Today I did another off the books ride. I am going to Danville with the Philadelphia bike club in the beginning of May so I wanted to get some hill training in as Danville is a hilly area. We started from Rocky Hill and went to White House Station and back. We did this route which I have done before. This route doesn't have any killer hills but there are a lot of gradual ups and downs so it feels tougher than the 2800 feet that it was.
What really made this ride harder than it should of bin was the wind which was a constant 20 mph with gust a lot higher. For the first part of the ride it felt like we were riding up hill into the wind with no relief. Jack, Pete and Bob joined me for the ride. Pete pealed off after we got to the top of the Sourlands as he had to get home early.
As we went up Cider Mill we saw a van stopped by a field of cows. I thought the person in the passenger seat was stopping to take some pictures of the cows but as we got closer the person in the passenger seat turned out to be a little dog. So as best as I could figure the guy driving had taken his dog out for a ride to see some cows. It may seem strange but as a person who named their blog after their dog I applaud it.
By the time we got to White House Station we were pretty shot as we had been riding 30 miles into the wind with close to 2000 feet of climbing. Its early in the season so none of us have any reserves to pull extra energy from when a ride is harder than expected.
The way back was much easier since we had a tail wind most of the way. There were a few rollers on the way back but the way I had design the route there was no real tough climbs.
We were dragging in the last 10 miles but I made it back with out cramping and we came in at a reasonable pace. So although the wind made the ride harder than expected it felt good to be able to do some hills and start the process of getting back in riding shape.
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