Mike45

Two weekends ago I managed to get in my longest ride to date: 130.44 miles @ 6:31:33 (ride time)

I won't bother you all with the boring details but here is the short version:
My friends and I rode an hour across town to catch up with a large group ride. The idea was to sit in with them at an easy pace. That didn't work out as planned. The "easy pace" turned out to be a hammer fest.

We broke off from them at their southernmost point as planned. (thank God) I was cooked already from trying to sit in at 25mph+.

It took me a long time to recover from that pace. We had ~ 80 miles in when we got to Palatka (FL) where I had my son meet us with water and food. I was ready to hang it up. Luckily I recovered mentally enough to continue.

The rest of the ride was pretty sedate but every hill and/or acceleration of our small group (four) spit me out the back.

I tried to get the guys to leave me so they could maintain their pace but they insisted on finishing together.

It was a beautiful day for a ride but I was happy to get off the bike.

DanteB

Great Job Mike! Isn't always fun to meet up with a group for an easy ride only to find out it's a hammer fest. Recovering mentally is one of the biggest thing for doing distance riding for me.