Catch-up time

For this blog, that is.

Thursday evening was the weekly SWC pizza/beer ride, this time in Guilderland/Altamont. 20 miles, at a 16.0 pace - WHEW! Nice to know I can do that, but WAAAAY too fast. I wasn't exactly keeping up to the lead group, but they were mostly always in sight. Strong ride!

Friday, I wanted something more, so rode from Rexford to Waterford down the north side of the Mohawk, crossed at Peebles Island, and came back the south side, mostly on the bike path. All was well until about 30 miles, when I noticed the first hints of legs cramping. I'd been hydrating sufficiently, but hadn't eaten anything since breakfast. It was also a relatively warm and humid day. I should have grabbed lunch, something salty, in Waterford, but just blew it off and kept going. No snacks or anything. I need to remember that anything over about 90 minutes to 2 hours is going to require some electrolyte management, and some food! Stopped at Lock 7, stretched and walked around before the two last big hills, and never did cramp, but I was close. Total distance was 37 miles.

Today, I squeezed in the Grant Hill Road loop again, for 20.6 miles. It was another warm day, but no cramping, and no problems on the hills. I should also note that this time I had laced my Gatorade with salt just to be sure. It changes the taste some, but it's still cold and wet, and the salt replacement is pretty automatic that way.

Tomorrow, I'm hoping for another long-ish ride, in the 40 mile range, with some hills, maybe in the Mariaville/Esperance/Duanesburg areas. I need to start bumping up the daily mileages and managing the nutrition and salts, so I can get this right now and not run into problems on a real tour.

Total mileage for the year is now at 498, right on pace for a 1500-mile season.