First Fifty

Don and I met last Saturday morning for a bike ride. I'd told him I wanted to do at least one long ride before our next triathlon so when I got to his place he'd mapped out a fifty miler. Okay, I'm not sure I had quite that long of a ride in mind! It took us a little over three hours.

It was a beautiful morning for a ride. No wind, cool, sunny. We rode through the wind farm and the cornfields and enjoyed the solitude. We had to backtrack a bit at the top of the route because of gravel roads, but aside from that, a great route.

I'd never done that distance before - thirty was my previous best - and by 45 miles or so my legs were feeling pretty fatigued. If you look at the elevation profile on the map above you'll see that our route was pretty flat, with a decent grade up out of the river valley at about mile six, then a steep downhill just at the end. Problem is, Don lives on top of the bluff and the only way to get to his place is to climb back up. It's a nasty steep hill when you are fresh, but with fifty mile behind them my quads had had enough. I was about half way up the hill had just stood up in my pedals to get a little extra push when my quadriceps cramped and both legs went straight as a board. I about fell over. I sat in the ditch for a bit and got them to relax again, but was glad we didn't have much more than a mile to go. Wow!

Now Don wants to do a hundred. I think he's nuts.