81miles, big lunch, huge nap

It's long ride day again. I feel like a train wreck. Its my fault really, I haven't been getting to bed on time, I haven't been eating right, and I've had nightmares the past two nights. Either way, the excuses don't matter because I had to ride for 4:30hrs today whether or not I got 8 magical hours of sleep, so I did. And for the record I actually got 5.5hrs sleep and 6 the night before.

I got up at 5:30am ate and started my ride preparation...fill Camel Bak, make Perpetuem, check over bike, check flat tire kit, cell phone, extra money, back up water bottles, pepper spray (thanx mummy!), clif bar, back up clif bar, extra batteries for mp3 player, sunglasses, fill areo bottle with water, HR monitor, GPS watch to back up my stupid Cateye computer, helmet, shoes...its like packing for a road trip...ah ha ha ha

After all thats done I'm off on the race route, I forgot to bring a camera again, its amazingly beautiful out there, a whole different world from Wilmington. Next time I will have pictures. I rode past the Duplin Wine grape farms this morning, that was pretty cool, grape vines for as far as I could see. (click map to enlarge)Here's my ride info: I rode 81miles and it took me 4:40:49. My average speed was 17.3mph. I'm pretty sure it was a lot better than that for most of the ride. I turned around at 2:15hrs, it took me 10 extra minutes to get home because of the wind. IT SUCKED A LOT! I was probably averaging 14-16mph all the way back down 421. SO SLOW and boring and tiring. Anyway, I burned a whopping 3343 calories and ate/drank 1280 calories while I was riding. I also did a 25min tempo effort in the middle of this ride, (higher heart rate zone, keeps me focused) during this time I held an average speed of 18-20mph I think.

After the ride I drank a Recoverite/banana smoothie, stretched, showered and went out to lunch with Mike. After that I hit the sack....for 2 and a half hours!!! I was a tired little girl!

These rides are always hard but always enjoyable. I feel lucky that I have the time and the ability to accomplish something like this. Next ride: 5hours!!