Recumbent bike adventures

2011 summary post

2011-12-04T08:12:00.001-08:00

Summary:
I've ridden more miles and faster in 2011 then compared to previous years on a recumbent. The year started with a new bike in April, I had then completed a lot of goals and now the year is ending with almost 3,700 bicycling miles.

Who knows what 2012 will bring? I have been looking at the Elliptigo bikes for something completely different. I hope to try one out next spring to see how it rides.

New bike, the Catbike Musashi.
I have been considering a new bike for a few years. The 15 year old Vision R40 just seemed a bit well....old and outdated. I did have the gears updated in 2007, which helped it last a few more years. I had some cash saved up and I had the go ahead from the wife, so I started testing new bikes as soon as it was warm enough.

Here is my post on choosing the Musashi.
Now that I have a few thousand miles on the Musashi, I definitely feel I made the right choice. Although the Catrike 700 would be a lot of fun, it would not be as fast, and would be a bit more dangerous on these country roads I like to ride on.

Completed goals:
This was the first year that I set goals. Setting goals and documenting my rides on this blog has really helped improved my riding. below are some of my goals completed this year:

60 miles under 3 hours with no stops.

Over 200 miles in a single weekend.

Over 2,500 miles for the year. I rode on to almost 3,700 miles.

New camera, the GoPro Hero HD.
I have long considered getting a camera for the bike, I'm glad I did. Here are some of the videos that I have taken:

My Youtube video channel.

My audience:
This is the first year that I have received feedback on this blog and the first year to have over 1,000
hits, now I'm almost upto 4,000 hits. I even have some followers. All of this has helped keep me motivated to keep riding, thanks for all your visits and your comments. If you wish to be a follower of my blog, click the 'Join This Site' link on the upper right hand side of this page. If you like this blog you can also try visiting the sponsors on this same page.

So thank you and happy holidays to all of you for taking the time to read about my recumbent adventures

Future posts:
In the past I have concentrated on documenting my rides only, I am considering adding more personal posts, including how I lost some weight last year by riding my Vision R40. I started last year at over 230 pounds and ended the year at 173 pounds. My motto was "Eat less and move more".

October 23rd and 24th ride

2011-10-30T10:20:00.000-07:00

Temperatures were above 60 so I took advantage of the nice enough weather for a couple of rides.
I don't like riding when the temps are below 60. The two rides added up to 55 miles total and were almost uneventful. I had a motorcycle rider pass me on the 24th, he was standing on his seat instead of sitting. I'm not sure whether he's a professional stuntman or a fool, but here's the video:

October 24th ride summary:

October 23rd ride summary:

October 10th to 16th rides

2011-10-16T16:52:00.000-07:00

October 16th:
Very windy day, just like the day before, the average wind speed was 20mph with 30mph gusts. The wind was coming from the West and a little from the South.

I planned this ride with the wind in mind, I pushed against it for the first 18 miles getting an average speed of 14.9mph. The next leg I went South and some West for 16 miles with an average speed of 15mph. Then when I was starting to get tired I headed back home which meant going North East for 18 miles with the winds pushing me all the way. I averaged 21.5mph on that leg. I don't think I have ever averaged over 20mph on that particular leg in that direction, since it is mostly uphill. I then finished the ride by going through Park road and Greensburg.

Very windy
I noticed at my second stop that I couldn't sit my water bottle on the picnic table without it being instantly knocked down by the wind. I then decided to film me sitting my helmet on the same table, as you can see and hear below, the helmet was being blown all over the place. This gives a nice idea of how windy the day was, I still have a hard time believing I averaged 14.9 mph heading into that wind. That shows the true advantage of a recumbent.

Detail link
Summary stats:

October 15th:
This day was also very windy with the same 20mph winds with 30mph gusts. I rode to the town of Westport to see my wife who was working at a nursing booth at the community building.

Details link
Summary stats:

October 10th:
35 mile loop with an 18.6mph average speed, wind from the South.
Details link

October 9th:
41 miles average speed of 18.4mph, wind from the South.
Details link

October 8th ride

2011-10-09T07:01:00.000-07:00

Its been a long time since I've had this kind of weather on a free Saturday. Winds were under 10 mph with a high of 84. I thought about trying a solo century, but I didn't start riding until 11:00 and the sun started sapping my energy, I was very ready to quit once I got home.

