1/2 Century....with some needed support

Can you bring me a powerbar and a bottle of water.....


These were the words I used on the phone when I called home. I will get to that in a minute...but I want to talk about the events leading up to that..

I had a big bowl of frosted mini-wheat's for breakfast. They were the maple style and are very good. I was planning on riding a half century today and I knew I would need a big breakfast. I loaded up two bottles and headed out for the ride. I rode this route one time last year and I knew the roads...so out towards Lake Michigan I went. I was feeling pretty good and I was just at cruising speed. No records need to be set today. I noticed that I was cruising along at 18-19 mph pretty easily....which meant only one thing......tailwind. I started to wonder how terrible it was going to be on the way home...with a head wind.

The first 25 miles were sweet. No problems. I got to the lake and headed south....looking for a place where I would stop at the beach. I couldn't find one. I never considered looking at the map before I left.....but at any rate....the ride started to get hard here. The south turn put me into the wind a little. It felt like forever before I saw the road to turn back home...but there it was. I rode about 5 more miles before I had to call home. I was riding into the wind and I was running out of gas. With 20 miles to go I knew I needed assistance...and I never ride with money. So the call went out....

I kept riding and Chelle met up with me with about 13 miles to go. I stopped and slammed the power bar and took the water from her. She caught me a little while later and gave me more water too....which was much needed!

The last 5 miles were awful. I have not ridden over 35 miles this year and I surely was feeling it. I finished with 50.80 miles. My average speed dipped below 15 mph because of the stops that I did, but my moving average was still 15.7 mph.

Good ride for my birthday and Father's day. Hope everyone I know had a good Lumberjack today.

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there on Sunday!