Activity: road cycling
Location: Front Royal, VA > Luray, VA > Front Royal, VA
Distance: 84.0 miles (very hilly)
Duration: 4:55
Weather: partly sunny, 57-74 degrees
Avg HR: 161 (max 185)
Type: aerobic

An impromptu ride of “SkyMass” (Skyline Drive plus the climb to Massanutten) with some PPTC friends. It has almost 9,000 vertical feet of climbing over the 84 mile distance, and half of that comes in the first 22 miles. It’s a leg burner, but the views are something else. Like a dimwit, I forgot my camera – next time, I’ll take pics. The top of Skyline Drive (in Shenandoah Nat’l Park) is still in the early stages of spring, and was refreshingly cool. The climb to Massanutten almost beat me (it has some 11-percent grade stretches, which are tough coming 48 miles into the ride), but I did just fine. Aside from Massanutten (all 2.1 miles of it) I rode strong all day, and Wolfgang and I pulled a 25 mph average over the last 23 miles of the ride – pretty darn good for a two-man shift.