I rode South to Highway 50 then headed West to North Vernon. I then took some back roads back to Greensburg. I stopped for a while to visit my mother. This wasn't an uneventful trip, and this time I have videos to show what happened!

Close call with a car:
I was passing through the traffic light in front of the Walmart in North Vernon. There was a white pickup truck going the same direction as I was. This truck blocked the view of a car going the opposite direction wanting to turn left at the light. I saw the car driver look at me, making me think I was safe from him. I then noticed the car turning left even though I was in his path, I thought he'll wait for me, after all he did look at me. I looked at the driver and noticed he wasn't even looking at the road, he had his head completely turned to the left, looking out his side window! That was when I started yelling at him. He quickly turned his head around and slammed on his breaks. Way too close.

Close call with a dog:
I've written about this Doberman before, he's the one that runs back and forth in front of my bike forcing me to slow down or risk hitting the dog. In the past I would simply stop the bike and stand up and he would run off. I really don't like this dog since he always does the same thing.

This time though was a little different, the owners were having some sort of gathering outside and got to see the whole thing and yelled at their dog. Not only that, but there was an oncoming car that came very close to hitting the dog. If it had been one of the drivers that would normally speed 60-80 mph down this road, it would have ended differently. Luckily for the dog the driver was driving slowly and was able to stop seconds before she would have hit the dog. The dog gave a frightened yelp then ran to the ditch. Talk about persistence, he still had to chase after me, although this time he stayed in the ditch, I don't mind dogs chasing me from the ditch.

Link to ride details
Ride summary:

September 22nd to October 5th catch up post

2011-10-09T07:00:00.001-07:00

Still trying to catch up.

September 22nd: Direct link
Distance: 20 miles, average speed: 18.5 mph

September 23rd: Direct link
Distance:  23 miles, average speed: 18.2 mph

September 26th: Direct link
Distance: 23 miles, average speed: 18.0 mph

October 1st: Direct link
Distance:  15 miles, average speed: 18.1 mph

October 3rd: Direct link
Distance:  24 miles, average speed: 18.9 mph

October 5th: Direct link
Distance:  26 miles, average speed: 19.9 mph

On the first five rides I had been experimenting with some seat changes I actually rode with no seat pad at all. Plus it had been chilly and windy. On October 5th I decided to put the seat pad back on, plus it was a warmer day with no wind. It ended up being an excellent ride The average speed was over 20mph until I decided to ride into town traffic.

September 17th Hope Century (100 Miles of Bull)

2011-10-08T17:47:00.000-07:00

This annual ride attracts hundreds of bikers every year. Here is their website: Hope ride.

Ride description:
There are 13, 32, 50, 62 and 100 mile rides all named with cow motifs:
13 Mile Li'l Calf Tour
32 Mile Milk Cow Ramble
50 Mile Happy Heifer
62 Mile Mad Cow Metric Century
100 Miles of Bull

This years ride started early at 7:30. Since there was a recent hurricane that hit the East coast, the weather had chilled down quite a bit in the last couple of weeks, making this a chilly morning. I wore both my jacket and long bike pants. The rest stops always had plenty of snacks, water, Gatorade, etc. They also had some live bands. The main rest stop was at the Hope town square, where they served a hot lunch and a live band. You should never go hungry on a Hope ride.

Bike adjustments:
I made a major mistake the night before the ride, I made some big bike adjustments without testing them at all. I changed the post length and added a 2" foam pad under my seat. I added the foam pad since sometimes my right leg will hit the center bar, causing it to ache a bit. I figure that if my leg was higher it would be less likely to come down onto the center bar.

When I stopped at the main rest stop halfway through the ride my legs were aching plus I had a pain in my left leg, it felt as if the femur was rubbing or twisting against my pelvic bone. These were all new pains and aches that I have never felt before, I blame them all on the changes that I had made the night before. Once I completed this ride the femur pain lasted a couple of days.

