Thanks to the filming of our most recent podcast I was unable to do much of anything yesterday, let alone train. Feeling guilty I opted for a long ride today. The rest of the usual riding suspects were doing the Masters Swim so I was left on my own.
I woke up early and left the house just after 06:00. The wind was going to be mostly out of the East so I headed across town to the Lost Bridge Trail. It was pretty freaky being Memorial Day Weekend on early Sunday morning. I was able to ride East on Washington turn right on Chatham, then left on Lawrence, right on MacArthur, then finally a left on Ash. Yes, I rode right down these normally busy streets with hardly ever seeing a car. My trip back would not be that smooth.
Making it to Rochester I headed out toward Buckhart, rode past the famous (or infamous) Buckhart Tavern, rode through Roby (Ridge) finally making it to Mt. Auburn after 30 miles. Still with few cars and a light headwind the ride was pretty awesome. I had on my headphones and just spun; enjoying the scenery and being alone.
My intention was then to ride North up to Illiopolis. I had mapped out my ride the night before. On the outskirts of Mt. Auburn I saw a sign for Illipolis but chose to ignore it since it wasn’t the road I had mapped out earlier. Farther East I found 1550 E, bingo. I turned left and headed north.
After a couple of miles the width of the road seemed to narrow and the residents seemed to get seedier and seedier. There were so many twists and turns that I lost all sense of direction and finally decided I was lost. I never turned off of 1550 but soon I was on a different road. I was confused. Interstate 72 was no where in sight. I did notice that I was riding into the wind so I deduced that I was riding East instead of North.
At 37 miles I decided to turn around and just back track. That would leave me a tailwind home and 75 miles covered.
Plan B worked and I arrived safely home around 10:00. It felt good to get such a long ride in. I haven’t ridden that far solo in a while. It always seems more of an accomplishment to me when I ride long by myself than in a group. It’s as if you left the real for a while and then returned.
