Todays ride was a mentally exhausting ride. 102 miles that took nearly 7 hours to complete. We started the morning in a light drizzle, 3 hours and 50 miles in it was raining pretty hard and the temperature was in the 50’s, read as, miserable. By the time we got to 70 miles the sun was showing itself a little. Even though the ride “only” had a little over 5,000 feet of vertical climbing, it felt like we were going uphill all day!

Four cyclists in cycling gear posing together outdoors on a wooden overlook with trees and blue sky behind them

Here is the group riding today. From left to right: Don, Bill, Don and me!

Here is the ride map.

Road map centered on Texas Hill Country showing a dotted yellow cycling route looping through Fredericksburg, Boerne, and surrounding towns near US 290.

Like I said, this ride felt like we were climbing all day, but the numbers aren’t as bad. There was one really steep climb at 80 miles.

Line chart of altitude in meters over time on 3/14/2001 from 7am to 6pm showing roughly 5000 feet of climbing over a 102-mile ride.

Speed was terrible on this ride, this was the longest century thus far and average speed was below 15 mph. Tough, tough day.

Line chart of cycling speed in mph on 3/14/2001 from 7am to 6pm, averaging below 15 mph with frequent fluctuations and dips near zero.

And here is a chart I was just playing with, it shows acceleration profile. 😊 Not terribly useful, I don’t think.

Line chart showing speed and acceleration data from a cycling ride on 3/14/2001 between 7:12am and 6:00pm.

Average HR was low today.

Heart rate zone chart over 6.5 hours showing 79.3 percent in zone 1 yellow, 20.6 percent in zone 2 green, 0 percent in red zones

Tomorrow is the Death Ride! Wish me luck!

Part of the Texas Hellweek 2001 collection.