My experience:
I usually see a lot of recumbents and trikes on the Hope ride, this year I only saw two trikes and only a few more recumbents, very odd. Perhaps with the chilly weather forecast not as many showed up.

I felt powerful in the first half of the ride, although I was passed by a group of 6 riders. They actually passed me twice, once right before the main rest stop and once after. I must have taken a shorter lunch break then they did.

Pranks:
Someone thought it would be funny to change some of the road markers. Around the 65 mile mark there was a marker pointing straight and one pointing to the right. The one pointing straight had been crossed out. It was easy enough to see that I should go straight since there was a second (confidence)marker pointing straight a few feet down the road. So I ignored the right turn marker.

A few miles down the road there was another pair of markers pointing both straight and to the right. This time the confidence marker was a few feet down the right turn street and there was not one pointing straight. ( I later found out I should have went straight) So I turned right. three miles later there was a marker pointing down a gravel road which I knew was not right. So I ignored it. Luckily I knew the area and also knew the ride was going to the town of Adams. So I ended up making my own route to Adams.

Oh, did I mention that I had left the route map in my truck? I ended up going an extra 6 miles. Which came in handy later in the ride.

Finishing the ride:
This years ride actually hit my own home county of Decatur. It went through the recently rebuilt covered bridge in the town of Moscow. A couple miles before Moscow I hit a road that had been turned to gravel! I couldn't believe it, but this road had at least two inches of gravel laid on top of the Asphalt. Very bad for my very thin tires Another biker came up and showed me the map, it looked like the ride went about 2 miles then came back on itself. I had been noticing the double markers on the road for both directions for the last couple of miles. Since I already went an extra 6 miles and didn't want to ride through this gravel mess, I decided to turn around and follow the return markers.

I didn't feel too strong on the second half of the ride although the last 20 miles I went pretty quick. I later discovered through my Garmin that the last 20 miles were generally all down hill. It also had some good sized hills on the second half and I did good on these hills even passing a couple of bikers going up.

Bike and car collision:
I heard there was an accident on the hill after the Moscow bridge. From what I heard from the biker riding with the one involved, it went like this:

As they were riding together up the steep and curvy hill (not sure if they were side by side) a truck came flying down the road on the wrong side (The truck was power driving to the inside of the curve) His partner was hit headlong and went flying while his own leg was barley missed by the trucks bumper. An Ambulance came and picked up both the rider and the bike. Allowing his partner to finish the ride. I haven't heard anything else about the rider that was hurt.

Musashi vs horses:
On the way back towards Hope I came across a couple of horses and riders (unfortunately my camera battery had died by now) The first horse was very spooked by my bike and reared up on his hind legs. The spooked horse was ridden by a teen. The other older rider directed the teen to ride into the field. I had slowed down to stop, but the other rider told me to not worry and keep going. They both then rode into the field where the horses were calmer.

A few yards later there were around 4 more horse and riders. The lead horse was again spooked by the Musashi. I stopped the bike. They ended up riding into the same field the first two riders were in.

I guess the Musashi is (or perhaps I am) very scary to horses.

Conclusion:
The Hope ride itself was excellent as always, the ride always ends with a free root-beer Ice cream float. There was plenty of rest stops and with the exception of the pranks and Decatur county turning another asphalt road into gravel (see my Tree City Metric Ride) this is one ride that I will look forward to next year.

Going into this ride, I had in the back of my mind the idea to complete my 200K goal by riding to Greensburg after finishing the century. It never happened, since I was very achy and ready to go home after the ride. This ended up being my slowest Century so far this year.

Ride detail link

Ride summary:

August 28th to September 11th Catch up post

2011-10-08T15:58:00.000-07:00

Can't believe I got this far behind in posting my rides!

