So this weekend I decided to go ahead and try it again. I set it in my head that I would do the same rides this weekend that I did last weekend and atone for the mistakes I made.
Saturday I did the same loop... the "Wednesday night short course" which took me out Montpellier road and Keyes Rd to Hawkins Rd, back down Lake Rd to Hickman and then home via Whitmore Rd back to Hughson. When I completed the loop and got back to the Hickman Store and resupplied my water bottles I still felt good so I decided to do the loop a second time which added about 13 miles over what I had done last weekend. On the way home I felt pretty accomplished that I was feeling good and at 53.7 miles it was ending up just 4 miles short of it being my longest ride to date (my longest ride to date at that time was the disaster that was last weeks Sunday ride)
Sunday's ride was the same ride as the week before. But I made some crucial adjustments. I started out in the morning (a little later than I wanted at 10:00 AM) instead of 2:00 in the afternoon. And I took a third water bottle in my jersey. The ride out Montpellier was pretty decent. There was a very strong tail wind, that I knew I would be dealing with as a head wind on the way back, so I kept a good pace but tried not to over do it. Turlock Rd was also fairly easy to keep a 20-22 mph pace going but when I turned on to Cox Ferry I knew I had been right about having a head wind on the way home. But at the point when I got on to Cox Ferry I had twice as much water as I did the weekend before, at the same point in the ride. And I also knew where I was and how far it was home... the weekend before I just going off of how far I THOUGHT it was home. I made it over Cox Ferry with a lot less effort than I thought it would be and headed down Keyes Rd. I was able to keep the pace up fairly well, even with the head/cross wind. When I turned down Hawkins I was still feeling pretty fresh (and I still had water... BIG PLUS) I made my way back down Lake Rd. and to the Hickman store and was still fresh enough to think about doing the Hawkins loop a second time. I decided to pack it in... I accomplished what I needed to... and it was beginning to get hot, and I was starting to develop a strong case of hot foot again.
I got home and felt about 1,000,000% better than I did on the ride the week before. Took a shower and cleaned up and then Jen and I set out to do some Father's day visiting with family. It felt pretty good to be able to do the same rides (+13 miles) I did last weekend, but felt much better and was actually able to function afterwards. It's a small milestone but a milestone none the less.
See ya out there on the roads!
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