Sanford Ride

I know it took me some time to get to bogging this ride, but I just didn’t feel like sitting back in my office…a little tired. Well the ride was great! It started out WAY cold. Colder that I had expected and had dressed for. I didn’t start warming u until mile 30! Through Christmas and Oviedo was pretty uneventful. 419 in Oviedo was a nice road…busy, but it had a good shoulder. I went through downtown Oviedo…real pretty. I was going to stop for a minute but I got sucked into the traffic and just motored through. I did get turned around some how. I found myself on Red Bug and I should have been farther north than that. So, I decided to take a break and consume some gel and call my wife to let her know where I am. I stayed there for only a few minutes. Rode down Red Bug and was looking for 17-92 and when I say 436 I knew that I was way off track. So I just used my keen sense of direction and meandered north and west and I finally made it to 17-92. By this point I went through Casselberry and Longwood and now I was in Lake Mary area. Up to here nothing really note worthy. I did get many looks, stares, thumbs-up, and waves probably 20 or so up to this point. I did get a funny look from a woman in a BMW when I was doing 33 mph and keeping up with traffic. Hey it’s better than ridding on the shoulder. Well that speed didn’t last all that long, but the look was priceless. Continued north up 17-92 and stopped for a bit at he the intersection with 46. There I ate my Balance bar (Satisfaction bar…the best!!!), and I called Carmen again to give her the update. I’m at 59 miles at this point and I’m inform of a sign that says “Mims 29 miles”. I’m getting there. My average speed up to this point was 20.9 mph. Not too bad considering I was in a head wind for most of the morning, but I’m getting read to hit the tailwind portion….so I thought. Heading east on 46 was nice. It’s a newly paved road and nice shoulders. I did have a tailwind so I maintained a 25 mph pace pretty much all the way to Geneva. Once I passed Geneva and entered what I call no mans land (St John River swampy area) the winds shifted and came from the EAST!! Not I check the weather from 3 different sources and none of them predicted this. It wasn’t all that bad but at mile 80….that’s a different story. Nothing I can’t peddle through, but just enough to make the ride hard. Well I fought the head wind and still maintained a 20-21 mph pace to just about Mims, but just before I got to US! The wind picked-up a bit and my speed slowed to about 17. Made the right onto US1 and headed south…now I have a good crosswind. This is really taking the energy out of my legs. I was feeling GREAT up to this point. Now I hit the 100 mile mark…still feeling good, would be better with out the wind though. Passed through Titusville and made it to PSJ! YAHOO. Made the right off of US1 onto Fay and NOW I have a tailwind. Kept a 25 mph pace all the way back to the house. One of the best rides…the only thing was the surprise wind from the east! Other than that….it was perfect. I didn’t even start getting tired till about 80…but that might have been because of the head wind. If it wasn’t for that…I could have kept riding! 110 miles/20.1 average speed which gives me 1411 miles for the year to date. Got home ran into a hot bath. Carmen made Blueberry pancakes and turkey bacon. Yummy! I also had a frozen recover bar.. Energice. It was good and cold. Excellent. Fell asleep at 8 pm and slept till about 5 am. Time to get up and do it again!