Midweek redemption
After a particularly stressful day at work, I came home and knocked out a quick but hilly 40 miles in the low foothills northeast of Fresno. Included in that distance is a 3.6-mile stretch of road that's used by the local cycling club as a measured time-trial course with a decent altitude gain of several hundred feet. I don't time myself every time I go up there, but here are the results I've logged:

9/3/05 16:20
11/20/05 15:25
4/13/06 15:45
5/23/06 14:40

So yay for me. And my average speed for the entire ride, including about 1,500 feet of climbing, was a very respectable 15.1 mph.

But for some quick humbling comparison, the club's guidelines for the time trial indicate that times of 12-16 minutes qualify as a "C" rider (roughly Category 3 on the ALC scale), and they have many, many "D" riders, which is defined as being able to do the climb in less than 12 minutes. That's one of the things about riding around Fresno -- the local cycling populace is so racing-oriented that it's tough to find touring-speed folks to ride with.

Miles this month: 626
Miles this year: 3,305