When one documents something in writing (i.e. this blog), one puts one's past self on the record for cross examination by one's present self, and there are plenty of contemplative hours on that **** bicycle seat for this inquisition to take place. The one I rued the most today was the assertion on Day 3 about headwinds not bothering me.
The first 95 miles of today's 134 mile stage were the toughest for me so far. Just two nights ago I mentioned to Susan Nortoranglo that none of the stages we'd done were as hard as the training rides Paul & I did before the start of the tour. That hurdle was sailed over by today's early miles: at the beginning my legs felt just like they did after we'd completed 160 miles on our 200 mile training ride. It's not hard to come up with 291 reasons for feeling that way: 146 miles Monday and 145 Tuesday. But we also faced a headwind which seemed determined to lower my spirits to the level of my legs. Our average moving speed (i.e. not counting time for breaks & lunch) at the final rest stop at mile 104 was 16.1 MPH even though we'd generally been going downhill.
But as happened repeatedly on this tour, things turned around in the end with strong tailwinds encouraging a romping final 30 miles to get into our destination. So that was fun and the spirits were revived and I'm ready for another heave-ho tomorrow. And our average moving speed for the ride as a whole was 17.4 MPH, an 8% increase in average speed.
One of the things I have time to contemplate on that **** saddle is the change in average speed since I keep the average speed for the ride displayed in front of me on my bike computer. That 1.3 MPH increase in average speed looks pretty small, but its a hard number to budge once you've already put 104 miles into the formula. I think there is something counter-intuitive about the relationship between change of actual speed and change in average speed. So let's see what the average speed for the final section of the ride must be to account for that bump.
16.1 MPH for 104 M = 6.45 H
17.4 MPH for 134 M = 7.70 H
Therefore the final stage is
30 Miles taking 1.35 Hours = 22 MPH
So the actual speed went up by 36% for 30 miles in order to get the average speed up by 8%. No fair! It isn't the devil's work or anything but still, I'm just saying...
Not too many photogenic things today. We made it out of South Dakota, and into Minnesota, which turns out to be a lot like South Dakota except greener with a bit more roll to the hills. But there was no sign at the state line, just "State Line Road." One of the interestinger things we noticed was that all backroads in eastern South Dakota are designated by number: streets run east-west and avenues run north-south.
As you can see, we are definitely in the outer boroughs.
The past couple days we were wondering what city was the origin for this grid, puzzled because the numbers were consistent across county lines. Eventually today I noticed the number roads were all spaced at 1 mile intervals and it became clear that the NW corner of South Dakota is the origin. So from the sign above it is 460 miles to the western and 254 miles to the northern borders of the state. This was a relatively recent change, done in the 1990's. It's almost like they want you to be able to find places. What a concept!
Views from the day:
The next three all look like they could be on the same stretch of road but the crops on the right side indicate that we are in a groundhog day scenario!
Thundershowers threatened but our wending way avoided them - yet more weather luck, knock on wood! And the temps were in the mid 70's or less.
Greetings to Adrian!
We confirmed its not an alien craft on the town banner:
From the edge:
The art shot for the day is this accidental slo-mo movie Paul captured. You can see the bane of our existence jar his front wheel 12 seconds in.
The first 95 miles of today's 134 mile stage were the toughest for me so far. Just two nights ago I mentioned to Susan Nortoranglo that none of the stages we'd done were as hard as the training rides Paul & I did before the start of the tour. That hurdle was sailed over by today's early miles: at the beginning my legs felt just like they did after we'd completed 160 miles on our 200 mile training ride. It's not hard to come up with 291 reasons for feeling that way: 146 miles Monday and 145 Tuesday. But we also faced a headwind which seemed determined to lower my spirits to the level of my legs. Our average moving speed (i.e. not counting time for breaks & lunch) at the final rest stop at mile 104 was 16.1 MPH even though we'd generally been going downhill.
But as happened repeatedly on this tour, things turned around in the end with strong tailwinds encouraging a romping final 30 miles to get into our destination. So that was fun and the spirits were revived and I'm ready for another heave-ho tomorrow. And our average moving speed for the ride as a whole was 17.4 MPH, an 8% increase in average speed.
One of the things I have time to contemplate on that **** saddle is the change in average speed since I keep the average speed for the ride displayed in front of me on my bike computer. That 1.3 MPH increase in average speed looks pretty small, but its a hard number to budge once you've already put 104 miles into the formula. I think there is something counter-intuitive about the relationship between change of actual speed and change in average speed. So let's see what the average speed for the final section of the ride must be to account for that bump.
16.1 MPH for 104 M = 6.45 H
17.4 MPH for 134 M = 7.70 H
Therefore the final stage is
30 Miles taking 1.35 Hours = 22 MPH
So the actual speed went up by 36% for 30 miles in order to get the average speed up by 8%. No fair! It isn't the devil's work or anything but still, I'm just saying...
Not too many photogenic things today. We made it out of South Dakota, and into Minnesota, which turns out to be a lot like South Dakota except greener with a bit more roll to the hills. But there was no sign at the state line, just "State Line Road." One of the interestinger things we noticed was that all backroads in eastern South Dakota are designated by number: streets run east-west and avenues run north-south.
As you can see, we are definitely in the outer boroughs.
The past couple days we were wondering what city was the origin for this grid, puzzled because the numbers were consistent across county lines. Eventually today I noticed the number roads were all spaced at 1 mile intervals and it became clear that the NW corner of South Dakota is the origin. So from the sign above it is 460 miles to the western and 254 miles to the northern borders of the state. This was a relatively recent change, done in the 1990's. It's almost like they want you to be able to find places. What a concept!
Views from the day:
The next three all look like they could be on the same stretch of road but the crops on the right side indicate that we are in a groundhog day scenario!
Thundershowers threatened but our wending way avoided them - yet more weather luck, knock on wood! And the temps were in the mid 70's or less.
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