Jon picked me up today at 6am. We drove to Polk City and jumped on the Gen. James A. Van Fleet State Trail. The trail is just under 30 miles long. Our goal was to go half way and come back. It was a really nice morning. There were only a very few others out as we hit the trail around 6:40 am. There were tons of bunnies hopping along as we rode. The first 15 miles weren’t too bad. We stopped for a moment at the 15 mile mark to stretch and get a short rest. Stopping wasn’t the best idea though. There were millions of mosquitoes ready to feast and a horse fly that seemed like it wanted to eat Jon alive. So we quickly jumped on our bikes and started riding back.

We reached the 20 mile point and still felt pretty good. Until then, 20 miles was the longest I’d ever ridden (which was accomplished this past Monday). At about 22 miles we started to feel tired. The heat was rising and fatigue was showing it’s face. At 27 miles we knew we only had the equivilant to one more lap around Lake Hollingsworth. Finally at 28.5 miles I just went all out peddaling hard. I got up to about 20.5 mph. I wanted to see how long I could sustain it. I dropped back to about 17 mph for the last mile and finally we were done. 30 miles! We did it. I felt exhausted but great. Our average speed was right at 16 mph. I felt that was an accomplishment of it’s own, to average 16 mph over 30 miles. We came in just under 2 hours and not a moment too soon. By this time the heat was starting to pack a punch. We grabbed a couple Gatorades and headed back to Lakeland. Whew!

Now our goal is to be able to do the WHOLE thing, there and back, by the end of this year. I’d say that’s do-able, especially since about a year ago I was ready to throw up after riding 6 miles.