The forecast said temperatures in the 70’s and no rain. As I went through the day at work, I kept going over where I’d be riding my bike. With the weight falling off from the combination of the Paleo Diet and increased activity, I was starting to think about a birthday ride on the coming Wednesday of 63 miles. It’s been a very long time since I’ve gone that far…the summer of 2014 during Tour Ohio, but my conditioning is coming together. Now if only that weather holds…
I was on the bike at 3:30 p.m. Dakota watched forlornly from the screen door, wondering why she wasn’t heading out for a hike. “I’ll take you when I get back, Dakota, but I just HAVE to ride,” I said. She nodded in agreement.
I figured I had a couple of hours and could do 35 miles. I started out on the towpath to avoid parts of Riverview Road that was so full of holes, it appeared to have been part of a war zone…or anywhere in Cleveland. With hikers and runners out in abundance, the decision was not such a good one, though.
I reached the bottom of the closed section of Everett Road in ten minutes and was already sucking on my water bottle. It was hot! I did the climb staying in the saddle and working the quads hard. With a trip to the Adirondacks only four weeks away, I want to get in some decent climbing shape and working a hill on a bike while seated works those same uphill muscles.
With the gearing on Locke, the climb is actually very little problem. I had four easier gears that I didn’t need, which is saying something about both the gearing (fabulous for steep climbs) and my conditioning. Once out of the valley, I rode south along Revere Road, a new route for me. It is lightly traveled, which is my first criteria in rating roads, but my second, a decent shoulder, was pretty much non-existent. I knew it would dump onto Bath Road, which I would take back to Brecksville Road for a long stretch of the ride. As I got closer to Bath though, I saw the sign at the top warning of a steep grade. As I rode down, I was thankful I wasn’t riding up – it was that steep. Then I reached the bottom and looking west on Bath Road, noticed it was just as steep and with its winding nature, heavy traffic and a lack of a shoulder, quickly concluded that I’d be turning around and climbing back the way I’d just come down. Shit.
I dropped into my third lowest gear and slowly, but steadily, climbed back up. My heart beat hit about 170 and my thighs were burning from the combination of this effort and the ride up Everett Road fifteen minutes earlier. Mid-summer and maybe a thousand miles of training under my belt, this wouldn’t have been such a big deal, but we were a long way from there. I reached the top with that burning in my quads that warns of a heavy lactic acid build-up, which normally says ‘you’re about to be done’. Well…I wasn’t about to be done. And did I mention the winds were blowing about 20 mph and gusting over 30? I made my way north as my legs began to recover. That strong wind was at my back for the time being…
For the next half hour, I rode the rolling hills on Brecksville Road and sucked down a full bottle of water. I headed east and dropped back into the valley on Akron-Peninsula Road near the ski slopes, which still had some dirty snow pack on them. Now I turned my bike back into the full force of the wind and was riding on legs that begged for a break. I would not come for another eight miles.
I limped into my development 45 minutes later a beaten cyclist. Dakota greeted me with that happy ‘I can’t wait to hike’ look and bounce, which I did accommodate after changing. It was a short one, though. The remainder of the night was one of recovery. Still, it was a good conditioning ride and the bathroom scale had a very encouraging report – down ten pounds in a little over three weeks. It’s all working…
Bike Ride: Two hours.
Training Heart Rate: 120-135 bpm.
Calories Burned: 1500
Bonus: 23,000 steps.
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