The big five-oh

I did a 50 mile ride yesterday morning with Eric. I haven't done 50 miles since late 2007. I wanted to go several times last year, but things always seemed to get in the way... my longest ride last year was 42 miles, but it was a really hard ride--we did lots of really big hills, and it was HOT out.

We left for a group ride that was supposed to leave at 7:30, but actually left at 7:00--so it was just me and Eric for a few miles. He said it was going to be a 44 mile ride. I wasn't sure I'd be able to do it without collapsing, but it had been a while since I had done a long ride, so I figured it was worth a shot. About 10 miles in, we met up with one of Eric's friends, and continued downtown. The weather was perfect. It started out a little chilly, but after a half hour or so, I was able to ride without arm warmers. We rode to the art museum, about 22 miles away from the start of our ride, and had a Clif bar. We started back out the way we came, but there was a walk going on... after about five minutes of fighting our way through walkers, Eric got pissed and turned back around, which was fine with me. I had a feeling it would be a pain in the ass anyway. The only part of the ride I didn't like was fighting our way through traffic. I just don't like holding up cars. They're pretty much used to it in Philly, but it still makes me uneasy.

On the way back, I was feeling great. We were going anywhere between 16-18 MPH. I told Eric that if, by the time we got back to the car, I was feeling up to it, we should continue on to get 50 miles since it had been so long since I had gone that far. Up until the point we got back to the car, we were going about 17. We rested at a picnic table for a few minutes, drank some water, and hopped back on the bikes. I couldn't go any faster than about 13. ;) It felt like it took forever to finish the last six miles--my butt HURT! But I did it. :)