August 28th: Direct link
Distance: 38 miles, average speed: 19.2mph

August 30th: Direct link
Distance: 26 miles, average speed: 18.1mph

September 1st: Direct link
Distance: 42 miles, average speed: 18.5 mph

September 3rd: Direct link
Distance:  27 miles, average speed: 20.0 mph

September 6th: Direct link
Distance:  18 miles, average speed: 18.0 mph

September 10th: Direct link
Distance:  45 miles, average speed: 19.2 mph

September 11th: Direct link
Distance:  20 miles, average speed: 18.7 mph

August 27th ride - Tree City rolling tour

2011-08-28T16:38:00.000-07:00

This ride is sponsored by the Greensburg YMCA, in my hometown. It includes a 13, 26 and a 62 mile loop (perhaps next year they'll throw in a Century). I rode the metric (62 miles) which is touted as very hilly, it did have some rough hills. I made it up all the hills with the Musashi stock gearing. I even manged to pass a few df's and one tandem on some climbs.

The sponsors had a little pre-ride talk about how thankful they are on the money raised to help the Y help local children through their programs and also explained why the metric ride was changed at the last moment. After the talk they took a picture of all the riders (68 registered) Then the ride officially started. I was waiting for some friends to get ready for the ride when they noticed, we were the last ones to get started, the parking lot was empty of other bicyclists. A few minutes later we started riding. They were only doing the 26 mile route so, since I was planning on riding the metric, I rode with them only a couple of miles before saying goodbye and leaving them behind.

I stopped once at the Lake Santee sag stop to refill the water bottles. By this time I had passed all the riders doing the metric route (as far as I could tell). I had ridden with a group of 5 riders for a few miles, but then two of the better riders decided to drop the rest of us on the backside of Lake Santee. They rode close and hard, I kept a small distance behind them. Once I was ready I gave my "on your left" voice signal and rode pass them. I'm not sure if they were surprised that I kept up with them or not ( I think the two of them thought they were alone)

Even though I didn't start fast or first, I was from what I heard, the first one to complete the metric ride. I heard a lot of exclamations from various riders about how well I climbed the hills. But I think there were less then 15 riders that even tried the metric.

Conclusions:
This was a fantastic ride, the roads were in great shape, the one sag stop I used had plenty of supplies and there was a lot of great scenery in some very hilly terrain. I thought the roads were very well marked, I didn't get lost once (I often get lost since I don't look at the maps and only go by the road markings) Although one rider mentioned he'd rather have the markings further ahead of the turns, I didn't have any issues. The three sag stations I rode past were clearly marked, although I only saw one station (Lake Santee) that actually had anyone manning them. That wasn't a problem though since I wasn't planning on stopping at all until I started running low on water. They even had a masseuse giving out free massages at the finish line. This was a great ride that I would recommend to anyone.

Videos
Now that I have the GoPro HD camera I'll try to upload some videos of the ride highlights and link them here. The camera only lasted for the first 2 and a half hours, so I don't have the complete ride but most of it recorded.

The first video is me catching up to the pair that dropped our group around Lake Santee.

Chip seal of Hamburg Road
There would have been even more big hills on the metric, but the ride had to be rerouted since the county had chipsealed Hamburg road south of Buena Vista a week before the ride. They seemed to have put way too much gravel when they chip sealed, leaving in some places a couple of inches or more of loose gravel making it very dangerous for motorcycles and bicycles; especially with all the hills on that road. It actually looked like they were trying to change the road into a gravel road.

Link to detailed ride stats

Ride summary with elevation map to show the hills:

August 26th catchup

2011-08-28T15:05:00.000-07:00

The weather has been great and I've been too lazy to keep up my blog, but here are my recent rides:

August 24th 32 mile ride details

August 25th 37 mile ride details

August 22nd ride

2011-08-23T17:21:00.000-07:00

Another nice evening and a great ride. This was on county roads which are a lot slower then the smooth state highways. The first 18 miles had an average of around 18 mph I was able to pick it up quite a bit on the rest of the ride. This was another A + ride.

Decatur County ride:
On Sunday I decided to check out this coming weekends Decatur County ride by driving my truck on the 60 mile route, this is the one I got lost on while riding it last Saturday. I discovered that the county had covered most of Hamburg road with an inch plus of gravel. I'm assuming this will somehow lengthen the life of the asphalt road, but the parts that weren't covered with gravel last weekend seemed perfectly fine to me. This is the road that I had gotten up to 40 mph on some of the downhills. So there is no way I can ride on this road now with my thin tires. The YMCA, who is sponsoring the ride, already knew about the problem and are working on rerouting their 60 mile ride.

