All Things Considered

Today's ride wasn't bad. It wasn't great but with the luck I have been having with the weather I was just happy to get out on the bike. I had the day off Sunday and was excited to ride. I woke up to rain and cold temps,so I waited it out to no avail and spent the day indoors. Monday I pulled a double so I could have all of Tuesday off. Well once again I woke up to cold and rain,  so I decided to call up the City Manager of Kent and discuss a possible Mountain Bike trail Opportunity in Kent. It was a productive call and I can really see something happening soon. After that, it was still raining so I installed a 2x4 in the garage and installed some hooks and brought up my bikes from the basement into the garage. 

Finally, it cleared up so I put my bike on my car and started towards the Valley. A quick stop at the LBS and picked up a frame pump, where I ran into Dr. Ducharme, one of the smartest, kindest men I have met, and one of my professors and also an avid rider. We talked for a bit and then made plans for later and I headed up to the Valley. I started to get my things together and just as I start riding it starts to sprinkle. I can handle sprinkles, but 3 miles down the road the skies open up and I'm forced to turn around.

So today, the sun in shining and the roads are dry. So I head out again to the Valley to get a ride in. This ride turns out better, except for the headwinds. On the bright side, headwinds don't force me to turn around for my saftey. I followed my regular route up through Sand Run Parkway. Instead of going straight on Yellow Creek Road I turn right onto Revere Road. Slight uphill turns into a killer 8% grade up W. Bath Road. Which is followed be a steep, fast descent down towards Yellow Creek Road again. I stop at the red light at Riverview Road and I'm swarmed from four members of the Solon Bicyle team. I'll tell you what, these guys are fast. All four were on mountain bikes and keeping pace at 18 mph! We pacelined for a while until I decided to get spry, got into the big ring and see if anyone would react to my break. I jumped off the front and got a good 100 meter break looked back and saw no one was going to chase me down so I sat up and took a pull at the front. I was pleased that I could still pull off the front. 

They turned left on Ira Road and I continued back towards Peninsula. Pretty ineventful road back into town except for the deer standing next to the side of the road that startled me. And now the ride details.

Mileage- 23.69

avg speed-16 mph

avg cadence- 86 rpm

elevation- +755 feet

time- 1:29:15