I know you were all just waiting for the first cupcake ride of the year, right?  I know I was!  Let’s roll!

Saturday was actually nice temperature wise, but windy.  We decided to go for an afternoon snack right after lunch, so I started to stockpile some calories before going.

Here is our out and back route:

Some nice hills in there.  This was a long ride for early in the season and I didn’t get much in this week except 12 miles on Friday.  Not the ideal way to bump up mileage, but I was willing to pay the price.

We were ready to go!

This particular way we head down to Saratoga is not any of the bike paths, but just along the river and a nice quiet set of roads for 18 miles.  It’s farm land, too.

We live in a very historic area and there are a lot of markers all around.  Ready for a history lesson?

Here is the house of John Mcrae that stands from the 1700s:

His official signage:

John’s sister, Jane, plays an important part of history around here.  And that sign is incorrect (thank you 1938 Dept of Education). Jane was actually not killed by Indians, but by ‘friendly’ fire of Americans.  She was on her way to meet her fiance – a loyalist and being ‘escorted’ by Indians.  Her brother John and Jane’s fiance (David Jones) were friends, but then taking sides separated them between Patriots an Loyalists.  The sad thing is, David Jones never, ever married.  The whole story is quite fascinating.  My mother and I listened to a talk on Jane last fall.

Anyway, back to the ride.  There was quite a stiff wind on the way there.  It was a very tough ride.  Not to mention it is early spring and all the farms laid out the manure fertilizer. Pe-eww!  Plus, the wind was blowing stiff and practically jamming that smell up my nose.  Yuck.  We got through the toughest part of the hills and stopped at mile 11.5 for a break.

Plus some dried pineapple.  Good instant energy. Then it was continuing on. We slogged on through the wind.  Did I mention it was windy?  This spring has been so windy!  I was so ready to be off the bike at mile 23.5.  I actually was wondering how we were going to get all the way back!  With the wind, it took us exactly 2 hours to get there, which is much slower than usual.

I was also so ready for my cuppicake(s)!.  We made a food round up.  First stopped at Bettie’s to pick up the cupcakes.

It was bargain day. First we had $1 off coupon, and then we read Bettie’s facebook page, which states the phrase of the day, which if you are among the first 25 people to say it to them, you get a free mini cupcake.  They call it an ‘A’ cupcake, which I think stands for ‘appetizer’.

Chocolate peanut butter.  We wanted lattes to go with the cuppies, so we headed to Saratoga Coffee Traders and got drinks.  My spread:

It’s nice most places don’t seem to mind if you have other food with you.  I guess as long as you buy something there, it’s fine.  My other cupcake was fluffernutter!  It was a white cupcake with fluff filling and peanut butter icing.   OMG!  Yum!!!!!  You can almost see the edge of John’s cupcake, which was a coconut cream and super good.

After eating, we walked around to let the cupcakes settle and get the legs limbered up.  We walked through the park.

There are going to be baby ducklings soon and cuteness will abound.

Then it was time to start heading back.  It was a little stiff at first, but my legs loosened up some and we had a tailwind!  Yay!  That made riding much faster.  Plus, for whatever reason, I had my usual getting stronger as the ride goes on kind of thing. My sit bones were starting to hurt, though. A wee bit of chafing going on.  😳

I shed my outer jacket at mile 31 and took a picture of John.  He just wanted to be a goober for the picture.

Good thing I love him so much.  My leg was starting to bother me a bit at this  point.  It’s weird that numbness will return to my calf a bit where I used to have it. My knee has always remained a bit numb, but the calf got better.  On long rides, it comes back.  My back was actually doing pretty good.

Mile 35 and another pit stop for dates and pineapple.

We just came from the left there.  As we got closer to home, the wind started to shift a bit and was coming more from the side.  Booo.  At about mile 42, I was really wanting to be home.  Then about 2.5 miles from home, we got stopped by a train!

Not an Amtrak either, but a freight train.  One of those times where I kind of wanted to rest, but was a little unsure about actually stopping because I was afraid it would hurt to get started again.  Not much choice here, though. 

Made it home. Even up the last 1/2 mile climb, which is a bear after 46.5 miles.  I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it, but using my granny gear I did.

Phew!

Ride stats:

Total miles:  47.25

Average speed 12.6 mph

Top speed 33.2 mph

Calories burned: 1400 (probably closer to 1600, but that is the general computer tally).

Interesting note, it took us 2 hours to get down there and 1 hour and 45 minutes to get back. That’s the difference wind makes.

I got inside and fueled up right away with a protein drink of almond milk, unsweetened whey protein, strawberries and cinnamon.

Not hungry, but I needed the calories.  I really could not get myself to eat much after the ride, but then we decided to walk up the street for a cone in the evening.  The walk was good active recovery to help work on the legs and keep them from being too stiff.

My cone? Cake batter with sprinkles!  I couldn’t quite finish all of it, but I did some serious damage to it 

I slept 8.5 hours Saturday night, too.  I was zonked!