Miles this week: 43.39

Spring finally arrived this week, so Monday I got my bike down to the bike shop for some routine maintenance. I was fortunate enough to get it back the same day, so of course I had to go out for a ride that evening. For future reference, though, I probably shouldn’t go riding right before dinner—halfway through I started feeling pretty crappy and extremely hungry.

Rode with the bike club on Wednesday night, but it was the “family fun ride” and the pace was a little slow for my liking. Also went on a short ride Thursday night, which wasn’t the smartest thing to do since it was kind of cold. But I really wanted to test my new clipless pedals.

Saturday was fun and exhausting at the same time. A friend and I from work went up to North Baltimore to ride the Slippery Elm rail trail from there up to Bowling Green and back—the round trip is just shy of 27 miles. Around 22 miles in, we both “hit a wall” and it got really hard to keep going, but since the car was still five miles away we didn’t really have a choice so we just gutted it out. I was pretty tired when we got back, but after an hour or so the runner’s high—or the cyclist’s high, in this case—kicked in and I was feeling really good.

Jumping from 5-6 mile rides earlier this week straight to a 27 mile ride probably wasn’t the smartest idea, but then again, at least I should be able to hack the bike club’s bi-weekly fitness rides now; usually those are only 15 to 18 miles, although they do push the pace a little harder usually.

Now here’s hoping the aloe lotion does its job and makes my arms stop hurting so much; it’s still early in the spring so I didn’t really think much about sunscreen. Apparently 2+ hours in bright sunlight, even when the UV index isn’t supposed to be really high, is enough to give you sunburn. I definitely need to make sure to pick up some sunscreen before I ride again; no reason to let my skin burn or tan any further if I can help it.