34 miles!

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At the half way point - 17 miles in

A few weeks ago I posted about the new bike that I got.  I'd been riding it around my neighborhood several days a week usually covering about 12 miles per day.  This past weekend we had nothing planned by design because I have to work the next two weekends so we wanted to chill and just spend some time together.  When Dan suggested that we head out on our first bike ride together (other than the day that I got the new bike) I was totally game.  He did all the research about the trails and I just said, wherever you want to go I'll go.  Honestly I was a little nervous about my netherea (aka girl parts) on such a long ride (his bike seat is more cushioned than mine even though mine is really comfortable) but figured it was now or never.  I was thinking we'd do about 20-25 miles but he suggested a route to go to Sycamore, IL that was 17 miles.  One way.  I knew that getting there wouldn't be a problem and I told him that we might have to make some stops on the way back to rest and he was cool with that.

Garmin says - yes you were going up hill!

I put our water bottles in the fridge on Friday night so the water would be cold.  In the morning I grabbed them and packed my spibelt with 2 mini CLIF bars, chapstick, ID, cash and my iPhone.  I also packed 2 more water bottles filled with ice and a few other snacks to leave in the car for the ride home (the trail head was about 20-25 minutes from our house).  Once we arrived we unloaded our bikes and we were off... and apparently going uphill.  Ugh.  The majority of the trail was on crushed limestone, except for a few miles in the middle around Wasco, IL that are blacktop.  I didn't realize how much more difficult it was riding on it until we made the transition from blacktop to limestone on the way back.  That was some slow going!  Plus it's dirty/dusty and when you're sweaty that's an *awesome* combination!  The rest of the ride was cool though and quite a lot of the trail was under a really heavy tree canopy so at least we had shade.

We stopped once on the way out to rest and get water and we stopped a whole bunch of times on the way back!  At about 3 miles from the end Dan called it quits.  He said his legs were really hurting.  Honestly, his bike needed some work because he was working WAY harder than he needed to be but we took his both our bikes in Sunday to get looked at (my cables needed to be tightened) so we can go out tomorrow.  I practically flew back to the car because as I left him I started to worry that maybe he was suffering from dehydration.  Apparently that's a good motivator to bike fast because I was moving way faster than I had ever done (except on a down hill) before.  Luckily, I got back to him and he was fine albeit sore.   We covered 34.11 miles in 2:50:14 which I didn't think was too shabby at all.  Plus, do you know how many activity points you earn from that?!  A LOT!!

What a great new activity for us to do together!  Have you found something that you like doing with your honey?