Dinky But Steep

This evening I was running late at work so I only had time for a quickie ride. I figured a 12 mile sprint around the horn would suffice, and I headed out along an abbreviated and modified State Hill Circuit. This time, I hooked a left off of Evans Hill Rd onto Faust Rd and cranked into the deep wilderness. I mean, real back woods territory. I love that this area goes from dense suburb to complete oblivion within a few miles.

Almost immediately, I hit a crapload of these dinky yet insanely steep little hills on Faust and Steely Rds. These wall-like rises are invisible in the Google Maps satellite photos so I had no idea, then again part of the fun is the exploration. Too bad I was losing daylight and, well, after a couple miles of this, my legs felt like they were filled with liquid hot magma. Not since my first ride of the season have I felt this crappy. And I blame both my missed breakfast and the steepness of those little climbs. Plus, my sprockets kept slipping the chain down for some reason, so what little energy I had left was spent trying to crank over these little walls (call them BIG speed bumps) with my sprockets going all herky-jerky at random.

You know what else didn't help? On my ride with Lauren the other day, I suffered a boneheaded NO-SPEED crash. In other words, I was stopped and I didn't pull my foot out of the toe clip in time before -- BOOM! -- down I went. Huge black and purple raspberry on my right hip and the frantic struggle to pull my right foot out of the clip has rendered my right ankle a little sore. Bam. Oh and I suffered a gnarly gushing road rash on my right knee. All from falling whilst at a complete stop. Doy.

The only redemption for the day was 422. Man, I love riding on that road. Really felt good sprinting at my version of high speed for five or six miles. I think I hit a second wind after the crushing warm-up, or maybe I was just pissed off at my "modified and abbreviated" circuit. What I'd give to have 422 closed to car and truck traffic for a day between here and Harrisburg.

UPDATE, 8/14/07: A year from now when I'm in better shape and more skilled, I'll read this post and laugh at all my whining.