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Metric Century Ride

Doesn’t metric century sound so much more than 60 miles?  Woke up to a gorgeous day today and a fabulous bowl of oats.

Pumpkin custard oats sweetened with molasses, fresh cranberries (okay, frozen), and topped with toasted pecans.

That and some coffee seemed like a good starter fuel for a long bike ride!

We packed up water and snacks and mapped out a route to take.  Should have taken a little more note of elevation.  We ended up going up to about 900 feet elevation.  We had done part of this route before last fall.  It’s pretty hilly on the way there.  And very pretty.  Top of one big hill.

Stopped in Greenwich, where there were some pretty flowers:

This was 16 miles into the ride. We had snacks.

Plus a few date balls. Then we headed up to Cambridge.   Which way would you take? Up or down?

We went right, which looked down, but was not!! This was really tough.  Serious upward climb of around 400 feet in the next 10 miles.  I didn’t have to walk up any of these hills, and I was really pleased at that, but it was early enough in the ride.  It was really, really hard though.  Then there was a huge and scary down hill, where I was over 30 mph.  So scary.  We got to Cambridge ready for some lunch!  This was about 25 miles in.  We stopped at this little hole in the wall, which was a little scary:

However, I was pleased to see that they serve breakfast all day (yay!) and was even more pleased to see my cheese omelet:

That was some serious wheat toast there, too – not junk! I ate every bite as I was hungry at this point.  It’s always amazing how sometimes the places that look the worst have the best food.  We then walked to a health food co-op so I could pick up some coconut water.  That was a neat store, too.  Wish it were closer to us!

We decided to loop around instead of doubling back, as we thought we could avoid that giant hill that we came down.  Hahaha!  This is the Adirondack area, after all.  It was looking good for quite a while, then about mile 35 or so, we hit the.worst.hill.ever.  Ever!!  It was very steep and probably around 3/4 of a mile up.  You know you are in trouble when you are less than halfway up and in the lowest gear you have :D   So, I had to walk up some of that hill, as did John.  If you look hard, you can see the orange dot that is John near the top:

He made it further up the hill than I did.  After we got to the top, we then slugged some of the coconut water:

This stuff is like magic to me.  I don’t know why.  I have never had gatorade, so maybe that would give the same result, but I don’t want to switch!  I started to get my 2nd legs here and made it up all the rest of the hills back to Greenwich so that we could stop for another treat!

This was at 41 miles in:

This is their version of a single scoop :shock:    I think this probably has to be 600 calories (and yes, I ate it all).   The flavor was ginger with some ginger bits in it.  So freaking good!  I don’t eat real ice cream all that often, but when I do – it needs to be the good stuff.  This was from the Ice Cream Man in Greenwich, featured on Food Network.

We were a little tired at this point.  This was a very ambitious route to take.  Way too hilly for the distance we were doing.  But, we pushed onwards towards home.  After all, it was only 19 more miles at this point :D .

It’s definitely a beautiful ride.  So green around here now.

Took another break at 49 miles to have some coconut water and a little sit:

She’s lookin’ a little droopy!

We then busted out the last bit.  John was really starting to flag.  It’s funny that I get a second wind, and he usually does not.  However, I drafted off of him for a lot of today, which I truly appreciate (Thanks, honey!).  The last hill to home, I walked up about 1/8 of mile and John went straight home, but the mileage was at 57 and change and I really wanted 60, so I biked just a little further before coming back home.

Farthest mileage ever!!

Stats:

60.5 miles (or 100 KM!!)

Average speed: 12.4 mph

Top speed:  35.4 mph (so freaking scary – and this is with brakes!!).

Calories burned:  1800 (says machine, probably closer to 1500.  Still a lot).

Assessment?  This was a tough ride. Really tough.  Some parts of it were just not fun, but overall it was a great day to ride and we feel pretty good about our accomplishments!  Only need to tack another 40 miles onto this ride to reach 100 :mrgreen:    I am crossing this route off the list, though.  Too hard!

Showered and ate some leftovers for dinner.  The lentil rice dish topped with some of that broccoli/quinoa from yesterday.

At first I wasn’t really that hungry because I drank so much water, but as I started eating, my body just woke up to hunger!

Tonight is some serious vegging, and a visit from the parentals, if we can stay awake LOL.  Plus probably some toast and nut butter.

I’m thinking tomorrow is a rest day…..

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May 22nd, 2010 | Tags: | Category: bike riding, calorie burn, ice cream | 29 comments

29 comments to Metric Century Ride

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