Hurricane Laura will negate a traditional hilly Friday so I took to the hills today. My intention was to do two laps including a new Titans Stadium détour but once I hit the first tough hill (Newhall) I knew I wanted to stay on the tough roads instead. I aimed for 45 miles and 2000 feet of climbing & hit both marks.
Not surprisingly there were few others out there, despite the relatively low-humidity Morning. The wind was already coming up the temperature would hit the low 90s by 11. Alone ain’t Lonely is my motto.
Biting-Fly Avoidance Route again. I remember going 50 miles on this loop several years ago. An early start provides safe laps for hours but even then eventually motorists thinking only of gas will make your day quite perilous. The intellectual concept of Bike Lane vanishes from their field of view & unless you happen to be attentive your day is done.
Only 4 close-encounters today so I call it a win. I even saw an actual Street Sweeper out plying his much needed trade.
With the wind (13 mph gusts) I’m glad I used 16 teeth, but I do miss my dear 14.
Shelby’s greenway each Summer gradually accepts swarms of Biting-Flies into its Paradise. It’s mostly joggers who suffer, being slow & sweaty, but once a [searching for collective noun] gnash however small catches your draft, cyclists are easy pickings. I’ve learned to cede the lost field to the victor.
I picked the old Saturday route today – the Metro Greenway past the Titans’ training field & all the way to Ted Rhodes golf course. Taking the back-roads up near TSU adds a few safe miles to the route & I overshot my 48 mile goal. Such good weather – I left late enough for low humidity but early enough for fewer than 95°.
This doesn’t show that I got 1000 feet of climbing in. Good enough on such a flat route.
COVID-19 took away most of the cyclists but there were many golfers out
I’m still deploying a modified Winter schedule – fencing in the Morning & riding in early Afternoon – despite the grim fact that it’s 92° and up by the time I’m tackling the road. It still feels better at noon than it does at 7 AM. The traffic patterns are a little more forgiving too, despite the incident today involving a fool exiting a gas station with no regard for a marked bike-path. The old Titans’ Stadium loop still a comfort.
There was almost nobody out there today – heat I’ll bet called everybody into the shade. Even tho my legs yearn for & are capable of a good metric century, all the energy I’m expending to keep myself from overheating deals me 31 mile rides. I’m embracing it.
Flat today to avoid any rainy hills & a new police murder scene on Shelby [sigh]. Flat it was but energetic:
Stormy weather today – good for the yard, bad for Mr Tib. I rode Aurora instead & really ought to do so twice a week at least. Air Bikes are very grueling but also much fun – like a grade that gets steeper the harder you pedal. I highly recommend it.
I was pleasantly surprised at the airport today by 2 other fixies & one one-speeder making the rounds like it was just an ordinary day. Fixies in hipster East Nashville are as common as micro-brewers & sous-chefs in fusion bistros, but I rarely see us at the airport, pacing out the miles like ordinary bikes. We ought to have made the obvious Fixie Peloton but we had our own private agenda & scattered quickly after acknowledging each other. A fine day.
I did one short traditional loop (sat all the way up Sevier & Shelby from the park) & one grand loop to get my 31. I did not time the heat/humidity inverted discomfort curve correctly so although I had the oomph for 45 miles in my legs, my body was too battered by dehydration.
I’m considering – now that my watch spells out Feet Climbed – a default of 1500 feet for these short rides to keep it interesting
Still building back up. I’ll confess I enjoy early kettlebells & later rides- like it’s Winter already. I’m beginning to suspect that 48/16 isn’t 7th gear at all but a solid difficult 6th; I handled Newhall well & doubled Shelby even with some head-wind. It’s a mental quirk that makes me assign a 10 Speed number to my two regular ratios. 48/14 probably means in sprinting in an easy 8th.
Tornado Valley has more tarps on roofs than teams of roofers, but it’s improving. Some street-signs are back & there are more cars now parked in driveways. A resilient people.
I lost control of my FITIV app (which charts my heart-rate) on the phone but the Watch captured it.
Freaky Friday is a good ride at every distance so far.
Worked the climbing gear today. Sevier went well plus the connection up Shelby – a lovely double – and up Frisbee Hill. Intentional 32 miles meant no Eastland but the tour of Tornado Acres showed some much-needed rebuilding.
Still fiddling with the seat-height as 16.4 mph was my quickest split – nearly 3 mph too slow. That 3 week break tho has not helped things either.
A few Sunday Sprintervals to clear off some cobwebs. I’m still fiddling with the seat-height – the no-longer-new frame now seems smaller than the one it replaced. A work in progress.
I’ve taken to wearing one BeatsPro just to be able to hear the mileage & the split-times. So far it’s not annoying.
The heat is breaking so I predict a good 3 months {ahead. still aiming for 5000 miles.
Until my left arm swelled up a good 8% or so I didn’t know I was allergic to wasp-stings but I clearly am. With Covid-bias dominating all triage I went online to figure out some kind of cure & lit on Benadryl because every store has it in plenty. The swelling stopped or at least slowed, due to the pills or simply to the nature of the venom; I’m just glad I saved the bigger Apple Watch band because even with the extra holes I’m on the 2nd to last one.
Hitting the bag Saturday presented no obvious physical degradation but today my final 15 miles were 2 mph slower than my first 15 miles – over mostly the same Airport terrain & weather conditions* – & my breathing never flowed with my pedaling the way it usually does. An arm full of Immune Response & Venom, à bloodstream full of Benadryl, Summer heat & humidity, &/or I’m nearly 60 – who knows?
I stayed with the 14 teeth in the rear; I’ll probably keep this ratio for the Month. It still feels the most natural configuration I have available. I’m looking forward to this spread on the hills tomorrow.
*granted the humidity fell as the temperature rose & there was a bit more wind at 9 than at 7
