TNT Training Ride: Poolesville, MD

Ugh. With only 3 hours of sleep, getting up was hard, and it definitely affected how I felt when I rode--more sleep would be better. Especially with the hills--the first 26 miles were rolling hills (many were the same rolling hills we did in Germantown, since Germantown and Poolesville are so close that they're practically the same area).

First SAG stop, which was on a relatively flat stretch of road. So I was feeling good at that point--as long as the road stayed like that, I would've been OK for the rest of the ride.

Alas.

The next section was appropriately named "The Wall", which was nothing but a steep climb at least three miles long (I may be wrong about the distance, but it definitely felt that long). And we were going an average of 8 miles-per-hour up it. Ugh. It was actually worse than climbing Sugarloaf Mountain--at least we knew that there had to be a summit. On The Wall, I was actually getting angry and shouting "IT JUST DOESN'T STOP!!!"

Then we climbed Sugarloaf, and met up with the ride's Honored Teammate, who is currently going through chemotherapy and just turned 18. We had cake.

The descent was fun, riding my brakes the whole way down was pretty cool.

And then more hills--Chuck and I were groaning every time we crested a hill and saw the next climb on the other side, but I think we were leaning on each other for support by then. Together, we conquered the last of the hills and rode into town tired but strong and victorious.

Statistics:
Bike: Trek 1500
Distance: 55.56mi
Saddle Time: 3h26m31s
Actual Time: 4h
Start Time: 8:45AM
End Time: 12:45PM
Start Outside Temp: 60°F
End Outside Temp: ???
Max Speed: 38.00mph (A NEW PERSONAL RECORD!)
Avg Speed (saddle): 16.1mph
Avg Speed (actual): 13.9mph

Just having someone else with you, suffering the same gruelling climb up one side and sharing the same exhiliarating bomb down the other side is enough to pull/push you, mentally, through the worst. And that's really what all this is about--it isn't about riding a bike around a lake or riding up and down mountains, it's about supporting your teammates, whether they're on the bike next to yours or they're lying in the hospital bed recovering from the life-saving operation that your fundraising paid for.