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I haven’t gone on a long bike ride since the last week of June due to travel, so last week I was excited to finally get the chance to go on a long ride again! It’s been really rainy lately, but I didn’t think much about it because I was going on the trails.
I did an out and back that took me the first 17 miles, and absolutely loved all the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the road. I even stopped on a hill to take a picture of some (I regretted it a little bit when I had to go from 0mph to biking straight up a hill!).
Once I reached the point that I hopped on the trail, I headed out in the other direction, excited to see the progress of the cornfields over the past month. I excitedly biked for about 4 miles (I really like that part of the trail!) before I noticed something shiny on the trail up ahead.
As I got closer I realized it was a large puddle (like- roughly 10 feet long and completely covering the trail), so I hopped off my bike and walked on the grass around the puddle.
The flooded trail.
I hopped on my bike again only to find another puddle up ahead. This time I tried to bike slow, which worked ok, but with it being 2+ inches deep, I wouldn’t be able to keep going long like that. I guess this is a new first- biking through a small body of water!
A mini pond on the trail
As I was hitting my third area of flooding, a woman biked towards me and told me to turn around because it was even worse ahead. So, this left me in a bit of a pickle since it cut 25-26 miles off my planned route for the day. So, I turned around and then took the first country road I came to, deciding that it was a good day to explore some new roads.
While I didn’t like it as much as I liked the other roads I’ve biked this summer, it worked out really well and I was able to make up all the mileage I needed for the route. I hit a windy patch for about 6 miles and ended up grinding it out slowly, which is frustrating. One mile I clocked in a full 6 minutes for that mile, which was really frustrating. My speed dropped and my legs were shaking as I pedaled against the wind.
I ended my ride with exactly 50 miles, which I was really happy about! Besides the small wind patch, it was a beautiful, sunny day without much wind resistance, making for a pretty ideal ride. I listened to “The Help” on audiobook the entire ride. I started it last summer, but ended up having half of it to go and I just didn’t listen to it at all over the winter biking season. I remembered recently that I hadn’t finished it, so it was great to actually get to wrap that book up!
Here’s what I ate and drank:
- mile 8: 3 berry shot bloks
- mile 18: one honey stinger waffle
- mile 28: 1 gu
- mile 38: 3 berry shot bloks
- mile 44: 1 handful of dried craisins
- drank: 50 ounces of electrolyte water with nuun plus in it (for extra carbs).
I try to soak in as much of summer, nature, and sunshine on these long summer rides because I miss them the rest of the year. I’m glad that, after a hectic month of travel, I was able to find the time to get in a ride again!
Way to find a new route and not just give up because it was flooded.
Thanks! I actually really enjoyed the route and will likely bike some of the same roads again in the future.