As to the subject: with every mile your butt gets wiser about those dang chip-sealed Karnes County roads. That – the ubiquitous chipseal – is what I dislike most when riding my bicycle hereabouts. But it simply can’t be helped if I want to bicycle.
Well, today the weather was so gorgeous again that I decided to try of my butt could stand the saddle for some more miles. And it could – even if at the end of the ride, after about 1 3/4 hours in the saddle – I did feel it a lot and wouldn’t have liked to go on much longer. Today, with the wind blowing fairly strongly again from the north, I decided to ride into it first and thus took one of my standard routes: out via Hobson and Panna Maria, and then looping back via Helena. It was 25.54 miles at an average of 14 mph. Not too bad, considering the wind [you never get as much speed back with the wind pushing youo than what you lose riding into the wind] andthe fact that it was only my second bicycle ride [and on consecutive days at that] after a 2-month pause. Compared to yesterday, the climbs were not so steep. Much easier with my gear ratio [54/39 x 13-21]. Thus the total ascent gained was 739 feet only. Anyway: this ride plus yesterday’s put me way ahead of my daily average planned [10 kilometers]. But knowing that there will be plenty of days when I won’t ride I really need a good “cushion”. After the ride I was craving for proteins and had some left-over smoked turkey: a whole drumstick with some thigh – every yummy and replenishing the lost calories. During the ride, btw, I had the need for some glucose and this had – and that’s unusual for me on such a short ride – 2 single-serving pouches of orange-flavoured Hammer Gel, and they helped. I always carry these with me, just in case, and today I really needed them. Before the ride I had – to keep my minerals and electrolytes at the right level – taken one capsule of Hammer Endurolytes.
Related articles
- The New Year – A Good Beginning (pitsbicycleblog.wordpress.com)
