One of (if not) the last relatively warm (near 60 F today) days of 2011. Avg spd 16.6 mph at 10 mile marker (Howe Park) showing on Edge 305 screen. ( Avg H/R ? bpm (still need to replace the chest sensor battery). ) Felt great to be back on bike after having to work eight days in a row while the boss man (the other member (with yours truly) of our 2-man inspection team covering a 7-day-a-week work operation ) was away on his annual fall deer-hunting in NH vacation).
Avg speed build-up as ride progressed: Knox Trail Jr High entrance road (1/4 mile into the route) 17 mph ; top of first big Ash St hill (at 2 wx vanes) 8.5 mph (last time it was 9 mph); at end of Ash St 11 mph (last time 11.0 mph); corner of E Charlton & Bacon Hill Rd 13 mph (last time 13 mph); E Charlton & Old Spencer Rd (town line) ? mph; end of Old Spencer Rd (at Rt 31) 15 mph, green light today, ( last time 14.0 mph, but dropped to 13.8 last time while waiting for red light at temp bridge-raising project over the Amtrak and freight railroad tracks ) ; bottom of downhill trough on N Sturbridge Rd (just before Osgood Rd) 15.9 mph (last time 15.0 mph); corner of Briarcliff Ln & Bacon Hill Rd near railroad underpass 16.1 mph (last time 15.0 mph); end of Cranberry Meadow Rd at railroad overpass ? mph; Howe Park (at turn onto Lyford Rd uphill just before railroad overpass) 16.6 mph (last time 15.8 mph) (end of 10.3 mile training route #1). Wx conditions: Overcast w/ sprinkles at start, very light rain at finish (to beat the oncoming heavier rains, had to abort the usual left turn side trip at end of Lyford Rd at S. Spencer to the Thunder Bay horse farm turnaround), air temp 57 F , dew pt 49 F, winds S and SW 5 to 10 mph .