WOO HOO! Great ride!! We had killer headwinds on the way out-- took Wagner to Scio Church to M-52 North... M-52 was WAY sketch-y... the shoulder has gotten a lot worse over the winter. I don't think I'll take that route again. The headwind and the traffic made it scary and brutal. BUT-- it was nice to have it behind us by the time we reached the halfway point. We took a break at Zouzous (of course) and knowing that M-52 was past made it easier to get back on the bike :)

Even with the headwind, our average heading out was 15.3 mph. On the way back, we had a nice tailwind and were able to cook it-- I had a stupid grin on my face the whole time, and I know that people going in the other direction must have hated us. They looked like they were suffering.

We decided to push ourselves up the last three hills on Newport-- we checked our average speed at the intersection with Maple (16.3) and again at the overpass on M-14-- no change!! Sah-WEET!

looking at my HRM later, it's a wonder my heart didn't explode. after our break in Chelsea, i could *not* keep it in my zone... it was above 170 just about the whole way :P then again, it _has_ been on the fritz lately (reading a resting HR of 198?! i don't *think* so!). the avg and max for this HR take in to account the long-ish break we had in Chelsea (my chai did *not* cool down fast enough!! :P)