Estela goes to Longview

It's odd. It's 67.93 K to Longview, but only 67.67 K on the way back. I'll bet the intersection of 22 and 22X is the reason.

I got started just at the end of cold, about 9am. There were a few shady bits that were still cool at bike speed. Essentially no wind. It was a really nice ride heading west then south. Other than nibbling steady on nutrition, and avoiding a geezer doing a U turn in the middle of nowhere nearly right on top of me, it was steady going, trying to keep my heart rate down and pedaling nice and easy. I took 6 clifs bars, and have about 1.5 left, 2 bananas, a powerbar, and a gu that I didn't eat. Plus 1 bottle of my home made energy drink. I was sure getting sick of cars. There is a well known farmers market in Millarville, and there was a steady stream headed there.

At Black Diamond it was getting warm, and turning south produced a strong head wind. All you can see is a long stretch of pavement, with a hill. I knew there was a couple hills in the 18 K from Black Diamond to Longview. As Bogart famously says "I was misinformed." The hills keep happening, and so did the wind. I'm not in the mood to play with mapmyride to get the profile, but there's a lot of up. Including a surprise one just 1 K from town. About this point I abandoned my heart rate goals, and settled for riding up the hills at a safe speed. That 18 K took nearly an hour!

I got into Longview in 3:07 or so, quite pleased with the ride so far, and happy to be off the bike for a few minutes. There was a small group of people just finishing a ride and we chatted a bit while I swapped water bottles and ate the powerbar. That was quite the experience; I'm glad I didn't try that while riding. It had been in my back pocket. I was suspecting I was going to have to lick it to death but it peeled off the foil ok. After about 10 minutes I was back on the bike heading north, with the wind.

Getting back to Black Diamond took about 45 minutes, with my heart rate mostly under control. From there the wind got fickle, and I chugged along. There was a bit of a head wind going towards Millarville, which shifted around to a cross wind with a bit of tail wind. Things were going well, but I took my feet out of my shoes just to give them some air for a minute. My arms were starting to stiffen up.

The 13 K or so on 22X from 22 to 37 st was out and out brutal. There was a really stiff crosswind with some headwind. The bike lane is narrow there, and I was really twitchy about taking a hand off the handlebars. By now my arms were getting very tired, particularly the right tricep. I can lock my left arm straight and let the bones take the weight, but I can't do that with my right since I broke it. So there's something else to work on.

My heart rate was way up during the ride into the wind, but my breathing was still easy. In fact, except for the top of a couple hills into the wind where I was breathing a bit harder, I could have been chatchatchat the entire time. Breathed through my nose for a while, mainly to cut down on inhaling bugs.

I got home at 6:02:32 watch time, and 5:49:24 bike time, for an average speed of 23.3 Kph. 75 rpm was average cadence. There was lots of grinding up hills in the lowest gear. I seem to be settling into a slightly slower cadence since the bike fit; about 80 seems comfortable, and I've been starting to shift at 85 or so. Average heart rate ended up being 130, but that includes that 10 minute stop, so it's not really a good number. My watch says I burned just under 6000 calories. Lookout Sushi Boat!

Overall I'm really pleased. The 135.6 K is a new distance record for me as I close in on 180 K. My legs feel good, and probably could have carried on for a while yet, but my arms are killing me, especially the right. Towards the end they were beginning to tremble, so I'm glad the ride ended when it did. It looks like 6 hours is as far as I can go on a self supported ride, carrying everything I need. I think I'll settle back and do some more shorter distances for a bit, before attempting to bump up to 150 K or so. Any suggestions on where to ride for that? I'm tempted to use the house as a special needs stop, and do a long loop, then a shorter one.