Holman hits 100 rides!

Today Holman (my 2006 Trek Madone 5.2) and I celebrated our 100th ride together! It was a very cold day in the Charlotte area - I waited until about 12:30 before leaving the house. My route took me east over to Colony Road where I began the journey south, hitting about every red light possible after crossing over I-485. For the first half the sunshine was quite brilliant and was just warm enough with my clothes. I used Crane Rd (Who Killed Bridget?!?) to jump on New Town - at this point I decided it would be fun to make this more than the standard "Wexford to Waxhaw via Colony" route. It has been a long time since I went east on New Town, and I even pushed it more going further east until Potter. From there I swung around Brooklandwood and pushed west towards Waxhaw. I cannot pass through Waxhaw these days without a heavy heart and think about my friend that lives there (and happens to be the mayor), as she is going some legal issues. By the stop I had clocked about 35 miles averaging 17.7 miles per hour. I ate what little food I had, as I had not planned to be out so long, then passed through the downtown and began the slog up Marvin-Waxhaw. Around this time the clouds started to come in and it was noticeably cooler. I could feel my toes, especially on the right, getting real cold despite the heavy wool socks and covers. At Marvin I opted for the longer route, going directly west towards 521. On that last climb up to the Highway I knew I was going to bonk. This was way too much too quickly for my body. The journey north was a difficult one, fighting some severe fatigue. I was probably averaging 10 miles an hour going up Seneca! I ended up being in the saddle for 3.5 hours and punching out 60.57 miles, for an average speed of 17.2 miles per hour. Oh how nice it was to return to the warmth of the home and Winston's always present cheery attitude.

Since January 6, 2007 I have sat on Holman's saddle for about 275 hours, logging a total of 4,726 miles. My average distance for the 100 rides is 47.3 miles. Ironically enough, the average speed during those miles was 17.2 - my average for today. The distances have ranged from 10 miles (the Sprint triathlon a month ago) to TWO Ironmen (112 miles). 61% of those rides have been on a Sunday, 26% on Saturday, and obviously very few rides during the weekdays - three on Monday, four on Wednesday, one on Thursday, and five on Friday. Strangely enough I have NEVER ridden the bike on a Tuesday! Well, if you consider my schedule, that's really not that strange at all. I have ridden Holman only once indoors (I usually use the Centurion for that).

In case you missed my earlier blog post, Holman is named after James Holman, a blind Englishman who traveled the world (often alone) before people really traveled.

I heart Holman and hope we are together for at least five more years.