Yesterday, in beautiful Lancaster, Texas, I did my first bike rally of the year and my 495th overall. I've done 11 of the 13 Lancaster Country Rides. The weather for this rally is often poor. Because the rally comes early in the year, we've gotten a lot of cold, wet, windy weather. Yesterday, by contrast, it was hot and windy. The official high temperature for the day was 89º Fahrenheit. The average wind speed was 19.8 miles per hour and the maximum 32. By the time I finished, I was fried.
Several of my friends showed up, including Phil, Joe, Julius, and Troy. We fought the headwind for about two hours, sometimes riding in packs with others. We knew that we would have a tailwind going back, and we did; but by then our legs were growing weak. At least mine were. Troy turned off on a shorter route. The remaining four of us came in two minutes apart.
I averaged 17.00 miles per hour for 63.31 miles (elapsed time = 3:43:19). My maximum speed was 31.2 miles per hour. I burned 3,686 calories. My average heart rate was 111 and my maximum 147. There were many bluebonnets along the course, as you can see if you click the image in this post. I stopped to snap it (with my BlackBerry) just east of Palmer.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 