Ride Report - Palmer -> Millis, MA

The whole point of yesterday's and today's ride was to serve as a dry run for the tour. To that end, one of the requirements was to sleep on my sleeping pad & bag to see how my body reacted. Would it be sore, how sore, etc.

When I woke up, I was a little sore, but nothing sitting and stretching didn't fix (a pleasant surprise). I packed up, had half a powerbar for breakfast, mixed my energy drinks, and headed out early.

When planning these rides, I had plotted a alternative route home, so I was able to avoid most of route 20. The price? A rather long hill climb and descent. (see below).

From Map My Ride

Normally, I thrive on hill/descent combinations, however on this ride I was unable to truly enjoy them. Where I spent the night had a rather steep driveway. So steep in fact the driveway had a switchback. First thing in the morning, with cold legs, I picked too large a gear and forced my way up that hill. A decision my right knee did not appreciate. So from hour one on my knee complained every time it was asked to do any real effort. This meant I had to ascend in extremely low gears and coast on every descent. At one point, it was so bad I unclipped my right shoe and one leg pedaled to get some fluidity in my pedaling.

On the bright side, after hour three or so the babying and stretching paid off the knee was nearly 60%. In other words, I was able to pedal normally in the midrange (large gears were still out) and served as confirmation that this pain was not a warning of serious damage.

Distance:  64.77 miles
Ave Speed: 12.6 mph
Max Speed: 37.9 mph
Time: 5 hours 7 minutes 49 seconds