78 Miles with Fast Dave on Sat

Sat was the Cow Creek Classic - a local ride that I've not done before (remember I've only been cycling for a little over a year now). First the photos, then the write up.


This was the rest stop at around 50 miles. The shade was very nice. They had water melon here which was Very tasty at the time, but ended up not settling very well in my stomach.


Dave and I on the road.

The starting few miles are through town with police at the intersections so we can ride through with out the danger or interacting with traffic. That's one of the nice benefits of organized ride - in addition to the food and water stops.

A shot of the riders lined up behind us. There were quite a few riders.

A photo at the starting line a little before 7:30.

In the parking lot as we were getting ready for the ride.

The ride at it's Northern most point over lapped with my regular 46 mile routes Southern most 4 miles. So, it was nice to get a feel for what is possible if I have need of extending that route further south. There were nice roads and a few hills too. And, no dog's came running. But that could be because they were tired from chasing all the riders in front of us!?

The difficult part of the ride was after 50 miles when it was hot - and I've not been riding as I was when I was preparing for the 6 day ride. The last 10 miles were very challenging as I didn't quite feel right in my stomach and I was just ready to be done.

Some Numbers: my Garmin ran out of power at 72 miles, so the last ~6 weren't recorded. The avg was 18.5 with the last few being very tired and ready to stop (slow miles). The max HR was 179. The total distance was 78.6 miles, 4:14:38 riding time and about 35 minutes in rest stops along the way. When I got home I layed on the floor for almost an hour before I felt like I was ready to get up. I was spent!

One thought that I had was how easy it was at home inside reading about the RAAM riders and thinking how it'd be neat to do something like that. But after a short 75 miles ... I was ready to stop. Certainly not ready mentally for such a difficult challenge - that is for sure. It was a good ride, but not sure where I'm at as I am still working out where riding and exercise will be in the priorities.