50 MILES, BABY!!!

Today I achieved a goal:  broke the 50-mile barrier on Wilma!

I had picked up a speedometer for her, hoping it would help me identify the correct turnaround spot.  When I bought it last night, the guy in the bike shop told me they would install it for me if I couldn't.  At first I thought maybe I could do it...but...DUDE...I couldn't even open its battery compartment.  So this morning I rode back over to the bike shop, where the owner took the time to install it for me.  We chatted while he worked; he told me where the turnaround spot is for a 50 mile ride.


Turned out to be a good thing he did.  I wondered as I rode down the bike path...the speedometer showed I was cruising at an average between 25 and 30 MPH, with occasional peaks at 44 MPH when going downtown.  REALLY?  That didn't seem right.  


Further down the road, it seemed apparent that too many miles were piling on as I rode.  So I made a decision not to base the turnaround on what it said.  Good thing:  when I got to the actual turnaround, it said I already had done 45 miles (which, added to the 4 miles unrecorded before the bike shop, meant in theory I had ridden 50 miles ONE WAY).  Holy cow.


Made several stops along the way to alleviate bike seat pain.  Lunch was at the gazebo just beyond Rapids City.  Beautiful view, yummy lunch.  (Sorry, my picture doesn't show the river view that I enjoyed!)

Apple quarters, cashew butter, farm fresh egg, and the even the cookies are decently good...dark chocolate, made from organic ingredients, 2 g fiber/serving.  Rode on through Cordova and a little over a mile further before turning around (at that point, the 20 MPH winds that had been predicted arrived just on time...to be HEADWINDS...oyyyy!)  Had another apple with the rest of the cashew butter a little further down the road, on the way home in Port Byron.  


Stopped by the bike shop when I rolled back into Moline.  Here was the problem:  the speedometer measures speed by how many times a little magnet on one of the spokes goes by.  I had on my front wheel the new magnet that came with the speedometer AND the old magnet from the previous system (which was lost before I got Wilma).  Soooo...it was recording as basically twice as fast/twice as many miles as I was going  LOL 


Now I'm all showered and changed, doing my laundry, not sleepy at all but feel like I gave every bit I had to give, muscle-wise, in that ride.  Where is my full-body massage?!  Oh well, Aleve will have to be sufficient.