A wet one

With DEA moving to Maine last year it has made it logistically harder to ride together as much as we used to. So yesterday we met in the middle and then headed back to his place for some beers and a BBQ.

The rest of my family was going to drive over and hopefully give me a ride back later on. I left the house as the skies seemed to be getting sorta nasty looking. After about 5 miles I was feeling some sprinkles and knew I was at the last gas station or store I would see in quite a while so I stopped and got a plastic bag for my phone in case the skies did really open up on me.

That turned out to be a good move. I had some good reggea cranking on Pandora on my Storm as I was rolling along. I could see what appeared to be brighter skies up ahead so I hoped that I might be able to outrun the rain. I was very wrong. Within 5 minutes I was getting pelted by big summer storm type rain and some very blustery gusts of wind. Made for some very dicey peddling for a time. Then I started hearing the rumblings of thunder and started to keep an eye out for the flashes of lightening I suspected were approaching. I saw a flash and started counting, one-one thousand, two-one thousand. three-one thousand, four, Booommmmm. OK HR just spiked. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. SO I just peddled harder and hoped that I would not be riding the lightening.



I rolled into Lovell, Maine and saw DEA had arrived at our meet-up spot as well. The rain started to subside and we then continued on our way, he was actually just turning around and heading back the way he had come. DEA got me at the only town line, I didn't know it was coming and by the time I realized what was happening I had not shot. Home court advantage was his. The ride from my house for the first 15 miles or so was relatively flat. The last 10+ miles was not.



We got a in a few good uphills and some pretty fast descents as well. I felt pretty good climbing and went faster than I usually am comfortable while going downhill. Actually hit 45.5 mph which is usually a bunch over the comfort zone and well into the white knuckle zone.

Garmin Edge Summary Data
Total Time (h:m:s) 1:28:13 3:21 pace
Moving Time (h:m:s) 1:24:45 3:13 pace
Distance (mi ) 26.23
Moving Speed (mph) 18.6 avg. 45.5 max.
Elevation Gain (ft) +1,793 / -1,931

Avg. Heart Rate 160 bpm Zone 4.5

Temperature (°F) 65.1°F avg. 68°F high


All in all it was good to get int the ride, rain and all. Once we got to DEA's place we saw the storm had hit there as well as a really huge tree had the top of it blown off and into the road. Impressive it was.

DEA showed me his new Salsa Cross bike, the Chili Con. It has a wicked cool red paint job which I'm sure he'll put up some pics of. Did a little test ride and it felt smooth. Someday I'll get me one of them, maybe.

We cleaned up and he fired up the grill and I opened my first of many Sam Summer's. Great Sunday afternoon. Let's do it again!

JJ