Ride for the CAC (Children’s Advocacy Center of the South Plains)

I heard about this Saturday event on Thursday when I picked up my bike from the shop, and on a whim I decided I would give the tour a go.

I opted for the longest ride (62 miles), and I had a great time! The weather was just about as gorgeous as it gets around here in west Texas. I didn’t know anyone so I rode alone quite a bit, but I did have the opportunity to spend some miles with a couple different groups; the first group was riding the shorter option so they split off early on, and the second dropped me on a massive climb that I wasn’t really geared for about half way through the tour.

This is the longest and most challenging ride I’ve completed so far and considering the mileage jump from my previous longest ride (45 miles) I’m not as fatigued or as sore as I expected I would be, though I am nursing sore knees and nether regions.

My stats:

Max 35.2 mph
Avg 15.2
Total miles 64.5
Time 4 hours 14 minutes

I’m proud of what I accomplished yesterday, and I think my average is pretty good when considering I was climbing at about 4 mph on several occasions. I had to stop and give my legs a break on a couple of them(one steep climb was at the VERY END of the tour just yards before the finish, and it huuuuurt). I gave that hill a go before the tour started, and in hindsight, maybe I should have saved that strength for the time I really had to make it to get back!

Lessons learned:

I can tackle those longer distances that I’ve been weary to strive for
I didn’t need all the extra nourishment I had crammed into every spare inch of storage space. Thanks rest stop crew!
I’ve got a lot more stamina that I thought I had
If I do any climbing in the future that I can’t hammer out in 5-8 seconds of max effort, I need something bigger than a 25 tooth to get me to the top
I need to keep up with my glucosamine chondroitin doses better than I have been so my creaky knees aren’t the limiting factor in my power output

Overall, it was a blast and the ride was for a great cause.

And Bonus.. They served us some very yummy Carino’s spaghetti after the tour and I won a $100 gift certificate to a local bike shop during the appreciation awards! :D

This was a great training event for the HH100 this august and I'm glad I decided to throw the inhibitions aside and go for it.