Since I found it hard to give up a full two days to do a qualifying ride, I ended up doing them in and around my work schedule, which meant that I had to keep them pretty tight in terms of the time spent, since eight hours working doesn't leave much time for the ride itself. I commute to work and the area is pretty hilly though, so it wasn't too difficult to do. I began by riding to work, and then home again at the end of the day, 15km and 200m of elevation to begin with, round trip. The wind was gusting to 60 in my face on the way home from work as well, which was.. interesting, combined with the sub-zero temperatures. Thank god for windbreakers! After I got home, and a quick trip by the mall, I decided it would be best to complete the distance for the day by doing several runs up what is known locally as 'mt. scio', 125m of climbing within a 3.5km run up a hill. I made the first trip before it really started getting dark, but had to break out the headlamp for the last two. There were some very surprised motorists on the dirt road section when a pothole dodging cokeur inched past them!
I'm not sure of the time taken for the ride itself as it was so split up, but the final rating calculation is as follows: 36km, 575m up and down (since I returned home at the end of the day!) and 7km of strong winds, 14km of night riding and a full 36k of extreme temp. I believe the temperature for the day hovered around -3 to 10C.
3/25/2008
197
Day two started out a bit stiffly, but I am definitely not in racing shape yet. After peeling out of bed, I rode to work, then downtown, and after once again doing a few runs up and down a local hill, went home. The loop from home to work to downtown to home again is one I do often, totalling about 20k with 250m of ascent and descent. While I was downtown, after talking to the local outdoor store about my waterproof pants (grr - a christmas gift with a lifetime warranty that I'm trying to get replaced because they tore after about a month of unicycling..) I started a nighttime ride up signal hill, a local landmark (the previously mentioned hill) which was actually the site of the first transatlantic radio transmission. It has a great view of the city at night when it's not snowing out like it was today. There are several different grades on the hill, which climbs about 125m in 3.5k, with flat bits in between. I managed to make it up most of the slopes on my mostly-bald coker tire with 110 cranks, but some of them were too slippery with the road conditions. Two runs up the hill was all I had the strength for before giving in to the cold in my toes and riding home.
Again as for yesterday I did not really time myself, but the stats for the ride work out as follows: 34k, 500m up/down, 30km in heavy rain (the closest I can get to approximating 5+cm of snow on the roads) 20km at night and 34k under extreme temperature as we once again were blessed with below freezing temperatures. I can't wait until I can wear shorts again!