Vacation ride wrap-up
I rode 170.29 miles in the nine calendar days of my vacation. There were two days I didn’t ride at all—last Saturday when CBC was here and Wednesday with the rain of the 40 days.
Sunday was short, also because CBC was here. Monday was a one-way trip of 10.86 miles where I ended up in the suburbs at a birthday party. I’d intended to drop off the card. I hadn’t heard about the party. The hosts knew I was on vacation and had planned on being in Canada, so they didn’t send an invite.
On Friday I logged only 6.32. Rode 30 miles each on Tuesday and Saturday. I logged two rides on Thursday—13 miles in the afternoon and another 22 in the evening. Forty miles today filled out my log for the week.
I’d set a goal of 200 miles for the week and wanted today’s ride to be 50, but that’s life. I barely made it home today between the heat, the wind and 20 miles of riding on gravel. Overall I’m happy with the week, so I’m not upset about missing the goals.
Taking the bus on Monday
Tomorrow’s weather is to be a repeat performance of today. Only hotter. Today was 92 or 93 degrees with a heat index of over 100. When I returned from my ride today, it was only 88. If I had to go only to the library tomorrow, I could do 95. It’s only 2.2 miles. But I have to go to the hospital first. It’s five miles there, and my usual route from there to the library is nine more. I doubt I’d be presentable on arrival. So the bus it will be.
40 mpg
Looking back over my rides, I find I’m getting about 40 miles per gallon on my bike. Of course, that’s gallons of water. I refill my bottles from the tap, so my cost is nil. I’m also getting about 15 mpgb, or miles per granola bar.
Just thought I’d share.
Thursday
Nice day, 85, sunny, no wind to speak of, so I took the long way home after sopping at Presbytery to put in a few hours. I headed south from there to pick up the Canalway intending to take the Genesee Riverway into downtown and home from there.
At the expressway overpass there was a guy in full lycra on an friction-shift Peugeot stopped along the curb of the turn lane for the on-ramp. Braking for the light, I called over to see if he was okay. He was. Turns out, he was visiting from Vancouver, BC, and was looking for the Canalway. And since he was hoping to make a circuit ride ultimately heading for East Ave, just a bit further out from downtown than I, I offered to be his tour guide.
To my surprise, he accepted. (I ride a hybrid with fenders, lights, grip shifters, platform pedals, pannier rack, bell and big-ass U-lock; and I was wearing a helmet with a (gasp!) visor, cargo shorts, a white tee, ratty old sneakers, and had my stuff in a backpack—just the sort of rider roadies usually point to and snicker at, rather than ride with.)
It was really nice to have a buddy along for a ride. Only had a ride partner once and I’ve done only one group ride (C riders who, for real, averaged 5 mph on 14 miles of canal path.) It was even better that we were comfortable at a nice pace, 14 mph on the average, that still allowed for conversation without panting. We could have ridden faster, but the conversation would’ve suffered.
We did 13 miles together before I had to turn off. We even picked up a wheelsucker coming out of downtown. (Wheelsucker: Someone who rides your wheel using your draft to make their pedaling easier.)
Nicest commute ever.
After dinner, I rode one of my usual training/leisure rides on the Riverway and Canalway. I was glad I still had my fenders on because the Riverway was flooded under the Ford St bridge. (Still was this morning, and I still had my fenders on, just in case it was.) It was pretty deep too—at least up to the chainrings, which would be about seven inches. I got two soakers on Thursday because I didn’t raise my feet above the bow spray from the tire. I didn’t make that mistake today.
Saturday
One of the forums has a board for ride partners. I saw someone from Rochester looking for riders. I met up with a woman called Gizmocat and with Marcm, who I’d met at the crit after meeting on that same forum and exchanging several emails.
Gizmocat is recovering from some sort of leg injury and was breaking-in a new bike, after having hers stolen last week. She warned she’d be slow. There was truth in advertising. Still, it was nice to have ride and conversations. And she and Marcm didn’t seem to mind when I broke off on the return to go play in the headwinds on the hills on the Canalway west of the river.
Today’s ride
I’ve determined that 25 miles is about the limit of the comfort envelope of the saddle on my bike. Today’s 40 mile ride was misery on the way home. I learned what they really mean by chafing. And numbness in the crotch. At least the numbness tempered the chafing a bit.
I wanted to ride out past Spencerport on the Canalway, hoping to get as far as Brockport. I made it as far as Adams Basin, about halfway between them. (Google map) I was riding west into a southwest wind the whole distance. And the Canalway is paved only to Long Pond Road, or halfway to where I turned around.
I came to appreciate how much easier it is to pedal on asphalt. And I found I prefer a little change in elevation every now and again. After all, hills are only halfway up. The other half is down and I can coast. The gravel parts of the Canalway west of town are as flat as the surface of the canal itself, so there’s no opportunity to coast. Pedaling 20 miles in that (10 miles out, and 10 miles back) took all the joy out of the ride. It became a real grind. Of course the 10–15 mph headwind, heat and mugginess contributed as well.
The difficulty of this particular ride is shown in my stats for the day. A couple of minutes over three hours riding time in four hours and 10 minutes of total time, for an average riding speed of 13 mph, or less than 10 if you include the breaks.
I have no recollection of nice scenery, but I know it’s there. I do recall they have a nice outhouse in Spencerport where the trail crosses the state highway at the lift bridge. And there was a nice bench in the shade at Adams Basin. However, they’re replacing the lift bridge there and the crews were working this morning. It was loud. But it wasn’t riding, so it was a nice stop.
So I’ve decided to keep my rides under 25 miles and stay on the pavement until I get a new saddle. And maybe trying long rides two days in a row wasn’t such a hot idea either. And riding the bus tomorrow is going to be a real treat. It’ll give my saddle sores a break.