Summary Stats:

August 21st ride

2011-08-23T16:51:00.000-07:00

The ride felt great and fast, even though I had some mileage in a couple little towns. The first 39 miles were with an average of 20.0 mph. The last couple of in town miles slowed my average to 19.8 mph. I felt very strong, this was an A+ ride. I'm really liking the work Decatur county has done on this highway, it used to be rough until I hit Shelby county, now it's smooth for the whole ride.

Extra excitement:
After I had turned around to head back towards Greensburg, I was watching a car coming down the highway towards me, It looked like a late model black Mustang. I was watching it since the headlights were on bright were blue and seemed to be blinking (it wasn't dark out). I was going over 20 mph, I'm sure he was going at least 55 mph. When suddenly without warning a large plastic cup full of liquid came out the window and hit my left shoulder. I didn't have any chance to duck or move out of the way.

Very painful, I now have a good sized bruise where the cup hit me. This is the second time this year someone has thrown a cup of liquid at me. I'm not sure what these kids are thinking. Not sure what would've happened if he had hit my face/head instead of my shoulder. Of course he was too fast to get the license plate number, not sure if the cops would have done much if I did catch it.

I've be considering buying a camera for a while to document my rides. This incident was the final push, I have now ordered a GoPro HD. I should receive it in a couple of days. If you think reading these blog entries are boring, wait till you try to watch hours of endless riding!

Summary stats:

August 20th ride

2011-08-20T12:59:00.000-07:00

I started early this Saturday morning, wanting to get at least 60 miles in. I ended up with 84 miles and checked out some areas that I haven't been to before. I took it easy, since I wasn't fully recouped from last nights ride.

Ride summary:

August 19th ride

2011-08-20T12:55:00.000-07:00

After work the weather was nice, so I took the Musashi out for a ride. I pushed a bit and ended up with an average speed of 20.2 mph.

Ride Summary:

August 17th Ride and Goal Met

2011-08-17T18:37:00.000-07:00

Nice evening out with very little wind, so I took a little ride after work. It was enough to pass over my yearly milage goal of 2500 miles. Yeah! This is the most miles I have ever biked in a single year. I don't see me slowing down, perhaps I'll get up to 3500 miles.

I have put some thought on setting my next distance goal, since I hit the 2x centuries in two consecutive days goal last weekend. I think I'll set the next distance goal at 200K (124 miles).

Summary stats:

August 14th ride - Solo Century and Goal Met

2011-08-14T16:30:00.000-07:00

It was very cool out and overcast with a 40% chance of rain this Sunday morning. So I thought I would keep an eye on the weather and try for a second century to meet my goal of two century's on two consecutive days. Success!

I started it by riding my 60 mile loop then added a 20 mile loop around Greensburg and finished off by adding another 20 miles West of Greensburg. The only stops were at the 48 and 75 mile markers to refill the tanks and empty the bladder.

I had some left foot pain, but not too bad. The only problem I really had was when I got off the bike, my legs were sore, but they were fine pushing the pedals, first time I had that happen.

Even though this was a slower Century, I think this is the first one that I have ever completed from start to finish, including breaks under 6 hours. Part of the reason was my wife put her own goal/limit on this ride: I had to be done by 2:30, I actually completed at 2:15, plenty of time to spare.

After the ride I was fine with the exception of my sore leg muscles, which didn't last too long.
A very enjoyable ride. I'll have to think about my next goal I'll set to replace this one.

Link to ride details

Here are the summary stats:

August 13th ride - Solo Century

2011-08-14T15:46:00.000-07:00

The plan this Saturday was to test out the "Tree City Rolling Ride" It's a ride sponsored by the local Greensburg Indiana YMCA. Last year was the first year of the event. Their longest ride was 30 miles, so I didn't participate, this year though they have a 60 mile hilly ride. I have already signed up.

