59.6

That's how many miles I bicycled yesterday. Gary was wanting to get a long ride in so I decided to tag along with him. In his email describing our route he said "It will probably be an adventure. It may or may not be fun." Well it was all that including the fun and not fun depending on the segment.

Started from Missile Base Road and went back east on Hwy 36 to Nicholson Road. Followed Nicholson south and caught a few back roads to end up on Hwy 267. Beautiful section, there was a one-lane wooden bridge just after a sharp curve that was kind of scary. Also walked my first hill here, messed up on shifting into the little ring, I think Gary said this was Peanut Ridge. 267 to Hwy 13 and made our first stop at McRae and adjusted my seat.

We then went south-west on 367 to Beebe and caught 64 west and made our second stop at a gas station for a bathroom break, still doing great at this point. 64 to El Paso started to get a little tough for me, we were starting to fight some wind. 3rd stop was at El Paso to fill our water bottles and eat granola bars to fuel up for the big hills coming up. Turned north on Hwy 5 and I walked my second hill here, again messing up trying to get to the little ring. For everybody familiar with the area the section I walked was the first monster hill that comes up after turning north from 64. That hill was enough for me, I finally figured out how and when to shift (normally I just stay in the middle ring up front and shift up and down the back rings). We made another rest stop at the top of the big hill--well, Gary was waiting on me and I needed to catch my breath. Made it to Romance and turned east-southeast on Hwy 31 to Floyd, this section is where we started running into lots of people who were pissed that we were on "their" road. Lots of rednecks passing us in pickups and revving their engines at us. Sorry we slowed you guys down all of 30 seconds...There was another quick rest break in here somewhere on the side of the road, this is where things started to get tougher for me.

At Floyd we made another stop at the gas station at the ntersection of 31 and 305, we were at 50.8 miles here. Got a compliment from a guy in the store who had passed us saying we were really booking it up the hill. The cashiers felt sorry for me and gave me a free cup of ice when I bought some water, that's pretty rare anymore they usually have to charge you for the cup.

Hwy 305 northeast out of Floyd has the hill from hell! It's not a super steep hill but it feels like it climbs up for forever. It does ascend for just over a mile and my legs were screaming for mercy before we got to the top. After this there is a very steep downhill, Gary stopped and told me that even though he is in his 50s he's still an adolescent at heart and always has to go as fast as possible coming down but I could take it at my own pace. His top speed so far has been 57 mph coming down but I think yesterday he was in the high 40's. I only let my speed get up to 39.4 mph before braking. Yes, I was being a scaredy-cat!! Finally made it to Center Hill back on Hwy 36 and we took another break while I called James to let him know we were almost done and to come pick me up at our starting point.

Grand totals for the day
59.6 miles
39.4 mph top speed
14.64 mph ave.
4:04:24 (4 hrs 4 mins 24 seconds)

It was a tough ride but it let me know that maybe, just maybe I can survive a century in the fall. I did come home and take a 2 hr nap after James fed me lasagna, I was almost falling asleep while eating lunch, lol.

Today's workout was a 3.3 mile run in 32:08, followed by a 2.11 mile walk with Elsie in 35:22. Yay, I finally got 3 miles in!!!!! My legs are a little sore from yesterday but not near as bad as what I expected and they loosened up when I ran.

I didn't play in last night's disc golf game, just acted as caddy for James. James and Jason had their best game so far, they both made par on most of the holes. I think it was because it was just the 2 of them playing and they didn't have time to overthink their throws like when it's a larger group of us.