Friday plans for the weekend

Tailwind

Is there a more beautiful word?

After last weekend's long ride, I was feeling not quite 'en forme" for a few days while the old body recuperated. Finally today I felt fast again, and the ride to work went great (I had pumped up my tires yesterday, that helped speed me up).

Then when I arrived at the salt mines I noticed the flags in the front announcing that I was fast because I was getting a good tailwind the whole way. OK, so Maybe I’m not Olympic-athlete quality, but I felt good, and I had a tailwind, and I was going fast, all of these are included in the secret recipe for a great Friday mood.

And, here comes the weekend. Another beautiful word of the English language. Chock full of potential and promise, two days to fulfil adventures planned but yet undone.

This weekend I'll do another ride from Canada into Northeast New York's Adirondacks.

I'll head straight south from Franklin Centre to Lyon Mountain, heading further south on the west side of the mountain (via Standish). After a long downhill, I will go northeast on Rt 3. Assuming I find Pickett’s Corner this time (I missed the road last time), I will start the return trip northward on the east side of Lyon Mtn. This will be either on Chazy Lake Road, or by the town of Dannemora again. Further north I’ll try some variations to avoid Plank Road, which was the only part of the route last time that I thought needed improvement. So I am basically doing a reverse-ride of my Plan-C longest-ride scenario of last week. (I had actually done a hybrid-Plan A-Plan B last week.)

On the map the route will be the green northern section and the blue southern section. Which red route I choose to connect the two remains undecided!

Lyon Mountain is located in the middle of the blue dots.

No matter what the route ends up being, it will be another long ride. It could be over a hundred miles, so maybe it would be a good idea if I start earlier than last weekend’s crack of noon start. And apply sunscreen more than once. This I also learned the hard way.

So as the 2007 cycling season progresses, I am happy to see my fitness and endurance steadily increase, and even better: my need for adventure and exploration are still going strong.