An Epic Day on the Bike

Last Saturday myself, Sue, and Al went out to ride Rev3 bike course again. I think I've ridden it 5 or 6 times now and each time it becomes less and less daunting....hopefully that means good things for Canada. We finished the loop after a well-paced 56 mile ride. My goal was to ride approximately 5.5 hours. I looked at a map the night before and saw that I could ride up and around Lake Waramaug from Middlebury for a 45 mile loop. I knew I was going solo because Sue was going out for an hour run and Al was having bike troubles all day.

My plans changed quickly in the parking lot when Chris Thomas, Ian Ray, and another friend of their's drove in with the intention of riding the Rev3 course. They were all jazzed up in their orange timex gear and bright orange bikes. Besides being fast, they just looked fast too. I was clearly out of place. Chris could easily be pro and is one of the country's fast age group triathletes, usually winning top amateur athlete at most races he competes in while beating many of the pros. They didn't really know the course well and said they weren't going hard and welcomed me to come along. We had some enjoyable conversation for the first 15 miles but I could tell that the pace would be too fast for me especially on already tired legs. As soon as we hit Rt. 63, they were gone and I was left holding up the caboose. I didn't see them again for quite a while.

My pace really fell off on Rt. 254 so I just took it slow and steady. I knew I was going to skip the out/back and pulled into a little deli to refill and get some more calories......a muffin this time around. I decided to sit down for a few minutes and enjoy my rest and muffin. I had 15 miles to go with a few more hills to climb so the extra rest was nice. Chris comes up and asks if I was okay (he did the out/back). I said fine and soon resumed my ride home. I get to the corner of route 6 and 61 and decide I might try to take a shortcut home.....that was a mistake. I head down route 6, off the rev3 course and connect to White Deer Rock road to a very steep climb.....oh well, what's another climb at this point? I made it back and packed up. Chris came running in. Not only did he ride about 7 more miles than me, he also ran 20 minutes or so and we finished about the same time :)

I clocked a lot of hours, probably around 7, 108 miles of riding, and well over 8,000 feet of climbing. A great day!!

Workouts have suffered big time this week with lots of Rev3 planning........countdown......only 2 weeks to go. I gotta get more sleep.