The Pedals on the Bike Go Round and Round…

This day has seemed so long and full that I’d swear it’s Sunday night and I have to go to work tomorrow. Thankfully, I don’t! I need to extra day to recover. My legs are tired. So very tired.
Jose and I are supposed to go flying tomorrow if the weather is good, so I switched my long bike ride to today. The major downside to this was that I had to ride alone, since all my BAM buddies are riding tomorrow. On the schedule? 50 miles.
That is a long way to ride all by myself, and it takes a long time to cover that distance. I was sort of dreading the ride.
After an early morning BAM board meeting and a few hours of watching random TV with Jose, I reached the point of no return and saddled up in order to have enough time to complete the ride before the sun began to set. I left my apartment at 1:30 and quickly made my way over to Bay Area Boulevard to start my usual route. Past the refineries I rode, and through Seabrook. Over the Kemah bridge, and all the way down to 646. As I turned, my odometer flipped 20 miles. Down 646 to 270, to 96, to 146, and back to 646. A 10-mile loop. I did it once. I did it twice. And then I did another 3/4 loop before heading back up 270 to the glorious warm water of the shower.
When all was said and done, I’d covered 51 miles in 3:05. All in all, quite an excellent ride for me — an average pace above 16 mph on a ride that long is unusual. In fact, it may have never happened before! I credit a lot of it to the fact that the wind, while present, was fairly calm today. Whereas last week the stiff breeze slowly sucked the energy out of me, this week it was only a minor distraction.
Even my butt, back and neck are starting to improve as I put in more regular time on the bike. Oh, they were definitely aching, don’t get me wrong — and I felt it as early as 15 miles in to the ride. But the ache remained a low level pain instead of increasing into the more serious discomfort it has been at times in the past.
p.s. Three hours in the sun, but not even a spot of sunburn! Yay me. My Neutrogena Ultra-Sheer Body Mist sunblock totally rocks.