the bike ride from hell

So yesterday we had this brilliant idea to bike my bike in to the bike shop. When we bought the bike two months ago, it came with a free 60 day tune up, so we wanted to take advantage of it.

I had told Matt no way. Then I started getting sucked in and said I would only if it was 20 miles or less each way. He mapped it at something like 19.87 mi each way.

No getting out of that one.

So we hopped on the bikes and biked this:


The upper right corner of the route is where the bike shop is. We were going to just reverse the way we came, but decided to try another way that would be more scenic. Note to self: when the guy giving us the directions said "once you go over that mountain" I should have realized that was going to be a problem.

About mile 24.5, as we were "going over that mountain" I emotionally/physically hit a wall, pulled over and flat out started crying. Maybe this is part of being a girl (not the wussy part, just the crying because I was pushed so hard part! :) But I eventually got back on and kept going.

At mile 35.5 I hit another wall as my legs inexplicable started aching really bad. Deep down, from my hips all the way to my shins. And it only got worse when I would stop. Matt asked me if I wanted him to go ahead and come back with the car to pick me up. Thank goodness I'm stubborn and don't like giving up because I just kept pedaling...and crying for a few miles.

Eventually the aching almost went away--maybe my body finally metabolized some of the ice cream cone, banana, and half of a snickers ice cream bar I had eaten when we stopped at mile 32 for a break and a flat tire change--and we pulled back in our house still having somehow averaged a 13.1 for the whopping 45.59mi ride.

I still feel slightly wussy that I struggled so much. There's people who bike half centuries and centuries frequently (50 & 100 mile rides). But I made it, and I did my best. I guess that's all that matters.