that was nice

another half century, to bring my weekly total to just over 100 miles.

time: 3:33
distance: 51.25
elevation gain: 3000 feet

looking at my records, apparently my first 50 mile ride took me 3:09. i've gotten slower!

this one, though, had a different route. same as last week, only i extended it out past page mill to bag the 50. i actually had to overshoot a little because there was an island on the road where i need to u-turn! heh.

i said this about my previous half century:

i zipped down ralston and took ECR home. I had to do some noodling around the 'hood to round it up to 50. i whistled for nearly the entire last 8 miles.

yeah, that explains the time. this time, just as i had 46 miles under my belt, i went up ralston. now, i can hit 35mph coming down ralston. i couldn't go over 6mph up it today without bursting my heart. but i was proud of myself as i relied on my training to make a strategy at hte bottom of ralston, where i really wanted to turn right (heading down) but forced myself to go up, at a pace which i hate (70 rpm) but which enabled me to make it.

another thing that made me happy was that i paced myself well, apparently, because i had plenty of juice left for a sprint through the obstacle course. just as i was emerging from it, up the last tiny incline which, at the end of 50 miles, can be a lot more painful than it ought to be at only about 2%, i got passed. "oh hells no," i said, popped it into ludicrous gear, pegged my heart at 175bpm, and beat the dude up the hill, legally thru the intersection, and then lost him on the downhill. yay. sure, i'm not out there to race, except when i am ;)

the weather was crud to start with, cloudy, overcast, chilly. i went out with a jacket and leg warmers. the weather probably helped me a lot. even though i much prefer sports in sunlight, i didn't get a solar beatdown for the first 1:30 of my ride. by the time i got to whisky hill and sand hill, i was ready to lose the extra coverings. i pulled over and began taking stuff off.

two roadies shouted as they went by, asking me if i needed help. i really love riding in this area. i thanked them and said no.

then it was time to put on more sunscreen, but i couldn't open the gorram little sunscreen container. argh! i struggled and struggled and probably added 5 minutes to my ride time before i could manage to open it. finally i succeeded, and got some sunscreen on me, especially on my burnt areas. then, as i descended alpine, the fookin sunscreen container jumped out of bento box, knocked me in the leg, and rolled out into the middle of the street. heh. it narrowly missed getting run over by a car.

(i'm really a little disappointed that i didn't beat my old 50 mile time. i guess it's some consolation that this route was probably more difficult.)

when i arrived home, some douchebag was smoking right by the entrance. i waited for him to finish, a car drove up, he came up to the car, i went up the stairs, and when i reached the door i had to unlock, i noticed a smoker's shadow behind me. he was back by the door.

great, a dope dealer in my building. i sure hope SMPD don't no-knock the wrong address, break down my door and shoot my dogs.

ride profile (altitude is in meters because that's the way the germans want me to use my software):