Probably not the smartest thing I’ve ever done…ride 100 miles the day after a triathlon. However, it really wasn’t planned that way. I was planning on a little shorter distance, but once I missed the turn to do the 75 miles…well, I was sorta stuck.
It was a beautiful day out on Sunday. I saw lots of friends. I rode with a great bunch of people. Nothing to complain about except the fact that I was extremely uncomfortable. I haven’t spent a whole lotta time on my TT bike, so after Saturday’s race, I was sore. To add another, oh, I don’t know 6 hours on my already, um, uncomfortable areas, wasn’t really fun.
So the ride starts out and I’m feeling pretty tired…and I’m wondering why it feels like I’m just working too hard. Maybe I really expended a lot of energy yesterday and I’m just not ready to ride hard again. I don’t know. At the second SAG stop, I decide to pick up my bike and spin the back wheel to check to see if it spins. It went about a revolution and a half. Shoot, I’d been riding with the back brake rubbing for about 40 miles!!! This happens every time I change from my race wheels back to my training wheels. You’d think I would learn by now to check this each and every time.
The ride got better then, but not very long. I decided I’d just go 75 miles. That’s good enough. It’s very early in the year. But I wanted to kill somebody when the guy at the SAG stop showed me where we were on the map…I had missed the turn for the 75 mile route. Now the only way to get back was to do the full 100. I was dejected. Guess I was just meant to ride the 100 this day, so I just tried to suck it up and finish the ride. I was definitely slower toward the end, but still managed to get in the full century. First one of the year! It was a near perfect ride…great combination of riders in the group I was with and absolutely perfect weather! Now, if I had only made that turn on the 75 mile course…
