I went out on the club ride yesterday evening as planned.  I started my warmup 5.5 miles at 5:30 and was feeling really good.  I’d been drinking water all day to make sure I was hydrated, ate well and had a Hammer Bar (chocolate chip – looks nasty, doesn’t taste so bad for an energy bar) on the way to the meeting place.  For all intents and purposes I should have been in good shape.  I was a touch on the nervous side having just completed that 63 mile ride two days earlier, but I felt really good going in.

Unlike the other club rides I’ve gone on in the past, we only had one warmup mile and we were in it.  Our first mile was at 18 mph, but we were into 22 mph before we hit the second mile.  Mile 3 was at 20 mph but only because of a stop at a normally quiet intersection.  From there out we were between 22 and 24 mph into miles nine and ten where we started flirting with 25 mph average miles.  I dropped off the back on mile 12 momentarily but caught back up to the group at a stop sign…  Miles 13 – 16 we hammered out at 24, 22 and 27 mph averages and that’s when I started falling apart.  I fell back with a slower 20 mph group that had split off just prior to my dropping and held on with them for two miles but I started crashing – hard.  I rode the last fifteen miles on my own at a 16-18 mile an hour clip.  By the time I hit mile 26 I was getting worried about finishing before dark, I was really hurting and I only managed 15 mph for that mile.  After climbing what felt like a mini-mountain I actually considered walking for a minute.  I was sweating profusely from the neck up but the rest of me was cold as hell and with temps in the low 60’s I knew I shouldn’t have been cold.  At the top of the climb I kicked myself in the butt and muscled through it, pedaling as hard as I could for as long as I could and then resting for a minute before cranking it back up.  By the 28th mile I started feeling hungry – actually hungry doesn’t do that feeling justice, it was more like famished.  I used a soon to be trip to Burger King as my carrot and failure as the stick and continued on.

I pulled into the parking lot at 1 hours and 42 minutes completely spent.  I talked with Matt and Mike and a couple of the other guys for a few minutes before I packed up my gear and made a bee-line for the drive thru…  Still freezing cold, I ate a couple of packs of fruit snacks and cranked up the heat in the car.  I pulled in and placed my order, the most fast food I’ve ever ordered at one time and proceeded to devour it in the space of ten minutes – in the car, with the heat cranked as if it were below freezing outside.  After stuffing my face, I drove home, took my gear bag in and didn’t even bother with my bike (it’s still in the back of my suv)…  I kissed my wife and daughters goodnight and crashed.

I didn’t wake up till 4 this morning – refreshed and feeling like I could go for another ride or a run (no aches or pains whatsoever).  Two years ago I’d have been down for four to seven days.  This being fit stuff is unbelievable.  Go figure.  On the docket for tonight is a 16 mile, very slow, recovery ride.  Woof…