Century mark

I was almost not going to do this club ride.  And I was okay with that.  Mostly because it is their longest ride of the year.  And although the longest ride I'd done this year was 100km.  This one was going to be end up being about 50% longer.

But the Jays game fell through and I was sort of glad in a way because it's one of those things that you can say you did a century ride (100 miles).

I know what it's like doing some of these longish rides.  I feel ok, but afterwards when I'm heading home my quads are feeling it.  I can still ride but I'm done like toast.

But how I feel after pretty much all depends on the pace.

And the club is trying to make the Intermediate A ride a  stepping stone to the Advanced B rides.  And these guys were pushing the pace.

It was a little on the high end for me.  I thought the outbound was tough, on the way to Anina's bakery / coffee shop in Goodwood, just north east of Stouffville.

I was contemplating on going with the Intermediate B group on the way home, but thought I could hang in there and just stay within myself.

Sure enough as we're heading down York-Durham Line the attacks start.  Great!  I thought.  I'm gonna be riding with the B group, but riders soon could not match the speed of the attacks and I began to rally the splintered bunch to work together to get us (and more importantly me) home.

Glad the guys came to their senses.  But it was more for my benefit than anything else.

But it was WIN-WIN situation.

I basically had just enough energy from that Apple-Cinamon Pumpkin tart and coffee to get me home.  And the 2nd Lara bar for the inbound ride.

The coffee shop is awesome.  And that's just the pic of the tarts.  There were cookies and other goodies the the left.  I was thinking of getting a sausage roll, but I was a little worried for my stomach on the return ride.

I wished I had taken a photo of all the cyclists and their bikes, especially the ones hanging from the lowest branch of this large tree.  Not just from our group but others that ride in the area.

Well we beat the Advanced B group to the coffee shop.  Thanks in part to two mechanical problems with 1 person in their group.  (We had one too, early in the ride, back in the city).  And we beat the Advanced B group home.  By quite a bit.  But we left early too.

We avg 27.5 kph going out.  And a 30.8 kph coming back.

No wonder my quads were screaming.  My round trip was going to be around 150km, so I did 6 loops of High Park circle to get me to the Century mark.  My legs were done, but I did what I could to get there. Who knows when I'll get there again.

I was happy and so was my mouth from the tarts.

But my legs weren't.

It all evened out.

Not sure how Tereza did the 225+km RTCC.  Especially in the rain. And on a hybrid!  Kudos to her!