October 16
100km
I did it! I rode over 100km in a single day. Yesterday I woke up at 5am, saddled up, waited for Ed, and rode to South Bank to begin our journey to the Gold Coast. We were not the only ones - there were about 3800 others joining us.
We started down the busway, which was sublime. So smooth and creamy. It was interesting to see a few people on the side of the road nurturing flat tires. I guess that's the price to pay for having racing bikes with 0.001mm thin tires. SUCKERS!
We stopped at 40km for a banana, a fruit bun, a muesli bar and a chance to fill up our water bottles. I wasn't feeling to bad at this point. We had been riding for just over an hour and a half, but it had been pretty easy so far.
We continued south and took a back-route through the country behind Dreamworld. It was beautiful riding past all these farms, in the stinking hot weather. No really, it was awesome!
At about 60km as we were going up a small hill, my legs started to hurt and I felt a bit tired. After another 10km, I was feeling fine again and confident that I could finish. We stopped for another break at 75km.
With only 25km to go, I knew it was going to be a piece of cake to get to the end. What I didn't anticipate was the wind coming in from the coast. Nor did I anticipate Ed wanting to speed up :)
From about 90km onwards we maintained a speed of about 30km/hr, which was pretty good considering the wind we were up against (and the distance we had already covered). I was aching so hard, but I couldn't give up. Luckily for me, cycling is easier than running, and you can stop pedalling and just cruise for a bit if you're absolutely buggered.
We had to cycle right next to cars going into Broadbeach, which was a bit of a challenge, but when we arrived at the finish line it was all worth it! Ed and I stripped down and jumped into the water for a quick paddle. After eating a burger we headed back home (driving, not riding like some crazy dudes) and I ate some chocolate.
So for the stats... all up I rode 108km, which includes the 6km out to South Bank. We did it in 3hrs 50mins, at an average speed of 26km/hr. My max speed was 56.6km/hr cycling down a hill. I drank about 4 litres of fluids, and lost about 3kgs of weight (most of that was probably water).
Ed took a few photos with his camera, so when he sends them to me I'll put them up here.
We started down the busway, which was sublime. So smooth and creamy. It was interesting to see a few people on the side of the road nurturing flat tires. I guess that's the price to pay for having racing bikes with 0.001mm thin tires. SUCKERS!
We stopped at 40km for a banana, a fruit bun, a muesli bar and a chance to fill up our water bottles. I wasn't feeling to bad at this point. We had been riding for just over an hour and a half, but it had been pretty easy so far.
We continued south and took a back-route through the country behind Dreamworld. It was beautiful riding past all these farms, in the stinking hot weather. No really, it was awesome!
At about 60km as we were going up a small hill, my legs started to hurt and I felt a bit tired. After another 10km, I was feeling fine again and confident that I could finish. We stopped for another break at 75km.
With only 25km to go, I knew it was going to be a piece of cake to get to the end. What I didn't anticipate was the wind coming in from the coast. Nor did I anticipate Ed wanting to speed up :)
From about 90km onwards we maintained a speed of about 30km/hr, which was pretty good considering the wind we were up against (and the distance we had already covered). I was aching so hard, but I couldn't give up. Luckily for me, cycling is easier than running, and you can stop pedalling and just cruise for a bit if you're absolutely buggered.
We had to cycle right next to cars going into Broadbeach, which was a bit of a challenge, but when we arrived at the finish line it was all worth it! Ed and I stripped down and jumped into the water for a quick paddle. After eating a burger we headed back home (driving, not riding like some crazy dudes) and I ate some chocolate.
So for the stats... all up I rode 108km, which includes the 6km out to South Bank. We did it in 3hrs 50mins, at an average speed of 26km/hr. My max speed was 56.6km/hr cycling down a hill. I drank about 4 litres of fluids, and lost about 3kgs of weight (most of that was probably water).
Ed took a few photos with his camera, so when he sends them to me I'll put them up here.
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I will let you all know when i have sent the photos to adam so that you know how long it takes him to put them up.
BTW. The ride was easy despite what adam thinks :P