Longest Bike Ride of the Year

 A cycling story in two parts

Guys like this invariably have a big truck but a tiny dipstick

What kind of mouth-breathing, wife-beating, Trump-voting loser says to themselves "Look, there's a guy with gray hair slogging up a hill. I'll go blow diesel exhaust and carbon particles into his lungs!" I was out for my ride today when some guy pulled up behind me, followed slowly for a few seconds, then started rolling coal while passing me as slowly as possible.

OK, now that I've gotten that out of my system, on to the actual ride. This was my first 15-mile ride this year (I'm not impressed either), and it was tough. I rode the initial part of the Tarwheels Bikefest route, which is pretty hilly. I was supposed to be doing this at my "I could ride like this all day" pace, but failed at that. It's more downhill on the way out and (obviously) uphill coming back. 

Heart Rate in red, Elevation in green. The hill is the HR spike at 46:00

There is one short but steep hill that I've been avoiding so far, but it was part of this route. I crawled up it at about 4 miles an hour, and considered stopping part of the way up. But, I pressed the "Ralph Marshall, You Are An Ironman!" button and kept going. That worked to get me up that hill, and up the next incline too, but then it stopped. I ended up pulling off at a church parking lot (talk about needing to be saved!) and sitting for about 10 minutes before proceeding.

Got home with no further drama, and it was good exercise, but I'm clearly in need of more riding.