First long ride since...2014?? Levee ride!

RIDE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  61.55 miles in about 3:45
Lap 1 1:54 28.17 miles, ave 14.8mph, 102 bpm
Lap 2 1:02 16.47 miles, ave 15.8 mph, 126 bpm
Lap 3 52:25 16.94 miles, ave 19.4 mph, 121 bpm

Yahoo!! I've been long waiting for a chance to get back on the roads. I've had a bit (well really a lot) of anxiety about riding alone on roads. It's been a long time, I'm unfamiliar with the routes maybe, I don't know what level of fitness I have... excuses -- so many of them.

RM and I joined up for a ride out of Columbia. By the way -- the Marketplace is now a Schnuck's, but I think I knew that already. Right after starting, RM laid down the goals of the ride: keep my  HR under control, ride 90-120 minutes, flat levee road and not the hills in the bluffs. Hill into Valmeyer if we have time. I love his attention to plans like this :)

We headed out on the usual way, behind the Schuck's  out to Bluff road, then whatever road that is that heads over the tracks out to the levee. The wind was kinda strong out of the south, so we hit headwinds the way out. We took it easy, I think though it was easier for me than for him. My season started a lot earlier, I think he said this was his second real ride this year.

The flooding was up against the levee, at two points in the ride we splashed through some water flowing over the roadway. I don't mind water, but then the air smells like cow poo and the runoff is coming out of a field, well, yuck.

Lots of chatting too, I tell him about my 10K challenge at work (that deserves it's own post, LOL). We talk about his new job, leaving his old job, financial stuff, training stuff more. We turned around at one hour and he was pretty worn out. Seems he found his limit around 90 mins. This two hours was Lap 1.

I wasn't done, however, and went back out. Lap 2 is my outbound into the wind. I didn't push hard, I just pushed for steady. Wish now that I had lapped it at the end of the first outbound with RM for real comparison.

I didn't have a specific goal in mind, until I reach what I thought would get me a 60 mile ride. That took me into lower Valmeyer, but I didn't want to climb the hill without RM. So I headed out towards Maeystown until I reached a "mentally ready to turn around" point.

The way back was a breeze, literally. TailWINd, as I like to say. Pushed a little more here, but really the goal was steady push.

Nutrition -- 2-3 bottles of water only. A banana, only. Had a good brekkie of cereal and yogurt and eggs and fruit, I think. No hunger, no fade, no problems.