Dang what a day. This was a long tough ride!
The plan was for 80ish miles today. We got up early and had a nice breakfast. I decided to have some banana custard oats to fuel up.
Topped with Teddie peanut butter and strawberry jam. I also had 1.5 cups of almond milk. Approximately 500 calories before we left the house.
Packed up our bike bags to head out. I brought along a granola bar, a pear, coconut water, dried pineapple, and one of my favorite ride snacks:
Dates!
We checked weather.com and the hourly forecast had 10% chance of rain. It was a gorgeous morning when we set out. At 10 miles, we stopped so I could take some pictures.
This was a side route we take, but normally going the other way, so this was fun to ride it in this direction. I also had one of the above dates at this point. John had to fiddle with his tire as he either ran over a rock or stick and it made a bulge in his wheel.
We were making pretty good time. We continued on for another 9 miles and stopped at mile 19 for a potty stop and a snack:
Anyone in NY will recognize Stewarts! This is the convenience store you want to stop in if you have to use the restroom. Always clean. See what a gorgeous sky there was this morning? Too bad it didn’t last. We passed through Saratoga and on to Ballston Spa, where John asked for a stop for a map check, which always makes me nervous. He is the map planner for our rides.
We were trying to wind our way to the Zimm Smith mid county trail. We hit at at about mile 30 and then stopped shortly thereafter for a snack.
Can I say that I adored this path?
We were on it for around 7 miles and it was awesome!
I was starting to get hungry at this point. We knew it was going to be around 40 miles to get to Clifton Park and all the food choices. It ended up being 42 miles and I was about bonking at this point. I should have stopped at mile 40 and had a date, because the last 2 miles was an upward climb! Of course with it being the holiday, some places were closed. And the one pasta place we wanted to go to was gone. So we went to Mocha Lisa’s, which is a place I haven’t been to in a while!
John happy with 42 miles:
I was feeling pretty good.
Mocha Lisa’s is a neat coffee shop with a lunch menu.
Lunch was a chicken and pesto panini with roasted red peppers and provolone.
Excellent! I tried not to wolf it down. After this, I had some more dried pineapple. We filled up our water bottles and continued on. We were going to loop up a different way, but we enjoyed that bike path so much that we backtracked to go back on it. At mile 57, it was time for some coconut water.
We had stuck these in the freezer overnight and this was slushy cold and delicious! I think coconut water might be an acquired taste for some – but I lurve it!
I saw these really cool wild lilies along this path. Actually, there were tons of wildflowers and it was so pretty.
Of course, it cannot be an official ride without one of these 🙄 :
Ugh! Actually, to be fair, this flat was a leaking patch. I am not sure why John didn’t change out this tube with a new one before such a long ride. You aren’t really supposed to ride on patched tires – they are just supposed to get you home. Anyway, he put in a new tube and we headed out.
I started to have some chain problems around 60 miles. Every 12 pedal revolutions and my chain would go ‘clunk’. It was like a link was sticking or something. We lubed up the chain, but it was weird for the rest of the ride periodically.
Mile 66 and we made it back to Saratoga. Both cupcake places were closed for the holiday, but Saratoga Coffee Traders was open!
Giant iced coffee and a 7-layer bar. I made sure to eat and drink this slowly so my stomach wouldn’t cramp up.
We also played a little coffee trivia game:
Yum!
Food tastes so good when you are working hard. This was at about 4 hours of ride time by this point (not including breaks and lunch).
Sky was looking a little ominous as we left.
As we headed out, John got another flat. Can you believe it? We pumped up the tire and got to the nearest gas station. We checked where the leak was in the new tube and I examined the tire and found this embedded in it:
It was like some tiny metal pin or something. Good thing we found that because he had to use *my* spare tube and it would have gone flat as well. So, we got that all fixed and continued on.
At mile 70, it started to rain.
Apparently 10% chance of rain really means 100% chance of rain.
Thanks weather.com…
After the rain lessened, we started going again and then it really started pouring! This was at about 6 p.m., too. We waited for about half an hour, but we knew that we had about 18 miles to go and were going to cut it a little close to get home in daylight. We just sucked it up and kept riding. We rode about 10 miles in rain. Not fun. My toes were squishing in water as I pedaled! I have to say, though, that I was feeling pretty good. My legs were strong and not really too tired at all.
At mile76, we stopped for a quick snack. I probably wouldn’t have needed something if we didn’t have that half hour rain delay.
We stopped 1/3 of a mile from home to pick up some ice cream and then rode the last bit home.
Ride stats:
Miles: 88.7
Ride time (excluding stops and breaks) 6 hours 40 minutes
Average speed 13.2 mph
Calories burned: 2745
If we hadn’t had a rain delay, we could have just done 100 miles, and we had thought about it earlier until we had the tire issues and the rain. If only there was an hour of daylight left to finish it out. John may not do 100 miles with me, but I am ready to finish that task and get back to normal riding.
Pixie was happy to see us and check out my shake.
After the best shower EVER!!, we are now watching more biking:
Time to eat some leftover pizza and a few more carbs tonight.
Hope you all had a happy 4th!