A long weekend

50 miles over and done with. It was excellent to say the least. 3 hours and 21 minutes to finish the 50 mile route with 3072 vertical feet of climbing. I took off on an early break as soon as we hit the hills to wake up the legs and see how I was feeling. I put in about 3 minutes on the group, but they hauled me back in in short order (since I had no interest in staying away, it really wasn't that big of a challenge for them.) When we hit the big hills (about 1800 feet in 3.5 miles, averaging about 8-10% over the distance with some 12-13% spikes) I decided to go and see what I could do. I put 4 minutes into the group and dropped the stragglers from the fast group on the way up. The catch occurred on the way down, and we rode most of the rest of the way as a group. I went again 2.5 miles from the end on the 6% average hills back to the finish and stayed away. I put in about 3 minutes on the group by the end.

It was a good hard challenge and it felt really good to complete it. My descending is getting better, and I just love to climb. I love the pain and suffering of it. I must be sick.

We also went for an 11 mile 1000 vertical foot mountain bike ride over the weekend. My god, after not really riding a lot of mountain bikes the past couple months, it's amazing how much stronger I feel on the mountain bike after spending 2 months hammering out climbs and sprints.

Maybe this means there's a mountain bike race in the cards in two weeks? Hmm....