140 Miles

On Saturday, Dave and I completed our 140 mile training ride. This is the ride that I set as a prerequisite for the "24 Hours of Intercity" ride that is coming Memorial Day weekend.

The ride was a success. It went quite well, not perfectly, but well.

We rolled out at 6:30am, heading north toward the GWB. The weather was beautiful, a little on the brisk side, and cloudy, but pleasant. We rode the standard ride to Nyack, stopping at the Runcible Spoon. From there, we rode to Bear Mountain State Park, did a lap of what will be the Bear Mountain race course, and went home. As usual, the Brooklyn Bridge was a horrible experience on the way home. We were just shy of the 140mi mark, so we did a "victory lap" of Prospect Park.

By the numbers: 141.31 miles in 9h 12m 45s, averaging 15.3 MPH. My heart rate was in the 120 bpm range most of the time.

I tried Hammer Nutrition's Perpetuem energy drink on this ride. It looks and tastes like watered down soy milk. A bottle of this per hour, along with a Clif bar per hour and the occasional muffin, provided excellent fuel on the ride. I've never felt so good after such a long ride!

In Prospect Park, Dave saw Judith Tucker, a friend of his from school and - boy will his face turn red when he reads this - a girl he once really liked. He saw her walking along, said he recognized her, slammed the brakes, and reversed direction like a pro. After chatting with her, he was quite full of energy, and sprinted up the Prospect Park hill at 23 MPH - faster than race pace, and this is after 140 miles! If only she knew.