50.1 Miles, 13.1 Average Speed

I reek. I rode 50 miles on my mountain bike today. But that’s not why I reek. See, I got back from the 50 mile ride this afternoon and then I took a shower. That’s when Jakob called. He wanted to play basketball with Mike and I. Of course I agreed, and we headed over to the park in order to play a few games of 21. I played quite hard, and THAT’S why I reek. Now that’s not to say that I didn’t reek when I got back from the 50 mile ride…

So yeah, I decided to do a beastly ride today. Originally I had planned on doing a ride that would get me somewhere around 70-80 miles. The problem with this ride is that I have to double back; it’s not a loop. My Dad told me that I should take a little different route and loop back. I was planning on doing this “double back” route twice. Well, I figured maybe on the 2nd time I’d do my dad’s loop idea. As it turns out I got halfway on the 1st loop and busted my pedal off. Not so good. At this point I had 3 options: 1. Turn around and ride the 12 miles back 2. Go a mile or so forward and then turn off onto a shortcut which is about 4 miles from my house 3. Keep going and do Dad’s loop which is about 15 miles or so. I was feeling pretty good riding with just 1 pedal, so I opted for going Dad’s loop. Worked out great! So I stopped by the house and had Mike put on a new pedal for me in exchange for a Kudo’s bar. Then I hopped back on the bike and started riding “Dad’s Loop” again. Well, I got about halfway when my quad muscles in my right leg started cramping! The cramps that I get are really nasty, like so bad that I can’t ride. So I started pumping water and riding gingerly. Sure enough, I was able to make it all the way home without calling for a ride! 50 miles! OH YEAH! Well, actually it was 48.3, but I bumped it up to 50 riding back and forth to Jakob’s house and the park.

I really enjoy this Millenium trail ride, and I’m definitely going to be doing “Dad’s Loop” again. My goal is to do 3 loops one day next week. The scenery along this trail is pretty varied, ranging from paved trail next to main road to hilly gravel paths surrounded by trees. It’s pretty awesome. Near the end of the trail there are some hills that don’t really qualify as hills, but man was I working hard to get up them the 2nd time around! They’re like a mile of slow up-grade! All in all, it has been a pretty sweet day!