Saturday, July 11, 2015

Norman Conquest 2015

Last night, after work, Jeremy and I drove to campus corner to register for a bike ride this morning. We registered, ate the free pasta dinner at O'Connell's  (it was only worth the cost because it was free), and then made a plan to meet about 6:30 a.m. at the office. Jeremy was going to ride down (about 8 miles) from his house.

This morning, I got up at 5, geared up,  and headed down. Air in tires. Water bottles filled. Sunscreen applied. GPS and HRM on. Here we go.

We rode the 4 miles east to the starting point. We lined up, then off we went in a huge pack. The first 5 (or so) miles were the most stressful, as we started near the back of the pack and didn't want to go at a snail's pace (and bake for 4 or 5 hours). Eventually, we made it to where we wanted to be. At one point, I overheard a guy making a comment about a guy in "tennis shoes," which I assume was me. Maybe he was mad I was smoking him.

We did the 48-mile blue course, and I think we took a little over 3 hours (I think we were on the course from 7 until about 10:15). We stopped at a couple of rest stops, including one to readjust my handle bars that became wonky at some point ... maybe going over a bump.

At the finish, we checked to see if we win anything (we didn't) and ate lunch (I had a double hamburger and a double chocolate cookie). Then, it was back on the bikes to rise back to work. Jeremy continued on back home. I went a little over 57 miles, and my app says I burned 4666 calories based on my HRM.

Next year, maybe I'll do the red course (68 miles this year).

8 comments:

Galen Tromble said...

Is your butt sore?

ET said...

Not particularly. Sore behind right knee ... bottom of hamstring/top of calf? My neck and shoulders always go first.

ET said...

And, with about 1/4 mile left, we had to stop at a traffic light. I put my legs down and, almost immediately, I felt my quads cramping up. It reminded me of super cooled water turning to ice. Fortunately, I was able to flex it out a bit and stave it off, then I rehydrated, stretched, and walked it off over lunch.

ET said...

Who's up for a century ride?

ET said...

I think it's the bottom of my right hamstring. Pretty sore today. Probably a combination of things: 1) not training enough, poor flexibility, riding too hard right of the bat/continuing to try to finish in a reasonable time.

ET said...

Whoops ... I failed with my numbering scheme.

ET said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Galen Tromble said...

RICE it!