60 Mile Holiday Ride

This past weekend we went out on what will turn out to be our third to last endurance training ride. Amazingly enough, we are winding down to the actual century ride, which will be taking place less than a month from now. What is amazing about the whole thing is that while it seems like we've come so far, we still have so much further to go. After this weekend's ride though, I tend to lean more towards the former than the latter when considering our progress.

Ben and I had Friday off for Good Friday, so we ended up with a 3-day weekend. This is a nice thing to have when you're just working a 40-hour a week job, but when you're biking upwards of 50+ miles every weekend, having an extra day off in essence gives you your weekend back. It changed my life, if for only a couple of days. It should go without saying that an extra weekend day means another day of rest after a long ride, and 60 miles of biking is an awesome amount of physical effort -- The extra rest was a big deal this weekend.

Our aim in creating this week's route was to try out some new roads and keep things interesting. We recently purchased a bike rack so we can transport our bikes by car, meaning we no longer have to be limited by routes that start and end at our apartments in Silver Spring. We met at 6:30, drove north into Rockville and parked our cars at work. We headed north on the start of our 62.8 mile jaunt around Gaithersburg.

The trip can be split into three legs -- The first leg of the trip was plagued by stop lights, crummy roads, and was just generally a crappy route. We made awful time, probably taking about 2 1/2 hours to go less than 20 miles.

The second leg of the trip was arguably the best biking I've experienced around here. We were out on country roads spanning rolling green rural pastures. It was gorgeous. The temperature was on the cool side, but by no means was it cold. The hills were manageable, the traffic was close to non-existant... It was a great time. If the entire century ride in WV is like that, we could probably knock it out in like 5 or 5 1/2 hours... We were cruising, and enjoying every minute of it.

The final leg, which unfortunately ended up being the longest leg by far, was brutal. We stopped for a snack (Nutrition Granola Bars), and it began to rain. Like real rain, not a drizzle. For the last 25 miles or so of the trip we were soaked, freezing, and somehow constantly going uphill. To say it was miserable would be a vast understatement. The only consolation in having done that is to say that we (fingers crossed) will never have to deal with those sort of conditions again. It was awful, and unfortunately put a major damper on what had to that point been a great ride. Here's hoping the 70 mile ride we tackle this Saturday turns out to be a lot more like the 2nd leg than the 3rd (We're actually doing the 70 miler on the course of the century ride, so it'll be very telling on how prepared we are for the actual race).