Fun & Fitness over 50

I told you that I am a pavement connoisseur and one of my pet peeves is bad pavement that doesn't get fixed when better roads nearby are repaved.

I was very happy a couple of weeks ago when I found that a bad stretch of Game Farm road had been recently paved and was interested in seeing how far it went and if the town also paved another road that I frequently ride that is really bad, Hurst Road.

On my weekday 1 hour rides, I don't have enough time to go further than the railroad tracks on Game Farm and Hurst is way beyond that besides and to check it out in the car would be, well ... how can I say ... uncool!

So that was my objective today. I had 2 hours for a ride before church, 6:30AM to 8:30 and I definitely wanted to check the last piece of Game Farm Road and Hurst Rd. Game Farm road from the tracks to where it ends on county route 308 is only 1/3 of a mile but it is very rough macadam with stones showing. It ends up at about a 6% grade so coming down it you can get going pretty good but it is a bone rattling ride.

Well, they didn't pave it. Boo-hoo. I was quite disappointed.

I continued on up Orchard Hill. They didn't repave that either (it could use it) but they did do some patches. Same thing on Hurst. No repave but a few patches on the worst spots. They could have done more.

Hurst Road ends on Clipp Rd which is actually pretty rough itself but it's more consistent and it's flat. Hurst has potholes and ruts in random spots which makes it hard to cut a decent line through at speed going down the hill which is up to a 7% grade in one spot.

On this ride I also had some trouble with a rubbing sound when I pedal hard out of the saddle on a hill. This was of some concern because there have been only 2 reasons for the rubbing sound in the past: 1. Rear wheel was loose in the dropouts or 2. Broken spokes! #2 is the one I was worried about and the rear wheel did look a little wobbly.

I stopped twice to make sure the wheel was centered in the dropouts and that the quick release was tight. I also did a spot check on the spokes and didn't find any broken ones although I did find some loose ones. That may account for the wobbliness. But it still made the rubbing noise. I finally figured out that it was the brake pads that were rubbing. All I needed to do was either push on the pads themselves or else flick the brake lever lightly to stop the noise. That was a relief. Although I should get those loose spokes tightened up.

It rained a little over half way through the ride. It wasn't supposed to. I guess God should have checked the report before he pulled the lever on today. Ha ha.

Terrific ride. A little over 2 hours and 29 miles. This was for endurance so it was a moderate pace. Average HR was 120bpm and max was 145. Burned about 1300 calories.

Here is the route:

endurance ride Sunday 6-27-2010