The weather was great this week - it started off hot, but the weekend was gorgeous and I got a lot of riding in!
This is one of my favorite rides - it's beautiful countryside and the terrain is lots of rolling hills. Normally, we have trouble seeing the Amish (they tend to stay hidden!), but whether it was the very agreeable weather or the publicity from UPN's Amish in the City, they were out in droves!
When we reached the start, turns out there was another group riding that day - Team in Training, which is doing a ride for leukemia. And we had some friends doing that ride so it was nice to see them. Unfortunately, there was an accident or construction or something on the highway because our intrepid leaders were late!. But we all had a chance to hang around and talk and enjoy the beautiful day.
I guess we were all antsy to get on the road, there was a good tailwind, or the low heat and humidity allowed us to remain fresh, but we cruised! I had the fastest average I've ever had: 18.45 miles per hour over 50 miles. We started at 9a and were done by 12:30! Of that, we were riding only 2 hours and 45 minutes. It was amazing.
I rode from my house in Pentagon City to Dupont, the ride start. I was tired and my legs were feeling a little loose after the blazing pace we set Saturday. I was the first person there and sat in the sun for a while until Glenn & Jim showed up. When Michael arrived, he needed to change his tire, which was running pretty bald, so I helped him do that.
Another gorgeous day, but man were my legs tired. There was no way I was going to be able to keep up the pace we had set yesterday. I was even contemplating doing a shorter route, but everyone convinced me to hang on and do the full distance.
Everyone was feeling the effects and the pace was definitely slower - not to mention, the terrain was a lot hillier! We experienced our first flat of the season at the bottom of a particularly nasty, short, steep hill. But we managed to get it taken care off and were off again in short order.
The best was when we were finally coming home along McArthur Blvd - we managed to pick up the pace a little and fell into a groove. We ended up averaging around 16mph for the 70(ish) miles. Patty, bless her heart, drove me home as I don't think I could have made it another pedal stroke!
Hope you had a chance to enjoy the amazing weather this weekend!
Rachael
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