My body did all it could this weekend not to go riding. I was going to get up at 7am on Saturday, as I knew it was going to be a long ride. I didn’t get up till 8:30 and still it didn’t want to move. My stomach growled, my knees ached, and I kept having to run into the house to get necessary stuff. My body was seriously trying to sabotage the ride.
But I progressed and picked up some breakfast and made it out to Sherman, the start of my 72 mile ride. Of course the first part of the ride was all uphill into the wind. I really thought about calling it a day not even 20 minutes into my ride.
Then I made a hook north and the wind was at my back, my speed was close to 18mph and things were going great till I had to head back West. Although it may seem like a light breeze on a Summer day, try going head first when there’s nothing to stop it besides corn.
The longest ride before this one was a 55 mile ride and I did it about two weeks ago. So I was confident that 72 miles wouldn’t be a problem.
My body was ready to give up at mile 50.
Maybe it was because there was no other way to get back home or hope of Mrs. Shoo hoping in her car and coming to my rescue, but I psyched myself out and push onward. And after 4 hours and 49 minutes I made it back to my starting point.
I don’t know if it was because I wasn’t into it mentally or things weren’t aligned right, but I’ve got to do some soul searching this week. A 100K may be more of a possibility this year instead of a 100 miles. I still want to challenge myself, but don’t want to be out of commission for the following week.
But But But….think how much better you are sleeping now with all those miles under your belt (spandex?)! No insomnia, I bet!
IMHO, if the weather is decent for your big ride next Sunday, and you DON”T do the 100 miles, you’ll be disappointed in yourself.