So that was the weekend of my big bike ride.  My entire summer of rather lackadaisical training, come to an end.  I spent the better part of last week convincing myself I would most likely not even finish the 80-mile route, much less my ultimate goal of the 100-mile “century.”  I even went out and started reading up on suggested training plans for 100-mile rides, as if there was anything I could do about it with one week left.  Friday night finally came, and we went out to dinner with the Munkirs.  James and I sat on one side of the table, shoveling pasta and discussing our ride strategy, while Janene & Donette sat across from us and compared insurance benefits.

Saturday morning we met up out in Peculiar at about 6:00 to find an already huge crowd gathered.  I knew it was a pretty big event but was still a little surprised by the number of people.  Turns out there were 2,000 riders registered for it;  I had no idea it was that big.  They even had a DJ set up playing music.  (Bet the neighbors really love that every year…)  The ride was supposed to start at 7:00, but teams and “VIP’S” got to start first, so by the time we finally took off it was close to 8:00.  Our “plan,” such as it was, was to just ride rest stop to rest stop until we ran out of gas.  I think the biggest fault with our training was that 80% of our rides were only 15 – 20 miles long.  That only takes about an hour, so we never really had to think about pacing ourselves;  By the time you start getting tired on a 20 mile ride you’re done.  Our longest ride of the year was 75 miles several weeks ago, and it was an epic disaster.  Although it had been a while since that ride, the pain I was in at the end of it was still pretty fresh in my mind and I wasn’t looking forward to it again.  Anyway, we rode our “plan,” and the next thing we knew we were east of Warrensburg at the lunch stop, about 50 miles into the ride.  Our plan here was to eat lunch and maybe even take a little nap.  As it turned out the food line was crazy-long, and hot dogs didn’t really sound that tasty anyway, so we ended up stretching for about 10 minutes and taking off again.  Soon enough, we were at the 70-mile mark, where you had to decide whether to keep going straight for an 80 mile finish or turn off for the optional 100 mile route.  It really wasn’t even that hard of a decision.  Aside from my stomach being all jacked up on ibuprofen and 5-hour energy shots, we both felt pretty solid.  So, we headed out on the bonus loop, and 6.5 hours after we left Peculiar we were in Sedalia with our first “century ride” under our belts.  It’s really a two-day ride, but we never had any illusions of riding back so Janene picked us up at the finish and we headed back to KC.

Sunday I took for a “recovery” day, didn’t really do much.  Donette signed me up for a massage at the gym so I headed up there and enjoyed that little treat.  Never had a massage before;  It was nice and definitely helped my aching back.  Other than a mild back-ache I felt surprisingly good.  Don’t get me wrong, I was well aware I’d been on a long bike ride.  My legs were pretty sore and I’m still suffering some discomfort in my…  Well…  Errrr…  Let’s just say I sat on a bike seat for 6.5 hours.  Other than that though I think I’m gonna live to ride another day, although that day likely will not be this week.  Two-day ride next year?  We shall see.