The Storm and Last Friday's Ride

Since the storm hit Saturday I have been without power and internet. Scariest thing I have ever seen. When I was walking the dog last Saturday night every 5 seconds I would hear crack, woosh, BOOM. Trees and large branches falling everywhere. No power still. 24 degrees at night on Sunday. 48 degrees in the living room. Keeping food cold in the snow. Cooking on the coleman. Three trees laying across my deck. Today is my first day back at work.

I have been so inspired by Mike and Don's races that I was anxious to get out last week and do a longer more challenging road bike ride. I have had some decent mountain bike rides lately and I wanted to see how I would do on the road. Below is last Friday's experience.
My Intended Route on 10/28/11
Last Friday I hit the route from the link above. It was a total of 26 miles and very enjoyable for the most part. It certainly had its desirable challenges and some regrettable mistakes. Setting out on Lake Rd was a real nice, mellow and scenic ride. Here is a pic I lifted from somewhere else so you could see the view. Obviously the leaves have all turned and now with the storm much of it is down.

Croton Lake Rd was great climbing until I discovered my first mistake. The last 0.6 of a mile leading up to Cherry is hard packed dirt. It is rideable but slow and the climb is killer.

Cherry Street is a quick descent to Rte 35 through Katonah. From 35 I turned right into Pepsi for a nice climb and fast descent, BUT the road does not go over to 100 by the ballfields as the map suggests. Well, it does but it is GRAVEL. I had to turn around and go back up a steep climb. The climbing started to feel a little overwhelming at this point and I just reminded myself that it wasn't a race and my pace didn't matter much. Relaxing and focusing on breathing helped a lot.

I found my way back to 100 North with no shoulder and too much traffic. Its a very difficult and dangerous left turn from there onto Primrose. I always thought Primrose was flat from driving it for several years. But it ain't flat at all. Its a slow painful climb. 3/4 of the way up I developed a cramp in my right calf. I have never had that happen before but with all this sustained climbing I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I stopped and stretched, massaged the calf and drank water. The cramp went away thank God.

From there i rode onto 202 where I heard the clamp from my headlight clanging. I stopped to tighten it up. I put the headlight on at this point as the sun was beginning to set. I continued onto Granite Springs and then the bike path which was one of the more enjoyable legs of the trip. Then the bike path was a quick cruise back down to Yorktown. I averaged about 17.5 mph here holding back a bit so as not to run over any unexpected runners or slow-poking old people walking. Crossing the bridge over the Croton Reservoir at sunset was amazing especially because it was at the end of my trip. I left the bike path in Ossining at 134 and crossed back to 100 North and back to my car at 100/118. This was the least enjoyable part with no shoulder and the occasional obnoxious work van buzzing me at 50mph. Very dangerous.

I plan to modify this a bit in order to avoid those danger spots. But for a guy who is mostly a mountain biker this was enjoyable even if I did poke along for a total average speed of 13.2 mph for the total trip.
Here are my actual ride stats