Independence Day Ride
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Sreepathi Pai
Aug 16, 2020, 10:12:11 PM8/16/20
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About a month left to the first 200K brevet -- if it happens. So,
yesterday I decided to ride to the brevet start point. It's around 20
miles to the start point, so that's a 1 hr 45 min ride. I'm in the
phase of training now where I'm doing longer and longer rides, so a
round-trip distance of 40 miles or 64 km would be a good step up from
55km last week which was a step up from the 40 km ride the week prior
to that. Yes, I'm taking it slow...
RUSA and the ACP now require EN1150 hi-vis jackets, so I was lucky to
find Decathlon is now open in the US and sells one (Triban RC120)
which coincidentally arrived two days early yesterday. Go USPS!
I ride in the evenings now, largely because of the long daylight
hours, but if everything went according to plan, I knew I'd still be
riding after sunset.
Anyways, I'm riding alone, so I head out. Around 3 miles into the
ride, I hit Ellison Park, which is a longish descent into the
Irondequoit Valley. I'm cutting along the shorter side of the valley,
so I'm soon climbing out. This is a hard climb (for me), but I recover
quickly when I reach the top. I'm really happy at how the base
training over the last two months has improved my ability to recover.
I cross 286 on foot, it's a painful highway.
As I'm crossing though, I note my rear tire is noticeably flatter.
Since I was fiddling with the pressure before riding, I don't think
it's a flat. I pump the tire back up and resume. The ride is just
starting and I decide to continue on for 20 minutes before deciding
whether to check for a puncture (or "flat" as they're called here).
Nearly all the roads in the ride are county roads, and almost all of
them have reasonable shoulders. Some of them have excellent surfaces
too. I make good progress on Creek St, before hitting Empire Blvd, a
largish highway. This has large shoulders too, and traffic seems low.
I don't linger long before continuing on to Gravel Road. I do a quick
check of the pressure and the tire seems to be holding up. It actually
holds up for the full ride.
Both Creek St and Gravel Road are pretty rural (though this is Upstate
New York "rural"). That means narrow roads, still good shoulders,
little traffic, lots of trees, and an occasional bicyclist.
Further on, I move to Klem Road, before changing over to Withing Road
which leads into the Withing Road Nature Preserve. This is the
quietest and loveliest road of the trip. I see some lovely houses in
the woods. Lucky people!
Finally, I spy the horizon and blue water. That's Ontario Lake coming
up on Lake Road. I continue on to Lake Road which runs along the lake
and forms the "Seaway Trail". This road (although not the parts I
will ride today) will be a major part of the brevet route. One of the
"disadvantages" of living in a region carved out by glaciers is the
absolute lack of flat roads. It's rolling, but nice and pleasant as I
can usually accelerate up the next uphill using the momentum gained
from the previous downhill. Overall, though, I'm going downhill.
I cross the county line and the roads change -- the shoulders are
narrower and the surface hasn't been relaid recently. It's still okay
though and I reach the brevet start point still fresh. That's good to
know.
I pick a slightly different route for the return and I quickly realise
that I'm riding against the wind. So maybe that's why it was so easy
on the way out?
Of course, I'm also riding an uphill all the way home as my rising
heart rate and my falling speed tell me. I hit Klem Road, and soon I'm
back on my original route. Still uphill though. Once back on Creek
St, I stop to put on my hi-vis jacket. No cars come close to me at
all, so I guess it works well. Soon I'm back in Ellison Park entering
the valley again.
Getting out of Ellison Park on the west end is either a 8% straight
climb (the one I descended on) or a 4% but longer climb on a much
quieter road. I take the 4% option. I rode it a few days ago, but at
night it's completely quiet, and I decide to try a higher gear. I can
only hear my breathing get more and more labored as I reach > 90% max
HR. But I know I can still keep spinning and indeed at the end of 5
minutes, I'm at the top. It's now about 15 minutes on gently rolling
terrain back home.
Overall stats: 64km in 3:15 riding time, end-to-end 3:48, 12.49mph
riding, 11mph overall. About 329m of climbing. Tired out, especially
in the last hour, but after a night's rest feel mostly good, so it
doesn't appear that I overextended myself.
Looking forward to a 34mile ride this Saturday with around 3000ft of
climbing, which will require a 34-mile to-and-fro ride to the start as
well, so a total of around 100km.
--
Sreepathi Pai
yesterday I decided to ride to the brevet start point. It's around 20
miles to the start point, so that's a 1 hr 45 min ride. I'm in the
phase of training now where I'm doing longer and longer rides, so a
round-trip distance of 40 miles or 64 km would be a good step up from
55km last week which was a step up from the 40 km ride the week prior
to that. Yes, I'm taking it slow...
RUSA and the ACP now require EN1150 hi-vis jackets, so I was lucky to
find Decathlon is now open in the US and sells one (Triban RC120)
which coincidentally arrived two days early yesterday. Go USPS!
I ride in the evenings now, largely because of the long daylight
hours, but if everything went according to plan, I knew I'd still be
riding after sunset.
