Paris III/2011 and Caesar's Head

Sooooooo.... Yesterday, I did my longest ride yet.... A little over 70 miles.... And a couple of thousand feet of climbing.

I started things off with a ride up Paris Mountain. All the way up to the antennas. Up there I snapped a couple of pictures and then zoomed down the mountain again, to meet up my training partner for Mitchell at Furman. This was the 3rd climb up Paris this year, but now that it's finally daylight savings time, I am hoping to get that climb in during the week sometimes as well.

The second portion of the ride was with my training partner and we had our eyes set on an out and back from Furman up Caesar's Head. Most of the ride was on roads that I have never cycled on before and that's always fun and makes time pass so fast, because there is always something to discover... Like this, for example:

That's an old church (I assume) flooded in a lake.

The climb up Caesar's Head is six miles. The first 3 miles were decent, mile 4 was a little of a flat and gave you a little breather and the last two miles, I felt like I have to hurl any second. It made me question doing Mitchell... Quite a lot. When I got to the Caesar's Head State Parking Lot, I sat down in the shade for a little while before refilling my bottles. And then I got me a coke and a bag of Cheetos... After having SportsBeans and GU Chomps for the ride so far, I just needed something salty. My stomach was seriously peed off at me when I got up there, but the coke and chips really worked like a charm. The climb took me around 55 minutes and it took us 17 minutes to get back down... I am such a chicken on downhills, but it seems like I am also getting better at that.

The way back to Furman was uneventful, the miles just ticked away like nothing and when it was all said and done and I was back home, I felt like I could have a gone a while longer. I definitely think, that my nutrition helped a lot with how I felt this time around. I had more calories for breakfast and ate constantly during the first half. If anything, I might ate a little too much before the Caesar's Head climb... Therefore the upset stomach stuff. But, I think I am on the right way with this eating while on the bike, so I have enough juice in the end.

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This morning, we spend several hours cleaning the house, so when we were finally done, Terry headed out for a ride and I got myself a little frozen yogurt treat. When I was done, I gave the itsy bitsy leftovers to the dog.... That kept her entertained for over 10 minutes! ;-)

Now some time for yoga!