Went out for my longest solo ride ever. I did four hours alone. I’ve done four hour rides quite often but always in a group. It was very different to such a long ride alone. Very quiet – thank goodness for a well-stocked iPod with some excellent podcasts. Funny the time seemed to pass very quickly. Almost seemed to pass more quickly than a standard two hour ride.

Checked out a new-to-me road out here in Lakefield. I hopped on Country Rd. 6 and then took a right turn on to County Rd. 44. 44 is a fun little road. Twisty. Rolling. Very little traffic. There are a few dogs but all in all, a good little road. Unfortunately it ends at Highway 7 – not a cyclist-friendly road. I doubled back on the 44 and turned right back onto the 6. I rode the 6 until it ended at some kind of quarry. Turned around to face a headwind and made my way back into Lakefield and then through the town and out the other side on the way to Peterborough for a few extra minutes.

Ride ended with four hours and 43 seconds of riding time. Perfect. Luckily it wasn’t that hot so I was able to get away with my two water bottles. Nice to get the ride down before noon as well. Sometimes these long rides can take over the day and before you know it, it’s the late afternoon.

Chilling out here in Lakefield. Wandered over to the flea market with my mom and then we went downtown to walk along the river. Perfect for some recovery from such a ride. I must admit my quads are a bit angry right now. The one thing about the riding around here is that it is much more rolling than I’m used to when riding from Barrhaven. Most of the hills are just little kickers but there are a couple that leave me weazing for a few minutes and cursing their steepness and length. But as the saying goes “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”.

And considering my post from Saturday when I wrote about committing to challenging myself on each and every ride and really focusing – these hills were just what I needed to test my mettle. I did go out with Marc yesterday but when it was time for his intervals, he took a different route. I’m pretty happy to report that I was able to ride side-by-side with him though – we were both in our “endurance” zones – I flitted between the top of this endurance zone and my tempo zone the entire time. In past rides, Marc would have dropped me on every climb because I would have looked at my power numbers and backed off. Not this time, I stuck with him on every climb. I’m pretty happy about this.

A good couple of rides on this fine Easter weekend. Tomorrow is a rest day so I’ll just do some yoga and give the legs a break. The rest of the week is pretty well stacked with a couple of three hour rides, a three and half hour ride, some tempo intervals, sprint intervals and the four hour group ride on Sunday. Pretty darn good week if you ask me.

Stopped in at Wild Rock Outfitters yesterday – many thanks for the map and advice on where to ride.

Alright, time to get off this computer and read my book. Loving Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson – highly recommend this book.