Pushing myself

I decided to go ahead and test push myself last weekend and made the bike ride down to Tipp City. This worked out to about 38 miles, which made the longest day of riding I have ever done. (yeah, that map says about 37, lets ignore the wrong turn down a cul-de-sac and stopping for food and I had to go fix something at the mall, and I moved the start point to a parking lot for the bike path, though I did ride that section, instead of it starting at my house. No nitpicking, ok?)

I had hoped to have the panniers I ordered in but nope, no such luck. Nashbar is slow to ship it seems. I'll probably send them a grouchy email next week, just because. I decided to go on the ride anyways, even though I forgot to clean my water bottles, instead taking two bottles of Ice Mountain, one held to my rear rack with bungee cords, and the other in one of the bottle cages on the bike. (The other one won't hole bottles of water) Of course, dealing with the cap meant having to stop every time I wanted a drink, but it could have been worse.

Around Troy, I found out that the event ride for Troy was scheduled that day, it was a free ride though, so I did manage to get some water at a rest stop in Tipp City. Missed the watermelon by about 2 minutes though.  I hit the bike shop and looked at all the nice bike I can't afford, got a small rear rack bag, and got it set up. I was able to put my bike lock in it, which was great not to have that thing hanging onto my bike at random places as I ride around, and it better not interferer with the panniers.

I took streets home, rather than the bike path, and aside from a wrong turn onto the aforementioned cul-de-sac, and another where I forgot that going that way involved crossing State Route 55 where it happens to be a divided highway, it wasn't all that bad. I stopped at a Chinese Buffet in Troy, where I know I didn't get enough calories to balance what I used getting there, and headed back to Piqua.

I have to admit, my legs are angry with me today, but it isn't as bad as I expected. Before leaving for the ride, I really thought that hitting Tipp City would be just past what I was ready for, but having logged just under 40 miles in that trip, the little voice in the back of my head is screaming at me for not hitting 40, and demands that next weekend, I will go down the path again and hit Taylorsville Dam. I feel like I should be able to hit 50, and anything below 50 miles next weekend will be a failure. The only downside is that for riding there, I can not pre-map it for use with the GPS on my phone, Google doesn't have much of that area of bike path programed in, so it will be a true adventure.

I will probably sign up for the Tour de Donut this week, because deep down, I know I can't win it outright, but if I can handle the 50 I plan for this weekend, then the 30 mile route will be relatively easy. I finally feel like I am at a point where saying that I want to do GOBA next year is not a pipe dream, and maybe by even TOSRV will be a viable option.

Granted, for those, I think I might like a 'faster' bike, but I did survive doing the 30 mile ride of the Troy Strawberry Festival on a Mongoose Folding Mountain bike, and that was a heavy creature. I know my Schwinn can probably do it, but it might well be pushing that bike to its limits. Actually, I think I would rather have road handlebars, rather than the mountain handlebars I have on the Schwinn, but for some mysterious reason, the parts to convert the handlebars are too prohibitive. If I can come up with the money, I will probably go through Tipp Cyclery simply due to their selection and the prices seem rather reasonable. I might instead go to the one in Troy, they specialize in Trek, and have some nice ones. I don't think I will go with Schwinn, I am not sure I am a big enough fan to go into the even more high end of their line. ( Mine is a bike shop model, not a department store one, but it still isn't a uber high end one.)

I almost begin to wonder if I am having my midlife crises a few years too early.