This weekend, an awesome bike ride – the Grand Prix II. A complete circumnavigation of the city; a stunning 65 miles in about 10 hours. I ran a similar ride in April of 2015, but it was a straight shot of only about 33 miles. This time, much more than just circling the city – lots of side roads and other exploring. Let’s recap.
Started at just after 6 AM (after about an hour and a half at the gym, of course), and headed out from Coolidge Park, across the Veteran’s Bridge through downtown, Station Street at the Choo-Choo, and on to St. Elmo via the not-as-dangerous-as-it-used-to-be Alton Park. Still a little sketchy, especially since the sun wasn’t up yet – nonetheless, uneventful. From the Incline, on to the new Riverwalk extension back to downtown, and a stop at Panera to fuel up. Holy cow, those gigantic cinnamon rolls are awesome (and yeah, no dieting today – but I was equipped with stevia and carb-blockers).
From Panera, up through the Art District, and onto the “old” Riverwalk, however, instead of heading to the dam (like on Grand Prix I), exited at the relatively-new South Chick extension to Sterchi Farms; one of my favorite places. This is a great semi-wilderness ride, on gravel trails and boardwalks. At the end, the steep hill up into the neighborhood where the trailhead is (and allegedly will be extended in the future).
Then, a somewhat dangerous part – surface streets to the Brained Levee. This requires riding on Highway 58, up to Bonny Oaks, to Jersey Pike, then Shallowford Road – about 5 miles of traffic, potholes, and few sidewalks. Not as bad as the first time I did this, because I knew what to expect, and traffic wasn’t too bad on a Sunday morning. Getting off the road on to the levee was a relief, though – but the winds were howling. At least at was sunny; the first time I did this, it was mostly cloudy, which exacerbated the wind blowing in on the levee. The trailhead at the levee was right at 28 miles from the starting point.
From the levee, across Brainerd Road/Lee Highway, under I-75, and on to Camp Jordan, then back to Eastgate and a stop at Starbucks – this was about 36 miles.
Onward, down Brainerd Road. Loads of traffic, but mostly sidewalks to ride on; only a few jumps into the road (and lack of bike lanes) to avoid obstacles. Despite the traffic, a relatively safe portion of the ride, and only about 3 miles from Starbucks to the Missionary Ridge Tunnels. And, like the last time, the tunnels are by far the most dangerous part of the ride. The tunnel is about 1/4 of a mile, but there is no place to go, no shoulder, no sidewalk, nothing – you have to trust that the cars flying through the thing won’t mow you over. So it requires a little finesse – basically, waiting at the tunnel entrance until there’s a break in the traffic, then hauling ass. Luckily, it’s downhill, so it can be blown through pretty quickly, and the light Sunday morning traffic made the transit uneventful. In the scheme of things, though, this is probably the most dangerous riding I’ve done – right up with the white-knuckle trip down Ochs Highway on Lookout Mountain. It’s not for the squeamish or for amateurs.
So, basically home-free now – through the easy streets of downtown and the Warner Park Zoo, then a quick stop at Jefferson’s for a burger (half of one, actually) and some rings. About 44 miles. Obviously, getting that close to my personal best, had to keep going, which meant across the Walnut Street Bridge, and out to Moccasin Bend. This is a great road to ride – mostly flat, hardly any traffic. Back to Coolidge, then a challenging ride up through Tremont and the neighborhoods above the North Shore. I’ve walked up here before, but never ridden. Very, very hilly and grueling (especially after 50 miles), but awesome views.
I broke my previous personal best of 55 miles coming down Market Street, heading to the Market Street Bridge. I didn’t want to just break my record, though, I wanted to shatter it. So, across the bridge, and back downtown, then out to Finley Stadium. From the stadium, once more back to the “new” Riverwalk, through Ross’s Landing, back in to the Art District, across the WSB and done. 65 miles (or just a hair under 100 KM). On the clock, about 11 1/2 hours, but just under 10 hours of actual riding; nonetheless, a long, exhausting and satisfying ride. Average speed was only a little over 6.5 MPH, which is basically my running speed. I’m going to have to crank that up if I’m going to do 75 or 100 miles. In fact, I think I’ll try 75 soon, but that’ll just be laps on the Riverwalk, I think, because I can usually average closer to 10 MPH, and I could exceed that if I wanted to. Therefore, I could do 75 miles in maybe 8 hours, if I set my mind to it. The mind is definitely willing – I hope the body will follow suit.
So, here it is:
Compare this with Grand Prix I, and you can see how much more intense this ride was:
Huge difference – downtown, Moccasin Bend, the North Shore; but, it was double the distance, and that was the whole point. Feels pretty awesome to set a new personal record, and really, 65 miles in one ride is pretty flippin’ astonishing. Next stop, 75 miles.
Therefore, as of right now, total weight lost: 77.1 pounds. 80 pounds would be awesome, and because I love synchronicity, it would go nicely with my 80-mile bike ride. Just gotta dig.
