Dark Clouds More Hills — How Do I Get out of Here, Again?

This diversion around Shore Dr., Lake Rd. and Bayview is
worth the occasional detour despite the speed-bumped and
shaggy Plandome road surface.

I was really worried about this ride.

I had started taking Simvastatin 10 mg (not much) on Sunday last, and by Tuesday I was noticing a lot of fatigue and weakness. My treadmill run on Tuesday sucked eggs -- my legs just had nothing.

Yesterday, just walking the dog, my legs felt dead and I felt a deep fatigue. I've been taking Co-Q10 (Ubiquinol 100x3) to mitigate the energy loss) but it was not doing a whole lot of mitigating.

Knowing I was going to ride today, I skipped the pill last night in the hopes I would have somewhat better legs and less fatigue than I'd had during the week. 

But I wasn't sure if I'd get out there and not be able to return. That's how bad it had been.

By the time I got there I had decided I would stick with Plan A and try to get an equivalent number of miles to my 1-way commute -- about 13.5.  I figured I'd give myself a treat and throw in a bit of gravity assistance from Stonytown Rd. It's a fun down-gradient, not to steep, not too much traffic and not too many interruptor roads. 

The legs felt "OK enough" and the breeze was cool so I let the section have all I had. The road is home to the  "Reverse Cowgirl" and "Breaking the Speed Limit" Strava segments.  Zooming down here is just a fine pleasure, even with a slight headwind.

After a hilly diversion around Plandome, I zagged back into Rockhollow by Leeds pond and back to Stonytown via Papermill. All was good to here. Little did I know I was about to get my butt kicked.

Rockwood seemed like a good idea. Until I got about 3/4 of the way up. This was not a place I wanted to see how much my HR could peak at. I had forgotten the HR strap, but I took no chances. After pausing to snap this photo, I soon did something I had not done since the Mill Hill ride with Lenny, I walked a bit.

I was glad to get it over, but I did not know where I was for sure.

Well an 8% hill sure seems like a nice break after an 18% grade hill.

I tried to take a pic of the Garmin Edge on that 18% grade, but just got a flash of sun glare for my troubles. Never mind; trust me Rockwood is brutally steep. and it keeps on giving. It has friends too, with names like Woodedge, who keep on dishing out the beatdown, long after Rockwood is done.