A Little Climbing

Total for this ride: 40.6 miles

Total for this year: 121.3 miles

First of all, and most importantly, let me note that the RIT hockey team just advanced to the semifinals of the NCAA Division I Championship Tournament with a decisive 6-2 win over New Hampshire.  GO TIGERS!

That said... I went on another ride today.  Jacked up the mileage and did a little climbing - 2507 feet to be exact.  I know a lot of people climb a heck of a lot more than that and don't even break a sweat.  OK - so I'm old and feeble.  But for me, that was a pretty good workout.  In the past two seasons I've only climbed more than that twice - once on a 70 mile ride to Geneseo, and once on a 50 miler to Hemlock.  So to do that much climbing in a 40 mile ride was pretty good by my standards.

It was another cold ride - 35 degrees when I left home.  It got up to 45 by the time I reached Honeoye Falls, but there was a brisk wind the whole time, so I never felt warm.  In fact, my toes were numb long before I got home.

So the route, as shown above, took me south out of Victor (and up Boughton Hill) to Bloomfield, west from Bloomfield to Lima, north from Lima through Honeoye Falls and on to Mendon Ponds, south out of Mendon Ponds to Rt 251, then east on 251 all the way back to Victor.  The bike handled well, although the cables on the front shifter need to be adjusted already.  For a while I was afraid that I wasn't going to be able to get the chain onto the small ring in front before going up the final killer hill (Lane Rd) before getting home.  But thankfully I managed to drop it on just as I approached the climb.

Road kill seen on this ride:  a skunk, a fox, a raccoon, something that may have been an oppossum, and something that was probably a deer based on the size of the ribcage (which had long ago been picked clean).

Supposed to do another ride tomorrow - a 25 miler up near the Lake Ontario shore.