how to ride 70 miles on a bicycle

first, ride a 50 mile route that ends 20 miles from home. then, ride home.

whelp, i got it right in theory, unfortunately, when i hit my 3-miles-from-home marker, i was at less than 67 miles. even worse, i was at some fractional mileage and i was way too tired to do even simple math. even much more worse, i was right at the entrance to sawyer camp trail. so i did 2 or 3 roundtrip miles there, which on a weekend sucks more than i can describe, and ended up with 71 miles, 4:45, with 3800 feet of climb. i continued the 3 weeks tradition of babying myself on the weekend and did not take ralston. i had fewer stops, too, because we got this magic sunscreen yesterday that's spf 40+ and lasts 8 hours. i'll tell you tomorrow if it works.

the weather was not my favorite, but it was favorable. chilly as could be in the morning, that is, the first 20 miles, reaching up to tweak 80's nose late in the afternoon, but staying "nice" the whole time. i kept my ego in check for the most part and managed not to bonk, die, or otherwise inconvenience myself greatly on the ride. my HR stayed below 160 the whole time, and only topped 155 a couple times. mostly i aimed to stay below 135, and i did. i'm faster at 135 than i was a month ago. what's that? training you say? indeed.

speaking of which, i've settled into a more traditional training breakdown of shortish hill fartlek on the weekdays and a long-ass ride on the weekend. it seems to be the way to go.

now, fish waffles. with soft serve! lots and lots of soft serve. lots.