50 miles – longest ride to date

This past Sunday marked a milestone for me, I completed my first 50 mile ride and also did the most climbing I had ever done with ~3600′ which included the longest continuous climb I have ever done. We weren’t even a half mile into the ride before the first and biggest climb of the day. It’s a little over 3 miles up the side of a small ski slope which Strava categorizes as a Cat 3 climb. Whew! That got us warmed up quick. But it didn’t stop there as we had another couple of shorter climbs to contend with before we caught a break with a nice downhill and then some rollers before we made our first rest stop at around mile 18. From there we traveled on some backroads with minor hills to our lunch stop which came around mile 30.
Now, I don’t mind stopping for a brief snack – an energy/protein bar, rice cake, fruit, fluids, etc… but I don’t know how people can have large sandwiches and meals before they head back out on the bike. If I tried that I’d be tossing my lunch up a mile down the road.
Long stops also tend to tighten me up as I’m sitting down. This wreaked havoc on my legs on the last 20 miles and caused a bit of knee pain. With 2 climbs right out of the gate I just ended up slowly spinning at the back until I got loosened up again and could go at my normal pace.
In any event, while it was a challenging ride, it was also a great ride with a great group of riders. It certainly was an accomplishment for me.
Next on the bucket list is a metric century!