Gotta get right back to where we started from...

[ornoth_cycling]

After last weekend’s single 53-mile ride, I said I’d do a longer ride this weekend. So, with two weeks to go until the PMC, I did both Quad Cycles rides, accumulating 68 miles on Saturday and 57 on Sunday, for a total weekend of 125 miles.

Saturday felt really good, and I alternated taking it really easy with periodic bursts of actual torque. By the end of the ride, I felt a little discomfort in my knees, but not enough to stop me from riding Sunday.

Sunday I took it easier, not pushing it, and by midway through the ride I knew my knees had had about enough. I took it very easy getting home, and I’ll give it some ice and ibu this week before the final training weekend before Pan-Mass.

But overall I think I’m okay. I’m way undertrained, but after so many years of training, I should be able to make it through the ride without too much trouble. The knees… they’ll probably hurt quite a bit after day one, but I think they’re healthy enough that I should be able to get through it.

As I’ve been saying, I’ll just have to take it real easy this year, which is fine with me. It’s a long ride, but it’s supposed to be a reward, not a trial.

In other news, I just picked up a couple 24 oz. Polar insulated bottles. They definitely kept stuff colder longer, although that’s not necessarily a good thing, such as this morning, when I pulled a bottle of frozen Gatorade out of the freezer. It hadn’t thawed enough to drink until about 90 minutes into the ride, and didn’t fully thaw until I’d been riding nearly three hours! But I imagine they’ll work well with ice, so I’ll probably wind up using them on the PMC this year. In the usual configuration: one of ice and Gatorade, and one of ice water which will be applied internally or externally as needed.

Fundraising’s good, too. I’m stuck a bit shy of the ride minimum, but I’ve got 16 more sponsors who have promised to make a donation, including my perennial biggest sponsor, and I’ll also be getting some of the proceeds from the raffle at this year’s Where’s George BBQ in Lexington a week after the ride. So there’s still hope that I’ll reach my actual target, although it’s going to take a few more people to sponsor me in order to get there.

I guess things are coming together. Good thing, because the ride is close upon us!