Well, this was a strange day. I met Oren and his friend Eyal near a Sonol station in Giv'at Ada, since Eyal wanted to do some climbing. The ride started out fine, as we headed west on the 653 to the 654, which I had ridden once before with Oren. This road is really nice for riding, and a lot of cyclists ride out here. We rode to the 6533 and up to Amikam. Eyal is a climber, and he rode right with me. We turned onto the 6533, which has a gradual climbing section. Then we turned onto a road that doesn't have a number, at least on MapMyRide, and took it to a Golani military unit training camp. This section was up and down, and by this time Eyal and I agreed to ride ahead and wait for Oren at some later spot. The road was rolling hills, and the rollers got more pronounced as we continued by the military base. We rode to Giv'at HaRakafot and got onto the 672, where the climbing got more serious, again in a rolling sort of way. Past Elyakim, we entered a forest area where the grade got steeper. Except for a couple of times, I was able to hang with Eyal, who was faster on some grades, particularly the really steep ones. We finally rode up to Daliyat el Carmel, and I thought we were done with the climbing, but Eyal took us around the city, heading mostly down until a last, really steep section that just killed me. By this time, I was running out of water and energy, but I thought we were close to done, since Oren had indicated the ride would be about 60 km. The downhill was quite fast in some places and relatively easy to ride, not so technical. But after we got back to the rollers, I was toasted and really, really slow on any kind of uphill. Kinda embarrassing. We got back to the military training camp, and I had to stop. I really thought I was done. By a crazy coincidence, Oren was waiting right by this spot, and there was water to refill my empty bottles. So I sat in the shade for about 5 minutes, had a couple of dates and rehydrated. After that I was good to go, although still slow on the uphills. Oren stayed with me, which helped my motivation. And it turned out that we were closer to the finish than I thought. Since it was generally downhill, I was able to get back without too much difficulty, getting something like a second wind. Back to the 6533, turning left and getting to the 653 for a short stretch back to the starting point.
For any future rides with this much exertion, I am going to need to bring some kind of food and maybe even some kind of energy drink. And I have to be in better shape. After the ride, we stopped at a little cafe and ate fried cauliflower. So, there was that.
Avg speed = 14.2 mph. Total mileage 49.9 mi
Total elevation gain = 3840'
https://www.mapmyride.com/workout/3734512462
