Another long one

Today was another gorgeous fall day, with morning temps in the 40s and lots of sun. I decided to ride west today to Schoharie Crossing and have lunch at Karen's Produce and Ice Cream on NY5S. I knew this was about a 45-mile round trip, but it's all flat, and I had no problem doing that mileage yesterday. Light winds from the SE were forecast.

The westbound trip went very quickly and easily, and the explanation for that was the slight SE tailwind. Got to the lunch spot just before noon and had a big burger (with onions and peppers) and fries (with cheese). First mistake. Actually it was the third. The first was doing this kind of mileage on back-to-back days when I haven't been riding very regularly for the past month. The second was accounting for the wind, which was now a pretty brisk headwind all the way home. The third was having a heavy meal like that for lunch when I needed to continue riding. Around 30-35 miles, not far into the return trip, I started to run out of gas, for all three of the above reasons. It was a long slow grind back to the car. By the time I finished, I was pretty well spent, even though I'd been taking it pretty easy for the rest of that distance.

Tomorrow will be a day off to rest and let the body catch up.