Anyways, I'm riding alone, so I head out. Around 3 miles into the
ride, I hit Ellison Park, which is a longish descent into the
Irondequoit Valley. I'm cutting along the shorter side of the valley,
so I'm soon climbing out. This is a hard climb (for me), but I recover
quickly when I reach the top. I'm really happy at how the base
training over the last two months has improved my ability to recover.
I cross 286 on foot, it's a painful highway.
As I'm crossing though, I note my rear tire is noticeably flatter.
Since I was fiddling with the pressure before riding, I don't think
it's a flat. I pump the tire back up and resume. The ride is just
starting and I decide to continue on for 20 minutes before deciding
whether to check for a puncture (or "flat" as they're called here).
Nearly all the roads in the ride are county roads, and almost all of
them have reasonable shoulders. Some of them have excellent surfaces
too. I make good progress on Creek St, before hitting Empire Blvd, a
largish highway. This has large shoulders too, and traffic seems low.
I don't linger long before continuing on to Gravel Road. I do a quick
check of the pressure and the tire seems to be holding up. It actually
holds up for the full ride.
Both Creek St and Gravel Road are pretty rural (though this is Upstate
New York "rural"). That means narrow roads, still good shoulders,
little traffic, lots of trees, and an occasional bicyclist.
Further on, I move to Klem Road, before changing over to Withing Road
which leads into the Withing Road Nature Preserve. This is the
quietest and loveliest road of the trip. I see some lovely houses in
the woods. Lucky people!
Finally, I spy the horizon and blue water. That's Ontario Lake coming
up on Lake Road. I continue on to Lake Road which runs along the lake
and forms the "Seaway Trail". This road (although not the parts I
will ride today) will be a major part of the brevet route. One of the
"disadvantages" of living in a region carved out by glaciers is the
absolute lack of flat roads. It's rolling, but nice and pleasant as I
can usually accelerate up the next uphill using the momentum gained
from the previous downhill. Overall, though, I'm going downhill.
I cross the county line and the roads change -- the shoulders are
narrower and the surface hasn't been relaid recently. It's still okay
though and I reach the brevet start point still fresh. That's good to
know.
I pick a slightly different route for the return and I quickly realise
that I'm riding against the wind. So maybe that's why it was so easy
on the way out?
Of course, I'm also riding an uphill all the way home as my rising
heart rate and my falling speed tell me. I hit Klem Road, and soon I'm
back on my original route. Still uphill though. Once back on Creek
St, I stop to put on my hi-vis jacket. No cars come close to me at
all, so I guess it works well. Soon I'm back in Ellison Park entering
the valley again.
Getting out of Ellison Park on the west end is either a 8% straight
climb (the one I descended on) or a 4% but longer climb on a much
quieter road. I take the 4% option. I rode it a few days ago, but at
night it's completely quiet, and I decide to try a higher gear. I can
only hear my breathing get more and more labored as I reach > 90% max
HR. But I know I can still keep spinning and indeed at the end of 5
minutes, I'm at the top. It's now about 15 minutes on gently rolling
terrain back home.
Overall stats: 64km in 3:15 riding time, end-to-end 3:48, 12.49mph
riding, 11mph overall. About 329m of climbing. Tired out, especially
in the last hour, but after a night's rest feel mostly good, so it
doesn't appear that I overextended myself.
Looking forward to a 34mile ride this Saturday with around 3000ft of
climbing, which will require a 34-mile to-and-fro ride to the start as
well, so a total of around 100km.
--
Sreepathi Pai
Abhijit Kshirsagar
Aug 17, 2020, 12:42:50 AM8/17/20
to IBN Group
Pics or it didn't happen! :)
Abhijit
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Sreepathi Pai
Aug 17, 2020, 11:32:07 AM8/17/20
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Here you go:
<https://imgur.com/a/sTKwH1K>
Need to up my pics game -- these were all that I took.
> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/iiscbikersnetwork/CACNnPRnFLKkKFqMD29UE%3DrV7dnrdfu7zEsgdLrcv%3DWtYfSKhcQ%40mail.gmail.com.
--
Sreepathi Pai
<https://imgur.com/a/sTKwH1K>
Need to up my pics game -- these were all that I took.
--
Sreepathi Pai
Siddhartha Sarma
Aug 17, 2020, 9:11:14 PM8/17/20
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Sripathi,
It is nice to read of your ride. Hope things are going well for you!
On Mon, 17 Aug 2020 at 07:42, Sreepathi Pai <sre...@gmail.com> wrote:
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Siddhartha P Sarma
Professor
Molecular Biophysics Unit
Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore
Professor
Molecular Biophysics Unit
Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore
Abhijit Kshirsagar
Aug 19, 2020, 7:36:48 AM8/19/20
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Beautiful!
-Abhijit
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Siddhartha Sarma
Aug 19, 2020, 11:00:48 AM8/19/20
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Wonderful. One of the beautiful things about summer in the High latitudes are the late evenings. Really miss them.
Siddhartha
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