Eagle, ID — Since the weather forecast said that today would be the best day of the week (least chance of rain) I decided to take advantage of it and do a super-long ride. I knew the wind would be out of the southeast so I headed east for a change. I went out on Hill Rd and dropped off the Lost River clothes I borrowed from Justin for Valley of the Sun. It was a beautiful, blue-sky day. It was only 42° when I started but it was supposed to get up to 54°.

After I dropped of the clothes in Boise, I continued through town and then headed east on Warm Springs Rd, Then I made a left on Hwy 21 towards Lucky Peak. The headwind was tough, but since I knew it would be a long ride, I just put it in an easy gear and kept my effort moderate. I decided to go up and over Hilltop. Going up the long side I didn’t really try to make it an interval, but with a 21-tooth cogset and the headwind it became a force workout. I had the 21 because that’s what I want to use for the TT this weekend. It wasn’t too bad, my cadence only got down to the mid-60’s. Besides, it was a good force interval. It felt good to push the pedals and work all the way to the top.

Over the top it was a lot colder and there was still snow on the sides of the road. I went down to Arrowrock and rode the road to the EOP (end of pavement). On one stretch there was quite a few rocks on the road that had fallen from the east facing slope. I hit a small tailwind stretch and was cruising along when I hit one of those rocks with my rear wheel. It immediately went flat so I had to stop and change it. Changing the tube was kind of a trick since hands were freezing, but I managed to get it changed, albeit slowly, then pumped it up and continued on my merry way.

Coming over the backside of hilltop was easier since now I had a tailwind. I really like that climb because the slope is so consistent. It’s the perfect place to do hill intervals. I continued on Hwy 21 past Lucky Peak and Columbia Village all the way up to Federal Way. I stopped at the convenience store to top off on water and hit the restroom. Then I headed east on Federal Way into the stiff headwind. Since my plan was to go to Blacks Creek, I had to get on the freeway. It really wasn’t that bad, the shoulder was clear of debris, even to the right of the rumble strip. It was tough climbing out of the valley with that headwind but I finally made it to the Blacks Creek exit.

I went northeast on Blacks Creek to the EOP about 5 miles past where we usually have the finish for our Blacks Creek spring series race. I didn’t realize that the road went that far and I wondered why it wasn’t incorporated into the race. That was a great section of road that reminded me of the road between Ola Valley and Sweet. I turned around at the EOP. On the way back I made a right on the only paved fork on that road. The signage indicated it went to a bunch of trailheads, including Willow Creek. I’ve heard there’s some good mountain biking out that way. The pavement only lasted a couple miles so I had to turn around again. I was enjoying all this exploring since I was trying to add length my ride.

Back on Blacks Creek Rd I had a kick’n tailwind, especially once I went under the freeway and the road turned due west. I was flying at 30MPH! I noticed a Volvo drive past me earlier on the other side with a couple road bikes on the roof-rack. I had a feeling they were looking for the TT course for this weekend. They went by me again on this stretch and parked about where the start of the TT really is. I was going to stop but I didn’t want to slow down from this awesome speed! Besides, it looked like they figured it out on their own. I just hope they knew to head west and not east!

I continued on Kuna-Mora then made a right on Cloverdale, then left on King and finally right on Ten Mile. I had to hop over to Linder to get back to Floating Feather. Most of the way back the southeast wind was pushing me along at a great pace. The final kicker was going back into the headwind on Floating Feather. But at least that was only for a few miles. When I arrived at my house I had to go past it down the street so I could make the ride an even 6 1/2 hours! With all the wind and hills, it was only 118 miles but my NP (normalized power) was 219 watts. Not a bad day’s work for a pseudo-cyclist. I Even though I felt thrashed by the end, I was still pushing 230 watts on the flats. So I think my endurance is where it needs to be. For those wattage junkies, my TSS was 358.1…my highest to date!