I finally had my first ride of the year, and in all honesty, it was a horror show. After not being on a bike yet on 2008, I was desperate to get some kind of ride in, so I decided Saturday afternoon to just do my local ride through the Santa Fe Valley.I rode my Iron Horse hardtail since the shifters on my FSR are still broken from the New Year's Eve ride at Anderson TT. After today's ride, I've never loved the FSR more. I particularly appreciate the clipless pedals on the FSR, since my feet were all over the place using the IH's platform pedals.
Climbing, which is far from a strength of mine on a good day, was horrendous. Between my lack of conditioning, and the flat pedals, and heavy bike, I was dragging. The Black Mountain hike earlier in the day may also have played a role in my struggles.
At one point toward the last third of the ride, I was so lightheaded and nausous that I called Rach to come get me at the Boys & Girl's Club. After resting for a few minutes, the nausea passed, and I quickly came to my senses and called her back to cancel the sag wagon. I'm not going to lie, the prospect of having to post that I wimped out and bailed on a 6 mile ride played a big role in me sucking it up. Arrgh.
I limped the rest of the way home, and actually felt ok during the last fire road climb. But it was a humbling, even embarrassing ride, particularly since it is one that I regularly flew through a few months ago.
My performance also has me re-thinking whether I can do the Skyline MTB ride at Daley this weekend, and has also renewed my urgency to fix the FSR. We'll see.
Anyway, here are the final stats (without a map because it is doorstep to doorstep):
Total Distance: 5.88 miles
Total Time: 107:32
Ascent: 713 feet
Average Speed: 5.2 mph (ouch)
Top Speed: 25.0
Route Map: [Undisclosed]
Bike: Iron Horse HT
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