Notes
Route map said 2467' of climbing - Strava said 1518'. The above is ride time - total time with stops was 3:16:56. So almost 29 minutes burned at rest stops. I know the last stop was especially long - so something to work on. Gotta relearn calorie / electrolyte intake on the bike.
Lessons
1) Bring SCaps
2) Don't eat peaches
So to recap the day, I met up with Kevin and Ryan at Kevin's @ 6:30 and we loaded up together in Ryan's truck and rode out to Weatherford together. The parking lot was crazy crowded. Everyone got ready and we rode around to the back of the high school to get our packets. Even though I swore I would never wear a cycling jersey, I ended up buying one at the registration table. They did not look like wannabe pro cyclist or advertising billboards. I did like that it kept me cooler than even my running tech shirts have and the pockets in back did come in handy.
The new tires were a big improvement (28 slicks compared to 38 knobbies). Also the new grips were a giant improvement. No hand soreness or numbness until maybe the last 5-6 miles. Still need to adjust them a little to get the angles right. While they are much better than the old ones when sweaty - they still get pretty slick- so gloves will still be required.
We skipped the first (and maybe the second) rest stop but made a quick stop at the one near 20 miles for some water. I also had a handful of peach slices that caused horrible burping over the next 8 or 10 miles. I had bad stomach slosh also - so likely low on electrolytes or something. Never again. We hit another one 10 miles later. I was totally not used to the hills and two of them had me redlining enough to have to walk up the last 100 yards or so. Definitely need to spend some more time on hills, as well as making sure they don't cook me as much.
Kevin left us at this point and another hill crushed my soul (but I didn't walk) so Ryan and I stopped at the last rest stop about 5 miles from the finish. Swilled more gatorade, water and pickles and we sat down for 10 minutes. Man I was wiped out. I felt way better after this, so the gatorade and salt must have done the trick. Even though we had some more climbing to do, I focused on lower gears and spinning. Finally, Ryan said he could see the high school and it was downhill to the finish so away we went.
All in all, a great day for my longest ride ever. On the drive back to Kevin's we stopped for tacos and started planning a 50 miler for next weekend. What have I done?