My rides are still a bit inconsistent (riding one weekend, not riding the next) but they are starting to get back to the century mark. During the week I'm squeezing in more miles, which is helping. It's been more than a year since I've done a century. I've been fighting health, weather and other problems just trying to get in any rides at all so I'm quite pleased that I managed to get in my 92 mile ride yesterday. Two weeks ago I got in an 80 mile ride with an avg. pace of 15.8 mph. No where near my usual 17 - 18 mph avg. This week it was hotter and we rode longer (92 miles) and faster (16.3 mph). I also just had the first step of a tooth implant put in so I'm on anti-biotics. That played havoc with my digestion yesterday but only small problems (I was queasy most of the ride). Despite this I was just happy to be doing any riding! Approaching the century mark and averaging 16.3 was icing on the cake.
I decided to head down to Whiting and ride Pasadena Rd from Village Park in Cranbury, NJ. The day started out warm, the way I like it. But I did worry it might be too warm (high expected was low 90's F). We had 3 stops planned, Whiting, Pemberton and Allentown. The first 25 went quietly, the busiest stretch from Plumstead to Whiting (New Egypt - Whiting Rd) was not bad. A quick stop at the WaWa for a break and we were on our way. Pasadena was nice except for the one guy who buzzed me. I was riding 2 wide (oops) but there was no one else on the road and no visibility problems. He could have gone a bit more wide and a beep before hand would have been a good idea too. After that it was quiet and we enjoyed the scenery. When we reached Chatsworth we turned North to Sooy Place. While I enjoyed the scenery I was surprised to find that there was much less shade than what I was expecting. I wonder if they widened the fire break along the road? On this ride I decided to check out a 'new' road called Avenue Rd (it's listed as just Avenue) if for no other reason than it's name. It appeared to be a nice back road and it was. Also it dropped us right into Ong's Hat (I love these names :-) ). Avenue is a nice road despite no controlled intersection on Rt 70 (we had no trouble crossing). After much sun, nice scenery and being entertained by a crop duster in the fields not more than 100 ft away from us, we made it to the WaWa in Pemberton. The next section is the return to Cranbury via Allentown, we've done this section hundreds of times and such familiarity at the end of a ride is a comforting thought. Unfortunately the bridge over the Turnpike was closed so we were diverted (added 1 mile, oh woe is me ;-)). I'm glad to see that we may have access to the new bridge soon. The older narrower one was uncomfortable with a large group. I decided to detour along a nice back route that avoided much of the traffic in Hightstown (and the nice down hill :( ). It felt good to be back but better that we had done the ride and that we had so many positives. I'll need to see what I can come up with for next week's ride.