The routes aren't marked yet, but they do have a map on their web page that doesn't include street names so I made a sheet with what I thought would be the correct route. The 60 mile ride as I rode it was only 50 miles long, so I missed 10 miles somewhere. Which actually could have been a blessing since part of the ride was extremely hilly! The only part that I had issue with was south of the town of Buena Vista on Hamburg road. Sections of this road had a light amount of loose gravel on it. This road also had the most difficult climbs, although the climbing sections did not have loose gravel, there was one large descent with loose gravel making for a cautious descent on my very narrow 23mm tires.

I believe the ten miles I missed are on Hamburg road, since Hamburg road at one time split off in two directions with the same name! I think I took the wrong fork.

I'm looking forward to this ride which will take place on August 27th starting at the Greensburg Elementary school. The YMCA link is down at the moment, once the link is back up, I'll point to it here.

After checking out the 60 mile ride I decided to make a Century of it. I rode through town then up old highway 421 and back. I took an extra long break at the 70 mile mark (over an hour) at home to recoup from the heavy climbing of the first half of the ride.

This Century had more climbing then any other Century I have completed (over 3000 feet), I started late at 10:30 AM and I was up till 2:30 the night before. Even though I had all these things going against me, this was still my fastest Century yet!

Link to ride details

Here are the summary stats:

August 10th ride

2011-08-14T14:48:00.000-07:00

After work the weather was great so I took the Musashi for a ride. This was the first time in weeks that I was out and didn't feel the sun shearing my skin! It was actually a little cool. I was happy to see that I was still able to get a 20mph average even though I haven't ridden much for what seems like forever.

Here are the stats:

August 7th catch up

2011-08-07T17:35:00.000-07:00

The high heat and high humidity has been putting a damper on my riding. I'm still out, just not as often and on shorter rides. I've also been working some odd hours including evenings and weekends. Here is a quick listing of the trips I've been on since the last solo century:

August 6th 32 mile loop

August 5th 20 mile loop

August 4th 30 mile loop

Its hard to believe I went this many days without riding! I didn't make my last two weekly goals of 100 miles a week for July.

July 25th 20 mile loop

July 24th 32 mile loop

July 23rd 26 mile loop

Even though I had used sun screen, I ended up with some sun blisters from the previous solo Century. I'm not sure how anyone can stay in the sun all day and not get badly burned on days that have an extreme high UV rating. Perhaps I'm more sensitive since I have psoriasis on over 30% of my body.

July 16th Ride -- Solo Century

2011-07-16T16:52:00.000-07:00

Started around 7:30 in the morning. The last couple of hours were very hot and humid, the early part of the trip was cool and overcast. I had a lot of left foot pain after 50 miles. The only thing that would stop it for a while was to get off the bike and take a break, which I did a few times. The main loop is 91 miles long so I did a lap by the Greensburg park to complete the Century ride.

I stopped at a couple gas stations to refill the water bottles, get power bars and to empty my bladder. The ride felt great with the exception of the foot pain. About 18 miles of the trip was along highway 40 which is also the same route used today by the 165 mile long Ride Across Indiana Ride (RAIN). I didn't see any RAIN riders since I hit that part of the trail too early.

A patron at the Knightstown gas station asked if I doing the RAIN. When I told him I wasn't and it was too early to see any of them yet, he suggested I ride on to Richmond (the RAIN finish point) and pretend I was the first rider in. He said the first in gets a police escort through the city. As tempting as it sounded, I decided not to.

I'm now over 2,000 miles for the year.

Stats for the ride:

July 13th Ride

2011-07-14T18:33:00.000-07:00

Great evening for a ride with 6mph winds from the North. I also rode some nice hills on the return trip, I included the elevation map to show the hills. The laps with the low mph were in the towns of Westport and Greensburg.

Stats:

July 10th ride

2011-07-12T16:36:00.000-07:00

A little hot with some breeze blowing from the South. Took a break at around the 25 mile mark at Hartsville. Started off fast but the last miles in town really lowered my average speed. I try not to race through town, since it is unsafe, especially from such a low bike.

