SOLO CYCLING

Last month's bike log showed 639 miles. I had hoped for 700+ but took the last couple of days off to recover. 442 miles of the total came in the six days of riding the Natchez Trace at tourist speed. That took a lot more out of me than expected. I also had to recover mentally from again struggling to keep up with Evelyn last Sunday, and still only posting 2 hr and 55 minutes for the 42 mile, hilly ride.
Evelyn is out of town this week, so I reverted to doing the ride by myself. A brief history: I used this course to train for my coast-to-coast ride and really like it, although took a two year sabbatical when they resurfaced RR620. It has either 18 or 22 climbs, depending on what you call a climb. For instance, going from the dam to the top of Steiner Ranch is either one climb or three. Same thing for Loop 360 from the river past River Bend Church. I know that early in the year, I should expect 2hrs 45 minutes and later that should drop 10 minutes. The last two rides were 2:57 and 2:55. Given the number of miles in my legs, and the suffering done while riding, my results should have been faster.
The reason I usually do this ride solo is because my start time is 10 minutes before sunrise. Today that meant 6:30am. Not too many of my cycling friends are willing to get out this early. Unlike the high winds of last week, this morning had no wind, a few sprinkles, and 60-65 degrees. I tried to keep a high rpm and had good energy the whole way. 2 hrs, 33 min 3 sec.
Recovery worked!