Pyrennes

My goal for the day was to hit Pilot, but with no takers on the ride, and the unexpected bit of wind and threat of storms, I opted to stick closer to home in case things got ugly earlier than expected. This was a non-point seeing as it is still absolutely beautiful out right now. Anyways, I had the plan still of doing some of the good climbs that I am lucky enough to live by...River Ridge, Kilmurray, Beroth, Vienna-Dozier, Shore, Bowens and Griffin all serve up climbs that are sustained above 10 percent. In the mileage I did, around 35, the GPS claims that I climbed just under 3800 feet, which seems high, but could be close with all of those hills. Things add up pretty quickly. Around 20 miles or so in, I decided to do a stupid time-trial-esque effort for the length of Vienna-Dozier and River Ridge. Aside from the one real climb, my speed didn't dip below 22mph, and most of the time it was around the 25-28mph mark. Needless to say, I was pretty well cooked after that effort, but still had some good climbs left to do. I turned back around once I got to the end of River Ridge to go back to the Water Treatment plant, because I saw something interesting happening there. I tried to capture video, but the little camera is less than adept at quality video recording. There was a Falcon (probably?) trying to catch smaller birds by diving in on them, it was circling way up in the sky, and then swooping down on them. Very cool. So, then I took off, and stopped in at CG Hill Park for a few minutes to just enjoy being outside, watch the geese, and relax. The ride was more for fun than for any real type of training, which is good, because I have no real idea how to train. A day on the bike is always good, no matter how you feel!


Azaleas are looking good here in the Western Piedmont