This bike ride was to mark a milestone for me.  It was my longest bike ride ever.  At the end of the ride, Devon clocked 67.5 miles. The ride took us a lot longer than originally anticipated.  Around mile 42, I was given the gift of leg cramps.  A gift that 12 days later I still can’t return.  I am still working on my legs to get them back to normal.   All said and done, I really rode 67.5 miles!! YEAH!!!    Easy miles for Devon without any problem!   Well the weekend did not end with the bike ride.  To finish the weekend was another Tri for Devon, then a super quick summit up Mount Monadnock and a contra dance.  By the end of the weekend, both of us were sore, tired and hungry!!  Mission accomplished!!

The new seat feels good. I do feel like more of a “real” cyclist now that I don’t have a large, cushy seat. I was ready for an upgrade. The new shoes did okay. I had some pain but I think I still need to break them in.

Well, I hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend! I’m am in for a lot of cycling this week and so I’m sure I’ll have a story or two to post.

Perhaps I should start out by introducing myself. I’m Debbie, Devon’s friend. I bought my bike last May (2009) and rode modestly last summer. I believe that I did about 500 miles all summer long. Well the spring of 2010 was approaching I decided that I was going to give myself a challenge. The challenge was to ride 1000 miles over the course of the cycling season. I started riding to work, the whole 1.7 miles down the road. Wow! I know. Then I got my riding legs working and starting making a 5-10 mile loop instead of the direct route. That turned into riding on my lunch hour then riding to Boston after work, to weekend rides.

I’ve gone on a few rides with Devon. It was all great. Adding more and more mileage to the table. Well, I Friday I set out on the longest distance, solo, road ride of my life! I left from work (West Newton, MA) with my final destination to be Devon’s house in Londonderry. Devon and I had plans to communicate along my trip and if I needed, he’d come a pick me up.

As I approached Lexington, MA I got a bit lost and that added about 5-10 miles to my ride. Well, with this new route, I was able to take some rail trails. One was super sketchy. It was a dirt path through the woods. When you riding alone in the woods, pushing your body to it’s max, your minds wonders, thus increasing your speed. With every patch of soft sand, I was thinking that someone must have placed that sand there to make single cyclist fall and drag them off the trail and no one would ever find them. Crazy, I know… Well to say the least, through those parts, I was kinda freaking out and rode to the max! My mind set was just to ride faster than a normal person could run! Well as most of you guessed, no one was hiding behind a tree waiting for me and when I told Devon this, he laughed at me.

With the new route that I was following I went through some more sketchy sections. I was not freaking out too much because it was through the populated town of Lowell. Not a very nice nor safe town. I made it through alive and quickly approaching the New Hampshire boarder. I was cruising along between 12 and 14 mph. The sun was beautiful as it was setting long the back roads of New Hampshire. I was winding my way through to Mammoth road when I came to the revaluation that Devon needs to move to a flatter area. Southern New Hampshire is not for the weak at hard, or should I say, weak at the legs. Some might call it gently rolling hills but really, normal people would all it super hilly hills! I knew that if I just kept moving forward I would eventually arrive. Devon told me in a text that the bread machine was set to be done at 9:30! Warm bread was motivation enough to keep moving. My directions told me that I should be on Mammoth road for 4 miles. I swear I felt like I was on that road for 10 miles. I got to the top of one hill and said out loud to the fire flies that were illuminating the night’s sky, “I must be getting there. Where is that street light? I know I’m close” in a slightly whiny voice. I rode super fast down that hill and was slowly climbing up the other side when I saw the red street light peaking over the top.. I shouted and rode like the wind. I know that I was just a few minutes from Oakridge drive. I went through that intersection with wings on my back. After 44 miles I was feeling pretty good but that last .5 miles past the street light was not pretty. I walked, rode, walked, rode, walked, rode onto Oakridge, walked, then rode the rest of the way to the condo. It was 9:15, I still have 15 minutes before that bread is going to be ready. Ahhh, I actually made it. I rode from West Newton to Londonderry! It felt great to have completed such a task! I ate lots of bread, finished making a smoothie that Devon started and relaxed. 5 hours and 15 minutes of riding on a Friday night!

Devon did a Triathlon in Merrimack this morning (Sunday) so was loaded his car yesterday. We got up early to be at start line early. I’ve never been to a Triathlon so it was great to see so many athletics, completely focused, giving nervous smiles as their swim waves were called. Once Devon was onto the biking section of the race, I jumped on my bike and headed home.

About 5 miles into the ride, I stopped to check my direction and again got lost. I spend almost an hour riding around Nashua following google maps on my blackberry. I was circling this one neighborhood so many times that a very nice guy watering his lawn asked if I was lost. He pointed me into the southern direction and off I rode. I was getting frustrated with stopping at each intersection to check the map. I knew that I just needed to head south. After passing by the same park 3 times, while following the directions exactly, I put my phone down and just decided that I was just going to follow any road that said east or south and eventually I would come to some place that I recognized. After spending 3 hours touring Nashua, I knew that something need to give. Well, I guess what need to give was thunder and rain. I pulled out my phone and remapped and regrouped. I found my way with the rain coming down heavily. Then the rain would stop, sun would come out for about 10 minutes then it would down pour again. As I was going down a large hill, with the rain pouring down on me, I quickly realized that the normal stopping power that I’m used to was not there. I got really nervous and began to drag my feet to create some friction. Well that really did not do much other than drop my spirits and make me sick to my stomach. I still don’t know if it was because of the hills, heat, or my body freaking out because I could not stop. Once I was at the bottom of the hill, I made my way to the closest safe location and called a friend. She came and picked me up. Even with a lift for the rest of the way, I still packed in 64 miles this weekend. Which puts my grand total to 635!