The schedule for the day was to ride 30 miles at 21-21.5mph with some rolling hills. The route was planned, so I mounted up and took off. After only about two miles on the road, I ran into my first four legged friend of the day, a speedy, but cool dog. He met me at the side of the road and ran alongside for about 50 yards at a dead sprint. The mutt looked to be having a ball trying to hold on, nothing malicious, just playful. I continued on the route, tagged the high point on Flint Hill and started on my way back. Little did I realize I was being helped along by a tailwind on the way out, but I definitely felt the headwind on the way back. At the turnaround I had a solid 21.6 as my average.
The turnaround with Sauratown Mountain in the distance:
The wind hit me hard on the way up Yadkinville after crossing the river. It was definitely a low point on the ride. Onto Vienna-Dozier and the climb up my average had dropped to 21.0. Crap. I knew the climb on Seward might drop my below coach's goal for the day, but I was burying myself trying not to let it dip below 21. By the crest of the climb, I was at 20.9, and wanted to headbutt my handlebars. The Seward climb kept it right at 20.9, so I hopped over onto Balsom since it is so smooth to try to re-up my speed. I hit the 30 mile mark at 21.0 even. Fantastic, I met the goal!
Cool down:
The other part of my four legged friends tonight involved some cattle that were loose on Seward road. I had been charged by a bull in that area one day while driving. (He very nearly hit the truck). So I had to crank it thinking about a 2000 pound mean as crap bull hitting me, but he wasn't anywhere to be seen. Right before the end of Seward on my cool down a nice fat Rottweiler came out to greet me. I had just enough legs left to outrun him, plus his extra 20 pounds he was carrying didn't hurt my cause.
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