4 May 2011 Fast America Day 11

Tucumcari, NM to Dalhart, TX

Mileage:                     101.00 miles

Riding Time:              4:39     Riding Speed 21.7 mph

Total Time:                 5:00

Climbing:                    1828 ft.

Flats:                           0

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/83527103

http://app.strava.com/rides/513323

When U.S. 54 was built, someone must have taken a 200 mile string and stretched it from Tucumcari to Liberal, KS, where I will lay my head tomorrow night. Then the road was laid along that string. It is that straight, except where the string must have hit a snag crossing the Canadian River. The river gorge is a gash in the earth which is otherwise almost flat – we crossed on a high bridge, but I had visions of trying to get the covered wagons down the gorge to cross the river (probably a herd of cattle is a more accurate vision; this is where the big cattle drives to Dodge City took place. Today had small rollers, tomorrow loses about 1,200 feet of elevation (about 10 feet per mile) but doesn’t even have small rollers.

Aided by today’s 25 mph tailwind, I set my second century PR in 4 days, at 4:34. Actually, the scheduled ride was only 95 miles so I made a little detour around the Dalhart residential area to get my century in; the last five miles did not help my average speed. It took two laps of little Dalhart to get the extra five miles. I rode virtually the whole way by myself, but with no hills, I was again near the front of the group. Note: The century run will end day after tomorrow, the two rides after that are only 83 and 85 miles.

We’re now in Central Time. Tomorrow’s ride is due NE like today, but the wind has changed 180 degrees, and we should see 15 mph headwinds the whole way. I guess today qualifies as an almost rest day, and I feel well prepared for a miserable long day tomorrow. My problem left foot was fine today.

Yesterday, I remarked on the importance of habit and how some daily tasks had become a ritual for me. Well, one thing that broke the ritual is that the last two days I wore cold weather long fingered gloves. So I panicked 10 minutes before I was due with my luggage when I couldn’t find my regular cycling gloves. After looking everywhere else, I looked in my shoes, where I had placed them because I could not possibly not find them there when I tried to put on my shoes.