By the time I got to Rockhaven, only about 20 minutes into the ride, I was already feeling pretty worn out. I did the first interval. It didn't feel too bad. When I turned around to head back to the start of the interval, I was struggling just to go just 15 mph. I felt like I was riding in glue. I decided to do another anyway. I did the interval with no problem, but was struggling to just ride an easy tempo. Weird. I decided to just ride home after that since I was going to the Sunday in June ride the next day.
Later that evening I had the strongest craving for Marachino cherries. Bizarre. Maybe I have some vitamin deficiency, or am coming down with a virus, or the constant negative calorie/weight loss regimine is starting to get to me. I snarfed down a few, but didn't feel any sudden relief. Do those have any nutritional value?
The Sunday in June ride was pretty good even though I had a headache the whole time. I slept with my arm at a weird angle and my neck just couldn't relax.
I drove down to Burton since I was a little late getting started. Parking was no problem. I got through the registration in only about 10 minutes. It's always fun to see hundreds of people of all shapes and sizes who love to ride bikes of all kinds.
I rode with Al, Bryan and Mike. I was planning on a pretty easy ride for the first half, Burton down to Parkman and back, but per usual, we whipped up the speed after only a quick warm up. We rode past one group, and they actually counter attacked, so we spent the rest of the first leg trying to drop eachother with some pretty vicous attacks. So much for a nice ride in the country!
Eventually we caught up with a big group from CTC and finished the rest of the ride with them. I was pretty fatigued with about five miles to go. I took a little breather to stretch my back, and just couldn't get my legs started again. I rode the rest of the ride on the little ring.
The only bad part of the ride was along Route 608 near the Lake County/Geauga border. That little section of our world is the black hole/bermuda triangle of cyclist hatred. I try to avoid 608 whenever possible.
It doesn't matter if you ride there by yourself, or in a group, or an organized ride like SIJ, some hillbilly in a jacked up Bronco is going to risk your life as they drive to pick up a case of beer and a pack of menthols. We had two consecutive hillbillie blast bys. The first one was relatively safe. The section of road was flat, so you could see a quarter mile. The second one was just a gamble on life or death of any number of people, the guy passed over a blind rise. It could have been a head on collision at over 55 mph.
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