It was sorta hot

For some reason I felt like I needed to ride 70 miles on the 4th of July. Thankfully Dan S. wanted to suffer to so we met at the Kal-Haven trailhead and off we went. I was up entirely way too late watching fireworks and hanging out with friends. Asleep by 1am, up around 5:30 am and yuk.....already 80 degrees when I left my house.

The first part of this trail is always fast....downhill I guess....for 35 miles. We made really good time getting to parking lot in South Haven in just over 2 hours. The ride back is always worse, and it was getting hotter the longer we were out there. We filled the bottles and started the trudge back. I started feeling the lack of sleep and the heat about 45 miles in. I had to slow down, but I just kept going as fast as I could. I had a goal of 5 hours round trip, so I could'nt slow down too much! ha. We stopped in Bloomingdale and filled the water bottles again. We also used the hose to water ourselves down....whew.....the heat was just getting intense. It wasn't too bad in the shade as long as we were moving, but the sunny areas were HOT HOT HOT!

dry and dusty 70 miles

We got back, just under 5 hours elapsed time....70 miles. I was toasted....legs shot. I started the car and the temp read 100 degrees. I loaded the bike, jumped in the cool air and headed home. I was able to relax the rest of the day (thanks to my lovely wife) and I am glad...because my legs were killing me. Clearly I was a bit dehydrated but today I feel much better. I did get to thinking though about my ride.....where I started this year compared to where I am now....and this quip came to mind:

Learn something about yourself....get on a bike and ride until you think you cannot turn the pedals even one more revolution....then keep going. You might be surprised.


Two rides in the past 10 days I have wanted to quit....one of them I was pulled along by teammates and I had to will myself to keep going yesterday. In February I could barely ride 30 miles without wanting to die. I was cutting rides short and finding excuses. Now I am looking for 50+ mile rides. It seems amazing to me how far a person can go in such a short time....and I am not being boastful or anything....I am just amazed more at myself than anything. Last year I had 2 rides over 50 miles....this year I have 4 already...with many more planned.

If I can do this thing called cycling...anybody can.....really. So why not throw your leg over a bike and ride around the block. You never know how long that block will be....it could end up being 70 miles one day.