Week 38

Date
September 19th, 2012

Distance
200 Miles

Time
12:45:23

Route Map/Profile

Weather

Picture

Headed west on 299 near Burney, CA.

Ride Report
The solo double is complete. I was a little nervous going into it, but at the end of the ride I felt better than I have for any other double I've done before. This is partly because (a) the route was the easiest double route I have done and (b) I wasn't chasing other guys and riding above my limits at any point during the day. It wasn't a slow ride (for my ability), but it was more steady than riding with a group and the lack of big climbs/descents made it easy to just get into a groove and go.

My starting point was in the middle of the "+" in the map above. I split the ride into 4 parts, starting with the E-W section, followed by S-N, W-E, and N-S sections. I planned on making each section 50 miles, but as I was riding I decided to throw in some extra miles on the first 3 sections so the last section would be shorter than the rest. The sections ended up being 51, 54, 61, and 34 miles. The wind was only a factor on the third section, and it was stronger than the weather graph would indicate. This is where I found the windmills on 299, so you can bet that wind is often a factor in the area. My average speed shows the difference: for section 3 I only managed 15 mph, while I was able to ride 16.2, 16.1, and 15.8 mph on sections 1, 2, and 4. I'm happy with the 15.8 at the end when you consider that I was riding in the dark for most of that section. I don't have any data from my other doubles, but I'd be willing to bet that my speed usually drops off towards the end more than it did today.

I'm happy with the ride. I may not be all that fast, but I felt good out there and I did well with my pacing and nutrition/hydration. I feel like I did the best ride I could ask for with my current fitness level. This is the latest point in a year that I've done a double, so I'm hoping this will pay off early next year.