Like 20 miles further than I've ever ridden. It was fantastic. I feel like I should say more about it, but honestly I don't really want to. I'll bullet point some of the highlights at the end. I'm swamped with work this weekend so I've really been trying to focus on that instead the rest of the day.
Today's Workout: Long ride w/ Brian
Summary: 52.75 mi, 3:55:10, 13.5 mph
Speed splits by 5 mi: 13.8, 12.9, 13.7, 14.5, 12.2, 14.6, 13.5, 13.5, 14.8, 11.9, 13.4
Hit Rate: 63/69 (91.3%)
Notes/thoughts:
- Route was out to Confluence Tower and back via the Riverfront Trail (we started at the Forsyth entrance to Forest Park).
- My shoe clip things were super tight this morning, had a really hard time getting in and out. But they loosened up a bit by the end of the ride.
- Brian was a great baby-sitter. Took care of me after my one (and only) fall of the day. Also helped me with my clipping issues. Didn't mind me being slow. Was good.
- We went really slow. I probably could have taken it just a touch faster, but probably just a touch. Any faster than just a touch faster and I would have definitely crashed and burned and died. My brain was getting fuzzy on the way back as is.
- Eating real food is pretty awesome. I think it would have to be going at about that effort, because if I were riding harder than that I'd have a hard time physically chewing and swallowing but also digesting. But for a long ride like this at the effort that we took it, being able to eat real food on the ride was fantastic. (Clif Bars were what I had, just btw.)
- So the full ride actually took us closer to 5 hours because of stopping time (lights, a tour of Confluence Tower, some random detours and reroutes). See the Garmin page for deets.
- It was nice to take it slow, I felt pretty good the whole time, but then somehow I got home and over the course of an hour crashed so hard. Legs are feeling it even though they felt pretty light and happy on the pedals most of the ride.
- We road on the shoulder of the highway for like 4-5 miles worth of the out and of the back. I'm getting much more comfortable riding on the roads. I don't think I'd opt for the highway very often because every time I got near a pothole I couldn't help thinking that if I messed something up and fell into the road I would be dead (which was the truth) but I think I could get more used to riding around real traffic.
- I gained so much confidence in my ability to go for this long today. Even if it was slow, it was something that I was really scared about and I think my body actually handled it really well, so I feel like I'm going to be able to tackle my usual 20-30 mile rides with way more confidence than I used to have. It's super fantastic.
- Also, this is important: I HAD SO MUCH FUN. It was nice to just use my bike to go explore and hang out with a friend and have funny random conversations and enjoy myself. It was a great great way to spend a morning. So glad I did that.
There ya have it! Day off tomorrow and we get back on that grind on Monday. (:
Much love,
Jess
PS - Here's a picture!
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