It seems weird to say that I had a great 82.5 mile ride...but I did. The trick? I ate more than I ever had before. I added Hammer bars to the mix this weekend, and the extra calories seem to have made the difference, no fuzzy fading feelings. Now, I was tired and the hills still hurt, but it wasn't a particularly hilly ride and we finished strong. Carrie and I rode together the whole way as we have the past couple of rides, hopefully we'll do the same in Tahoe. We're pretty evenly matched and boy is it nice to ride with someone.
This is us at, our third rest stop:
It's 64 miles and we're doing just fine. Maybe it was the pie, this was the same place we stopped many weeks ago on our first ride out of Davidsonville. I must say, the roads felt flatter this time around :)
Here's stop two - at "The Beach". It's a little beach community on what looks like an inlet from the Atlantic ocean, I wish I knew more but I pretty much just followed the cue sheet. That's me in the center of the picture getting ready to head out.
I took a moment to take a quick arm picture, first time I've had the motivation to get my camera out and snap a photo. Of course it was a nice day (finally!) and a beautiful spot.
Had to include a picture of these two dogs. I can't imagine the humiliation they must be suffering (actually they looked cheerful). Please note that one is wearing a grass skirt, the other an aloha shirt and both are wearing flowered leis. You know the owner made them on her sewing machine...you can see her doing it, can't you?
Anyway, after marveling that we had a day with a good temperature, no rain and no headwinds, the second half of the ride the wind kicked up and we fought it for most of the last 40 miles. And then, one rest stop at a time, one turn after another, one mile after another, we were done. 82.5 miles. Carrie and I agreed that it seemed ridiculous to us that we had biked that many miles. I can't explain it other than to say we focused on the short goals and after 6.5 hours, we were done.
Sunday I went out for a recovery ride with my friend Geoff (who's riding my old Trek bike which he's named "Purple Rain") and for some reason rode another 25 miles through rock creek park. By the end, everything hurt. My knee, my backside (despite the expensive shorts) my shoulders, my neck. I got home, showered, ate and then spent the rest of the day on the sofa. Exciting weekend eh? Ice, Advil and rest. Repeat. I think the miles caught up to me, I've been pretty tired the past couple of days. I guess it didn't help that I woke up at 5AM on Sunday, for no good reason. My legs are OK, not too sore thanks to the recovery ride, but being in the saddle for almost 108 miles this weekend has left its mark on me.
Next weekend is our last training ride before we ship our bikes off to Tahoe. It's 90 miles in Middleburg VA, with Mt. Weather at about mile 20. A climb of like 10 miles or so. Alums say it's a hard ride, and it sounds silly after all these rides but I'm a little apprehensive. 90 hard miles sounds...hard. Apparently it's "a little bit of everything we've done so far this season". What the heck does THAT mean? We're meeting at 7AM, which means I have to leave home before 6AM. Trying to get to bed early this week.
The good news? It's a harder ride than the Tahoe century. Which will be great news sometime Saturday afternoon! We're having a BBQ to celebrate the end of the ride, celebrate indeed. I heard again that after all our training rides, Tahoe is a good time. Looking forward to finding out for myself.
Go Team!
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