Ride stats:

July 9th ride - solo century and new goals set

2011-07-09T19:08:00.000-07:00

Plan 1: Goat ride.
My plan today was to do the Goat ride in Brown County to test my hill climbing abilities:The Goat ride The local Shelbyville bike group Shelbyvelo worked on organizing this ride. This is their second year for the ride, I like the concept that you get tokens for each ride you complete then you can show off all your tokens to show how many of the rides you actually did. If you do all four rides (over 116 miles of very hilly rides) you get your name listed on next years shirt created for the ride.

But I ended up accidentally sleeping in so I scratched that.

Plan 2: ride with Greensburg group.
Instead I tried to hook up with the local Greensburg group that sometimes meet at 8:00 on Saturday mornings. I rode around town a bit waiting for anyone to show at the high school. It was a no show, perhaps they were doing the Goat ride.

Plan 3: do a solo century.
I ended up riding the loop from Greensburg, Versailles, North Vernon then back to Greensburg. This loop is about 20 miles short of a century so I had to add some miles around Greensburg to complete the 100 miles.

I decided to take it slow since this is a longer distance ride and for some reason I seem to have some type of mental issue with riding a century (my wife says I have a lot of mental issues). Not sure how to explain it, but destinations that are over 40 plus miles away seem unattainable for a round trip, even though I shouldn't have any problems with such a trip. I mean if I can ride 60 miles non-stop riding as hard as I can, what is the issue with riding 100 easy miles? So I have decided to ride some solo centuries to overcome this fear of centuries.

It started off very sunny with very low chance of rain. Around Napoleon and Osgood it became very foggy, so much so that I had to take off my glasses and even the Garmin GPS had moisture on its screen that had to be wiped off to be read. Visibility was very low so I turned on all my lights.

I made four stops including stopping at my Moms to visit her for a few minutes. Unfortunately the highway between North Vernon and highway 46 was recently chipped and sealed. making it a very rough ride, I only rode it for a couple of miles. A bridge was also being replaced and had to be detoured around.

It was an excellent ride and I felt great afterwards. perhaps I'll try another one tomorrow.

I have also set some new goals:
2x centuries over two consecutive days
100K under 3 hours (62.14 miles)
It'll probably be a while before I try these goals, but they are there when I'm ready.

Stats of the ride:

July 6th ride

2011-07-09T18:10:00.000-07:00

It was very hot and humid, I took it easy and searched for some hills to practice climbing. The hill I used is around 150 foot in height according to the GPS. The steepest part is around 80 feet in height. This is one of those hills that are so steep that you can't see a good portion of the road until you are actually on that section of the hill.

Unfortunately there was some road work at the bottom of the hill, that crossed the entire street and was covered with loose gravel. I also coasted over 37 mph even though I used my breaks to slow down. I have some pictures of the hill, I hope to upload them later. I was able to maintain a 9.4 mph average speed while climbing the steepest section.

Stats:

July 4th ride

2011-07-05T04:42:00.000-07:00

Nice evening for a ride, very little wind. The downtown miles lowered my average speed by about 1 mph.

Climbing hills
I'm really starting to figure out a great method for climbing with the Musashi. I actually lift my rear end slightly off the seat which seems to give more power to the pedals. I think this works on the Musashi because of the combination of the seat angle and the frame stiffness.

With the Vision R40 I just lowered the gear and pedaled as fast as I could. Which is what I have been doing on the Musashi.

With this new method I can actually use higher gears and get higher speeds. For example on the group ride from July 3rd, there was a fit cyclist going up a hill, he was out of saddle and hitting it hard. I was actually keeping up with him, I then decided to kick it and easily passed him. I couldn't believe it, I was going over 21mph up a good hill on a recumbent!

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July 3rd Century ride

2011-07-04T11:52:00.000-07:00

Today I did something a little different. After doing a search on the Internet I found that a group from Shelbyville Indiana had an early morning ride planned. The ride started at 6:15 at the Shelbyville High School.

There were six others that shown up making it a nice sized group ride. We rode to a town called Nineveh which is just West of Camp Atterbury. Once we were back in Shelbyville I decided to solo to Greensburg and back for another 50 miles to complete my second Century ride for the year.

I'm now over 1600 miles for the year.

I can definitely see myself riding with the Shelbyville group some more, I had a lot of fun.
Here is a link to their blog and they have their rides listed here

Direct link to ride details
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