Yesterday was my birthday and DH and I wanted to do a long ride for my birthday. I got my wish but learned a couple of lessons!
The weather was supposed to be beautiful. Up to 70 degrees. We headed about 35 miles out of the twin cities to do a "country" and hopefully "scenic" ride. We did 80 miles, made at least one wrong turn that took us on a lengthy detour, experienced heinous headwinds that always seemed to change with our direction JUST enough to never be at our backs, and tackled about 1500 feet of climbing, mostly lumped into two climbs that MapMyRide classifies as Cat 5.
The last 14 miles, which were easily the worst riding I've ever done, were on the most ripped up bumpy nasty stretch of highway ever, with traffic, and NO shoulder. NONE. Literally, black top was crumbling at the white line. Pot holes, cracks, I thought a tire would get caught and we'd go down, or that the bike wheels would be shaken and jammed out of true.
And the sun was setting, and we were riding straight into it.
Exhausting, nerve-wracking, dangerous. But we're alive, and mostly I'm feeling okay except for my left knee, which really got sick of pushing into the wind.
We laughed most of the way home. It was a good birthday. A suffer-fest we're not going to forget any time soon!
"There are only two ways to live your life: You can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle" - Albert Einstein
2012 Cinelli Gazzetta della Strada
2011 Scott Contessa Speedster 15
1993 Cannondale H600
1970s Western Flyer Cruiser