A good Saturday Morning Ride!

Today I met up with a new cycling friend to have a good 25-30 mile Saturday morning ride. Jim and I had decided to meet up at the Winn Dixie in Cahaba Heights and ride from there to Sicard Hollow Road, then Rex Lake, up HWY 78, on to Old Leeds, down onto Brookwood Road and ride through Mtn Brook on our way back to the WD.

When I left the house this morning around 8:15 it was really overcast and had started that misty rain as I drove to Cahaba Hts. The rain pretty much held off during our ride today, but it stayed overcast the entire time. Which was a good thing, as it kept the temp in the low 70's. The weather was nearly perfect for a long ride.

The ride was great, the elevation changes were pretty stout at times, but nothing we didn't overcome. Jim's a better climber than I am, I struggled on a couple of hills that I just wasn't prepared for. The irony of those hills was that they weren't very steep, they were just gradual climbs. I was just spent when I would come to them.

As we were riding down Old Leeds Road we had a pack of about 5 cyclist (some were part of the Tria Market team) who appeared to be doing some training as they would swap leaders and let someone else pull over certain stretches. Well, I decided I wanted to catch up to them and see what it felt like to be on the tail of a speedy group. So I pushed myself pretty good to try and reel them in, and I was...till I ran out of steam. But I was able to roll at a pace in the low 2 minutes when I was trying to catch them, I can only imagine what kind of pace they were consistently riding.

Jim and I finished up the ride with a good little stretch through Mtn. Brook looking at all the enormous houses in the area.

We did have one little scare on HWY 78. As we were climbing that long grueling hill just near the cemetery we got passed by a pickup truck in the far lane when all of a sudden this huge charter bus passed us in our lane. We had no idea he was there and he made no attempt to give us room. Had I lost my balance and had to correct I would have been drilled. It was so close the wind off the bus nearly pushed us off the road. Absolutely unnecessary, just like the guy in the Jeep that honked at us and then flipped us off when I raised my hands in a "what the hell" gesture! Needless to say, be on your toes out there!

Overall I rode 29.62 miles, with a 4:01 avg page, 14.9mph avg speed, I reached a max of 37.1mph. Our total ride time was a hair under 2 hours at 1:58:59. All while I burned 2981 calories!

Helluva ride!

Here's a link to the Motionbased Website that will show the info from the ride.

Map Player

Dashboard

Elevation Profile