Day 14 - Louisville Lunges
Updated: Apr 30, 2019
Yesterday was a very difficult day. First, however, it was absolutely beautiful! Not a cloud in the sky and the temps were cool to the point where I was comfortable wearing my long sleeved shirt for the entire ride! However, those cool temps came from the storms that blew through in front of a cold front the previous day with all those supposed tornados. And with that front came winds - lots of them - out of the northwest. And guess what, Louisville is northwest of Metter in GA! Yes, I had the wind in my face the whole day. I've already described the insidiousness of the wind in a prior post.
BUT, then add in the ROLLS, along with the fact that I'm heading inland towards the Appalachian Mountains! The closer I get to Seneca the higher in altitude I get. So I had headwinds pushing against me as I did a total of more than 1500 feet of climbing! It was a challenge. For the last 10 miles I abandoned the route and just stayed on Route 1 till I got into Louisville. I was surprised that Rt 1 goes through Louisville, but it begins its NE bend a little north of here as it goes through Augusta, GA. I'll be heading a little NW of here to Washington, GA for tonights stay at the Fitzpatrick.
I hate being on Rt 1. On some major roads here they've put rumble strips into the edges of the roads to wake people up when they sway into the edge of the road. Picture attached.
The result is that it leaves no room for a bicycle rider on the shoulder. It's not possible to ride! So then you're on the white line instead. That is no fun when the 18 wheelers drive by - or anyone else for that matter. I do have to say that most people in GA are very courteous and I believe I have high visibility with 2 rear blinking red lights and orange reflective panniers. Most people move all the way over into the other lane when they pass me. Something for which I'm very thankful!
To take some of the "sting" out of the leg, I did lunges on the bike by standing up on the hills to give both my legs and my butt a break from the spinning. Doing that has a completely different feel and uses different muscles, so you get a bit of a "rest". I guess.
Last night and this morning I'm spending the night in the Guest House on Academy on Academy Dr. in Louisville. I have to say I'm very impressed with the accommodations and I've had a whole house to myself. It's been very pleasant. Food was a bit of a challenge as there aren't a lot of restaurants around here and none within walking distance. But after changing my clothes, I found a place 3 minutes away on my bike that was OK. And it was the first time I was able to take advantage of my double-sided pedals to use the bike without the clips on my riding sandals.
Today has come up cold. It's in the 40's this morning, so I'm going to wait for it to warm up a bit and give my legs a little longer to get rested. They're feeling a little tired this morning. I also changed my flight back to FLL for the 20th instead of the 23rd so I can order some stuff and get a couple of things taken care of while I'm there. That's it for today (or yesterday). Gotta get ready and maybe spend a little time trying to figure out this video thing so I can start posting them again!
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