So, I had another clear day on Wednesday, and got the bike and the Garmin unit ready on Tuesday. Well, it turns out I was denied again for my full ride, only getting in 92 miles. I made a few early season mistakes, and lost some time learning about the Garmin. Here's the report:
Six mistakes to try to avoid again
- Leaving Late. The plan was to hit the road at 9:20am as soon as I finished my daily standup. Well, there was an issue to put to bed, so we stayed on till 10. Then another client called with an issue. 10:15. Moral: plan your departure time, leave on your departure time.
- Not Preparing all Bike, Gear, and Electronics. Wait, it's 10:15, where's my cell phone? The Garmin is charged, the bike is ready, I'm dressed, but I can't find my phone. Oh crud, I had locked in the car yesterday for swim, and Marilyn's out. Potential disaster, I didn't want to head out on a early season century with no comms. Luckily I spied that my daughter had forgotten her phone, and it was charged. OK, write a quick note to her explaining I borrowed it, throw the jacket on, head out the door. It's now 10:28am, 1 hour + late on the departure. Clearly, I should have set my phone to charge the night before, and laid my wallet out (also in the car).
- No gel on the HR sensor, showing strange results. My HR doesn't really go to 200 anymore. Had to stop and use some snow to wet the contact points. Ditto for cadence sensor (this is a one time setup thing though, I had just installed the sensor). I probably stopped 10 times in the first 45 minutes messing about with the Garmin. This was mainly because I was learning some aspects of how "Courses" work. I did figure it out, and I'll address some of this in my next post. Summary: use the HR strap contact gel.
- Routing an Abandoned Road. This was the major problem that probably cost me 45 minutes. I was enjoying using ridewithgps to route plan. This was the first time I could do this and download it to a device, so I routed myself through some new roads in Sudbury, Stow, and Bolton. This worked well in Sudbury and Stow. When I got to Bolton I had tried a new route up Wataquodoc hill. Well, after riding 10 minutes south of Nashoba winery, I came to a dead end. Yep, google maps said there should be a road there. Maybe 20 years ago it was a passable dirt road. Now it said "dead end". I scanned the GPS, it looked like this road would meet up with an intersection in a half mile. The old roadbed had snow in it, but some tracks where someone had hiked it. I could walk the half mile, or retrace my steps. Big one here: Make sure you carefully study your routing, especially if it's in a fairly rural area and you don't know the roads. Google has sat converage that would have showed me this problem. If I had studied it before blithely loading the route onto my device.
- Getting the Bike Dirty. Hey, why randonneur if you don't like adventure, it was through the snow for me. Well, I got to the half mile point, and did meet a paved road, but the next turn I had planned was another non-existent road. Darn it. At this point I decided to just ride until I found myself someplace where I can rejoin my route. I did have a GPS, and it was easy to make a plan. Just 35 min wasted, right? WRONG. The bike was a mess from where I had tried to push it through snow and pine needles were jammed in the brakes. My cleats were filled with sand, mud, and ice, and wouldn't click in. I had to sit down and take a careful 10 min to clean the bike before I could push off. In retrospect, retracing 10 minutes of riding would have saved me 25 in total.
- Putting the Big Climb at mile 60. By the time I got to the far side of Sterling, it was 3:00. I had maybe 3.5 hours of daylight left. The big climb up mile road was ahead, probably 2500 feet of climbing in the next 15 miles. It just simply wasn't going to work, I had lost too much time and was going to be riding in the dark if I stuck to the plan. I did bring my headlight, but it's early season, heading into rush hour, and cars aren't used to cyclists yet. If I had 35 or 40 miles to go on the flats, I would have had no problem. Not with 3 big climbs though.
To my credit, I did do a few things right:
- Abandon the plan if you're concerned about safety. So I rode 2.4 miles up 140, rejoined the route on the still respectable climb of Justice Hill Cutoff, and looped back through Sterling and Harvard to home on the original route. I got in an hour before sunset, rewarded myself with an ale, and enjoyed dinner with my sweetie.
- I got the clothing correct (IP jersey and light shell so I could change my layering, two pairs of gloves to get the amount of insulation just right).
- Comfort was good on the bike.
- I did get the Garmin's course following software figured out. (works best in "automotive mode", just drive the bike between the big purple lines).
- I did orienteer myself out of the jam in Bolton. Again, having the GPS unit was perfect for this. It made for a nice little adventure, and it's satisfying to solve a problem.
As for the ride itself, it was a lovely late winter day. It warmed up to the low 40s and was bright and sunny. Traffic was reasonably light, and mostly the roads were OK with not too much sand or water runnoff. So, it was fun to be out if it wasn't for some of the stress from running late and a few of the mistakes. It's good to get the first long ride attempt done in the season, I'll be more ready for the next try. Third time's a charm?
Mileage Today: 92 miles
This Month: 213 miles
This Year: 776 miles
Since Aug 2006: 15327 miles
Mileage Today: 92 miles
This Month: 213 miles
This Year: 776 miles
Since Aug 2006: 15327 miles
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| Still some snow on fields |
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| Shadowfax after my 10 minutes of cleaning |
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| Wachusetts in the distance, wouldn't make it to the top today |
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| Sandy roads after my hike through the woods |
