Third 100-Mile Ride of 2024
I'd barely been on the bike since my last 100-mile ride in early March. I was spending almost all of my time trying to get enough work done that I wouldn't be burdened with anxiety about unfinished business during my upcoming tour.
But on April 18th, I woke up early and just couldn't bring myself to spend another nice day inside at my desk. I decided to ride the Salsa Fargo 20 miles to the Cairo Country Café for breakfast.
Instead of riding home after eating a couple of egg-cheese-biscuits there, though, I rode south to Dixon. Once I got to Dixon, on the TransAmerica Trail, I'd already done 40 miles. The most direct route back home would add another 37 miles. I rationalized that I might as well ride a little more and get 100 miles in.
It had been a while since I'd ridden the heavy Fargo that far. I took the opportunity to ride several nice gravel roads that would have been difficult on my road bike with its 28 mm tires.
At mile 60 the cleat on my right shoe broke, so I rode the remaining 40 miles unable to clip in with that shoe , which was aggravating, but not aggravating enough to ruin the ride. I mostly had a tailwind the rest of the way home.
As expected, I was tired when I got home, but, in general, I felt pretty good about this ride, since I found that I was still able to do a long ride on the heavy Fargo. A century ride on the *loaded* Fargo would be a different matter of course. No way I could do that right now, given my degraded fitness level.
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Not to brag, but as recently as 2019 I did a fully loaded tour on the same bike, 3,200+ miles, and averaged almost 90 miles a day. Compared to that, I'm very out of shape.
I hope I can get back to that level... Despite my advanced years ;)
1 month ago
"No way I could do that right now, given my degraded fitness level." As I've commented before, I think your definition of "degraded fitness level" and mine dramatically differ. :-)
1 month ago