What a day for a ride!!!

It was so beautiful out today! Temps were around 55 when I left and pushing 75 when I finished. 50 miles today. My longest this year. Next week is the Community Classic Metric Century Feeling a little more confidant after today's ride but I'm guessing it won't be a piece of cake.

I started out this morning feeling a little icky..the tummy was just not feeling it but by mile 6 I was feeling fine. Mile 9 I stopped to answer a text and really had to pee but knew it would be some time before I found a restroom. I was headed to Golden which is a really nice ride. It was great when I hit mile 12 and left the bike path for awhile. Parts of the trail are pretty rough and its nice get on the road for a while.

After a little gradual climbing I headed down into Golden and at mile 16 finally found a bathroom. Golden is great little town and home of the Coors Brewery and Colorado School of Mines. They have made the path through Golden really very cool with many brass statues, parks, places to play in the river and if your really lucky girls you show up when the search and rescue is practicing with the kayaks....its a great view. :) Main street has a great coffee shop, some restaurants and cute shops.

I found as I hit what I thought was the end of the line that they had extended the path and I followed it for awhile and ended up, after quite a steep short climb, at the base of Lookout mountain which is the climb I'm really worried about in the century ride I will be doing in June.

Looking up at the M, I'm no less worried. If you click on the pic and make it bigger you can see the road. I turned around here and headed back down into Golden.

Just after taking this picture I decided that I could hold on to my camera, clip in and take off...on a hill...not gonna happen and I fell over, yep fell over. I also got up...quickly...and was very luck to find no one around. I came away with a crooked saddle, a scraped elbow and calf that some how got skinned up on the gears.

After climbing back out of Golden it was all downhill and at mile 19 I saw little tiny snake that just gave me the willies. The rest of the ride I've done many times and has lost most of it's excitement. It was so beautiful out though that the time went pretty fast. At mile 29 I passed another snake a little bit bigger then the last one. And I spent many of the next miles wondering how big the snakes at miles 39 and 49 would be. Thank goodness there were no more. My legs felt good, there were a few miles just after the 40 mark that I got a little tired but that soon went away and before I knew it I was done.

49.85 miles (50 on my bike)
3:38 riding time
13.67 average
2011 ft climbing

Up for tomorrow...a long run and hopefully I can get my butt to the pool too.