Hilly Hundred Day 1

I am so happy. Today was so fun! And even though I was worried that I'd have to walk up all the hills since I have barely ridden my bike in over a month, I didn't have to walk at all and feel that I actually sort of kicked butt.

Here's the route for today:

The ridewithgps website lists it as 4015 feet of elevation gain, but my Hilly Hundred route says 5202 feet. I wonder which is more accurate?

And here are the numbers:

Time: 4:26:46

Distance: 56.120

Average Speed: 12.6 mph

Max Speed: 35.9 mph

Calories Burned: 1929.2

Fat Burned: 199.8

My day started with an awesome breakfast that my amazing husband made for me.


We headed over to Edgewood High School and I met up with Rachel and Barb. It was really chilly this morning. I was just going to wear a jersey and arm warmers, but then I decided that I'd wear my raincoat too, and I was really glad for that decision! I didn't take it off until after lunch! And was still quite chilly this morning.

The first part of the day wasn't too bad. There were a couple tougher climbs, mostly just in steepness, none were terribly long climbs today. Before I knew it we were at the first rest stop, 14.3 miles in. I got a pumpkin doughnut. It was great! I also saw these people who were kind enough to let me take their picture. And I'm pretty sure they didn't drop bananas on the road or throw turtle shells at people. :)


Between the first rest stop and lunch at 28.1 miles in was pretty uneventful for me. I talked to a guy on another Surly for a while. I got a little ahead of Rachel and Barb, but I was too cold to stop and wait on them. We got to the lunch stop and enjoyed live music while eating chicken, pasta salad, veggies with ranch dip, and delicious cookies. We refilled our water bottles and hit the slightly warmer road.

After lunch it started to warm up (I even took off my raincoat!) and the scenery was absolutely beautiful. It was a very fall day and fall is my favorite season, so I was very happy. Not far after lunch was an excellent photo op of the Tulip Train Trestle.


And me with the whole thing.


The rest of the afternoon consisted of a lot of this:




With views like this:



It was great. We made it to the third and final rest stop where they had the most amazing chocolate rice krispie treats and apple cider from Musgrave Orchard! After that stop, there was one more big hill and a lot of rollers. The apple cider really energized me and I flew the last 14 miles. I was passing people left and right. But still managed to stop to lend my air pump to someone that needed it. I just felt awesome. It was a little chilly again, but I made it back to the school without having to stop to put my jacket on.

Once it was over, I hit up the vendor tent and picked up some stuff I needed. I got some leg warmers and an actual cycling jacket (no more black raincoat!) and I got a helmet mirror made my the Mirror Man.

Overall, it was a great day for me and I'm very excited about tomorrow!

PS I did take my Forerunner today, but I'm an idiot and experienced some user error. I'll try to do better tomorrow!