January Populaire, a set on Flickr.
This was my first “bonk” ride. I was out of gas at about the 58 mile mark. Nearly had it finished, and just bonked hard. That night, my daughter told me “Dad – you bike too much!”. I had to agree (regrettably). I resolved to commute a bit less, and bus more. I want to get more miles on the longer rides, and need to save my energy.
In hindsight, I took a month off cycling, and then the week before, had done 4 solid days of commuting. I was tired.
I then met up with a rider from Bremerton with a beautiful Mitch Pryor (MAP) Rando project bike. We ended up talking through most of the ride, and I was forgetting to eat much or drink water until over halfway through. I started to suffer at 30 miles, and had a granola bar and a handful of trail mix. I’m pretty certain I became dehydrated by the end of the ride. I was a bit dizzy, and had no energy left. I had to stop to eat on the 45 minute drive back to keep from dozing off.
Live and learn.
Otherwise, it was a beautiful ride around Camano Island. There were 80 folks that pre-registered, and it looked like we had at least 50 show up. Lots of variations of machines. Everything from custom MAP randos, to titanium Davidsons. Tandems, carbo/alums, and everything in between. I did the ride in a bit over 5 hrs. My AHH rode flawlessly. I had no discomfort, and the drivetrain was nice and quiet. I had put new cranks on with a lower 32t small ring, and was glad I did based on the hills we went up.
I’m looking forward to a real 200k. Now I know that I need constant food/water to make this work…