Hammer fest

The corn has been planted. I rode past the corn field yesterday and today. I have been keeping a pretty close eye on what is going on over there. Today there is clear evidence that was not there yesterday of a wheeled vehicle having gone up and down the field in the manner in which a planter of a row crop would be traveling. The corn has been planted.

Today was a nicer day with a slight south wind. On south wind days I usually ride over to the river. On a nice day at the river RACER BOY was out and about, IN FORCE. Racer boy is pretty obnoxious but there is one aspect of the river ride that I like and it is obviously what keeps me coming back.

The ride at the river features long stretches where I can ride without having to stop. A negative factor is that I ride that direction when the wind is from the south so the ride out is into the wind. However, the topography along the river road is favorable for going that direction even against the wind and I always seem to ride pretty fast.

Today was no exception. Racer boy and RACER GIRL zipped past me shortly after I had completed the climb from the Marshall Avenue bridge up to Saint Thomas. First racer boy wordlessly passed just after the turn towards the monument at the foot of Summit Avenue. Very shortly thereafter, at the beginning of the actual downhill, racer girl gave a minimalist verbal indication of her presence and also passed. I take some pride in the fact that they still don't usually dust me off on the uphill. It is usually at the top of the hill when I take some time to gather myself that they, instead of having to recover, instantly accelerate and easily leave me behind. But today I felt pretty strong and the downhill helped me get quickly back up to speed. I found myself hanging fairly even with that duo albeit a half block or so behind as they played out their game of bicycling dominance. Eventually racer girl dusted racer boy on a slightly uphill section and he was unable to gain anything back from then on. She was the real deal, strong and fast.

I rode on to the Ford Dam overlook where I made my turn around, pausing briefly to obtain this photo of a hydro electic turbine:There is a plaque on the other side of the turbine that says: "This is one of four turbines Ford Motor Company installed 1924 at the hydro electric plant located below this lookout. The turbines were replaced between 1992 and 1994 after 70 years of service. This one water driven turbine produced over 1,341,776,000 kilowatt hours (KWH) of electricity in its liftime. This offset the burning of 286,000 tons of coal and avoided 470,000 pounds of particulates, 4,589,000 pounds of sulphur dioxide and 5,340,000 pounds of nitrogen oxide." The turbine is cast iron, weighs 15 tons, had a rotation speed of 100 rpm and a rating of 4.500 horsepower.

Yes, that number is over 1 BILLION KWH of electricity. Pretty impressive, eh?

I checked my average speed before I started back and it confirmed what I felt, that I had ridden pretty fast up to that point. If I finished at that rate it would be the ride with the fastest average speed of the year to date. So I was aware of that and then on the way back I also now had the advantage of a tailwind. But I also had that daunting climb out of the river gorge before I could head back towards home. Still the wind kept giving me encouraging boosts. I checked average speed again just before the big climb and it was still pretty good.

That climb is TOUGH.

But I got out of the gorge and started towards the industrial area, a mostly cross wind ride. I crossed University and for the first time since the climb I turned fully with the wind. I was pleased to find that I had recovered pretty well from the climb and I started to ride fast. And kept on riding fast all the way home.

Eventually I checked the average speed again and discovered that I was in territory not visited recently so I started to work at it. I rode the last 8 or 10 miles for average speed, at all times working hard, hammering, trying to keep my speed at high as possible.

And it is truly a landmark.

I had to open up my spread sheet bike logs and start checking. I discovered that today I achieved the highest average speed that I have recorded since July 27, 2005. That was the day of TRAM 2005 that featured the ride downhill with a strong tailwind to Two Harbors. That day I recorded an astonishing (for me) 16mph average on a 78 mile ride. I had to check even a bit further to find a regular ride day where I exceeded today's average but I didn't have to check much further, as I had a two days faster than today in early July 2005 while I was riding preparation for TRAM 2005. That makes today's ride my fastest in almost three years.

I felt strong, I felt fast.