[I just realized that due to some type of technical glitch, several of the pictures from my long ride were deleted from my last post. Not sure when that happened but I've just fixed.]
Okay then. More on the ride. As I said, strong head and cross winds tormented me for more than half of the trip. Not sure why this caught me by surprise since I was riding by the ocean, after all, but this day was particularly windy. At one point I saw my bike calculator fall from 19 to 12 mph when the gusts picked up on a long, open stretch of Rt 133 on my way home. I tried to convince myself that the wind challenge was good thing since it's excellent prep for my oceanside century, but other times I found myself yelling out loud about it.
Traffic was a bit nutty, too. Not sure why this caught me by surprise since it was Labor Day weekend, after all, but thankfully, I arrived home unscathed. The hardest part was negotiating the Rt. 128 rotary where the highway ends. It wasn't a problem merging on but it was a challenge getting through the two lanes of traffic coming off. I found the best strategy to be to remain confident, assume your position, make eye contact, signal clearly, thank and smile.
One other lesson learned was that getting food during the ride is critical. By mile 65 I was starving and running low on energy. I made a quick stop to get a cold Gatorade and wound up having the best junior roast beef sandwich ever. I was able to finish my ride and even had energy after I arrived home. A web calculator later told me I burned at total of 3300 calories during almost 6 hours of pedaling. I think this is a stretch and it was more like 2500-2700 but it still highlights the need for food during the ride.
My average speed was 14.5 mph - not my best speed but not bad considering the distance, traffic and wind. It was a great ride to a beautiful area. I hope to make this ride one more time before packing in the bike for the winter.
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