I set out this morning to do 20, maybe 30, but it was one of those days where the weather is sooooo nice, and I was feeling pretty good at the outset, so I just kept going, and going, and going. I ended up doing 70 miles. Unfortunately I hadn't planned on this distance, and ran out of fluids around the 60 mile mark even after some rationing. It wasn't a great ride in the end -- in addition to running out of fluids, my body ran out of gas around mile 45, and the next 15 were kind of a struggle. The last 10 were pretty easy. I won't embarass myself by posting my pathetic average speed.
The highlight of the ride was getting my ass handed to me by a local on a black Cannondale. He pulled up behind me as I was stopped at a crossing, waiting for a long freight train to pass. After we exchanged a few greetings, the train passed, and we proceeded down the same road, which winds along the train tracks and crosses them two more times. The train was moving slowly, so we caught up to it at both of the other crossings. The last crossing was in the middle of an uphill. He got there first and was stopped with a foot down. Just as I rolled up at the end of the line, the train cleared the crossing, and he attempted to clip in and get going on the uphill, but his free foot popped back out and he almost went down. I stayed clipped in and kept rolling, and after I slowed to see if he was OK, I took off up the hill. By the time he caught up I was a couple of miles down the road doing about 19-20. He blew past me somewhere between 25 and 30 mph without a word, tucked down in his aero bars. Maybe he was pissed that I didn't stop, or just in a zone, I'm not sure which. I tried briefly to match his pace but didn't have the legs, and within a few minutes I couldn't see him anymore.
Anyway, if you're the dude who was riding the black Cannondale on Cady's Mill Rd. this morning in a singlet, hi, and hope you had a good ride. You are one fast cat.