"Training" Ride - Chapel Hill, IN

That's right. I rode my bike to Chapel Hill today. Chapel Hill, Indiana anyway. Just a little different than the one in North Carolina that I love so much... :)

Here's the route:


Time: 2:43:55

Distance: 40.357 miles

Average Speed: 14.7 mph

Max Speed: 35.2 mph

That's right... I fixed my cycle computer last night. I'm really unhappy about what I had to do to make it work. Apparently after replacing the battery, you have to do a hard reset. It erases all the data (which in my case was just the odometer, but I'm really unhappy about that. I mean, kind of defeats the purpose of having an odometer...) and you have to reprogram all your variables (wheel size, weight, etc) into it. So, yay for it working, boo for it being a crappy cycle computer.

Anyway, it was a great day for a ride! I wanted to make this a training/leisure ride. I wanted to go hard and fast! But I also wanted to take pictures. So I did a little combination of the two. It worked out well. I feel like I rode hard, but still stopped to take pictures of things that I really wanted to.

I woke up at 6:00 (yep, officially insane) and had some oatmeal with peanut butter and a banana. It took me a little longer to get a move on than I wanted, but I am slow moving in the morning. I made it out the door between 7:30 and 8:00. I had wanted to leave around 7:00. I need to work on that.

I saw a deer eating apples from a tree in someone's front yard on Swartz Ridge Road. I also rescued a turtle from getting run over. Turtle road kill makes me really sad. :(

I made it to 446 and was feeling pretty good. Dripping in sweat, but super happy to be out riding my bike for something other than commuting finally. I even saw 4 or 5 other cyclists on 446 going the other way. I hadn't ridden that far out on 446 before and was not excited to find that the shoulder disappears eventually. However, it wasn't too bad and was great incentive to push and go fast. Until I saw this church anyway. I liked it too much to not stop and take a picture.


Around mile 11 I got to ride over Lake Monroe. It was beautiful. Unfortunately, not a good place to stop and take pictures. I also skirted Hoosier National Forest on this road. Smokey the Bear says Fire Danger Low today!

I made the turn towards Chapel Hill. When I got there, this is what I saw.


The old church was pretty much it. :)

So I made my way back home. I got a little turned around at one point and did a little loop-da-loop, but corrected myself pretty fast. For once I listened to my intuition instead of my directions! Sometimes directions are weird, especially on middle-of-nowhere roads.

It warmed up considerably after 10:00. I think if it continues to be hot like this, I'll try to plan my rides to be home by then instead of 11:00. However, I did a really good job on that aspect today. I planned to be home by 11:00 and I walked in my door with three minutes to spare.

I'm working on things to eat while riding my bike. Today I had a Honey Stinger Waffle and a Clif Shot Energy Gel Razz flavor. The Honey Stinger Waffle was kind of like eating a cookie. It tastes really good, but I didn't feel energized after eating it. Although I'm not sure if that was due to the waffle or the weather. I did feel energized after eating the Clif Shot, but it was sort of gross. I've also tried a couple of Gu gels and haven't been the biggest fan of the way they taste either. I do like the Gu chomps though. I also like Jelly Belly Sports Beans. However, those things aren't super easy to eat while actually riding. I'm thinking I need to find some of these gel things in a flavor I like.

Anyway, overall I had a great ride. I'm SO glad I got out. I felt really strong the whole ride, until it got really hot around 10:30 or so and I wilted a little. I'm glad that just commuting hasn't made me lose my legs. :)