Another bike trip
So, I pushed myself to my limits, today. Although my limits were artificially low because I was stupid and didn’t eat enough.
I went for a 52 km bike ride. Now that I actually have a computer on my bike, I know how far I’m going and how fast (not fast enough, yet), I know exactly how far I go.
It was a lot of fun. It’s beautiful…my ride took me through small towns, a fairly big town, through woods and through open fields. It was great.
I also learned A LOT about the german bike trail markings. I still maintain that there were a few gaps in the signs, and sometimes the direction that they’re pointing you in is…lacking. However, they do have road signs explicitly for the bikes so that you can stay on the bike trails if you so desire, and that is wonderful.
I’m so glad I decided to do a cyclocross bike. I can’t maintain a fast enough speed on it, yet, but I’ll push it up. Right now I top out at about a 29 kph cruise, which roughly equates to a glacially slow 15 mph. I’ll get that faster.
I didn’t eat enough before I started, and so I hit a brick wall at around 40 km in. I had nothing left. The last 10k was pretty much excruciating. I haven’t been that tired since my boxing match. Now, I used to ride longer distances faster back in the states after no breakfast, but I generally at fairly big dinners fairly late the night before, and then got up pretty early to ride. This time, I ate a moderate dinner fairly early the night before, then drank a few beers, then got up late to ride. So I need to be aware of that kind of scheduling. The second major mistake that I made was forgetting my ID and credit card, which if I’d remembered I could’ve stopped and tanked up on some food in one of the villages. So I think I’ve learned that lesson very well.
All in all a great ride. Now I’m going to take a nap.
Nice ride! 52 km, I am impressed! Too bad for the last 10 km, you should just have brought something to eat with you, or maybe a better idea would have been to have breakfast ;-) Anyway, congratulations, you rock buddy!