Detour Tempo Ride

I haven't been great about getting in the SHORT and HARD efforts that I need. And this workout was more of the same. D'oh.

I headed out for a hard 20 mile tempo effort, but based on some trail closures and not going as hard as I should have, I extended it to 24 miles.

I've LOVED biking up the Big Rivers trail in the last few years, but 7 miles into my ride, I came across a sign saying the 35E bridge over to the start of the trail was closed:

And the map was mounted sideways. It was very odd.

So I took off on RECENTLY REPAVED TRAILS(!!) towards downtown St. Paul. After a few great miles, then I was on horribly bumpy trails. I ended up alongside of downtown St. Paul next to the Mississippi River:

Turning around about a 1/2 mile later.

I cranked it hard through downtown, across the rough trails, gained some speed on the smoother trails, climbed that hill up from 35E on Shepard, got back on Cleveland Ave, and finally finished 24 hard miles back near home at split #5:

That "blip" by 35E is where I WANTED to head south but found the closed trail.

I was over 20 mph for all of the ride, but coming back through residential streets slowed me up to 20.0 mph after 24 miles. Nothing special. Just a hard ride before a longer cool-down.