55 miler….

Got up early on Sunday to get a long roadie ride in before it got too hot. Hubby & I ventured out towards Troutville & beyond. We started from the house, cruised through downtown, then out Hollins Road, Plantation Road & eventually ended up on Read Mountain Rd. From there we turned on to Rt 11, stopped in Troutville for a potty break, then made our way out towards Nace & Lithia. This is such a pretty ride out through here. Lots of field/pastures…the ride is relatively flat, there are a few rollers but not like Bradshaw Road. We kept a good average pace heading out Nace Rd…probably around 22 mph. We passed quite a few people out on their road bikes today too.
As we approached the end of the road, we encountered two riders taking a quick break. We said hello…turns out they know one of our sponsors from Mail It Plus. As we chatted a bit, we learned they had a flat at the start of their ride. It took them 50 minutes to change it! Ow!
We took a quick snack break then headed back the way we came. It was a bit tougher heading back b/c we had a head wind...Yuk!...we still averaged close to 17/18 mph heading back. There were a couple of points I stared to fade so we slowed the pace down a bit. All in all it was a good ride.. I think we ended up doing 55 miles in a little over 3 hours.
Got back, had a smoothie (YUM), grabbed lunch, then snoozed on the couch off and on while watching the Olympics. I saw bits and pieces of the women’s road race. They raced in horrid conditions….hard rain most of the race. There was this rider from Korea who crashed & took out a couple of riders w/ her. She ended up in this ditch…pretty scary to watch. The finish was exciting w/ a gal from Great Britain taking gold. There was also a 49 year old from France racing!!! I hope I’m still racing at 49!