Big Dairy Afternoon

No, I didn't gorge myself at Cayuga Lake Creamery, taking on their intimidating but delicious 50 flavor challenge. I left that task in the capable hands of one of my library colleagues. Instead, I headed to the land of big dairy, namely 20 miles north of Ithaca, around King Ferry, Genoa and Venice. This area reminds me so much of midwestern farming towns, with feed stores, silos, large open pastures and chip seal roads. It was a very sleepy Saturday in dairy country, with next to no traffic and nobody outside. It felt more like a Sunday than a Saturday.

Yesterday was somewhat raw, with temperatures starting out in the upper-40s, then gradually cooling down as I made my way to Terpening Corners and beyond. My heart rate was unusually high during the Remington/Sunset climb, probably due to the fact that this was my first ride in a week, and I was fighting off a virus. However, by the time I got to the hillclimb out of Lansing toward King Ferry, I was feeling pretty strong. This was an illusion, of course, as I had a massive tailwind all the way past King Ferry to Ledyard. Of course, this meant that I had to face a wicked headwind on the homestretch back toward Lansing and all the way down 34B to Ithaca, and I was certainly feeling it when I got home. This was my longest ride of the season, and I'm looking forward to ramping up the distances in the coming weeks.

Stats:

Distance: 44.83 miles

Avg. speed: 18.1 mph

Vertical ascent: 2367 ft.

Avg. heart rate: 147 bpm

Calories burned: 2525 kcal

Max. speed: 44.1 mph

Time: 2:29:02

I bought a pair of Pearl Izumi windblocker gloves yesterday at my LBS that slip over the regular summer bike gloves. This is an excellent alternative to padded full-finger cold weather bike gloves, which are twice the price. By the time I climbed the second hill out of Lansing, my hands were so toasty that I had to take them off.

While I was at the LBS, I noticed an absurd product that served as a reminder that there is no end to the development of niche market products. It's called the gel-bot from Hydrapak, and no, it's not a gelatinous robot. It's a 2-in-1 water/gel bottle that allegedly allows easy consumption of a gel without having to struggle with opening the gel pack and suffer from dreaded sticky finger syndrome. While this $16 item gets some decent reviews online, it's RIDICULOUS! I imagine the thinking of a triathlete who imagines that they might gain a five second advantage by not having to unzip a gel pack while racing. The product must be finding its market, since gel-bots have been selling for almost five years, evidently.