wiped out. I was at a stop sign, and I unclipped and somehow my weight got going the opposite direction, I thought I was going over and David could see me wobbling from behind. I managed to avoid falling over and regained my balance, still have no idea how I pulled that one off, but I did.
Good riding out there last Saturday. I am as ready as I am going to be for next Saturday. Not sure that I could have done anything differently. So, now we go and do four 25-mile rides, which I can do four 25-mile rides in my sleep :D
Ride Stats:
Distance: 48.10 miles
Elevation Gain: 676 feet
Moving time: 3:44:32
Average Power: 114 W
Average Speed: 12.9 mi/h
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