My first century ride! Believe it or not I have never ridden a century, let alone with a fully packed bike. Unfortunately it wasn’t exactly planned! Today’s ride was suppose to be 81 miles and 2600 ft of climbing to Superior Arizona. And it started terrifically, I used Google maps to map the route and for the first 35 miles it was amazing, all bike paths and only a few spots of road that had dedicated bike lanes. Really nice: great job Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe, and Mesa! I stopped for a terrific ice cream shake and the guy serving me gave me a sample jar of CBD cream when he heard about my recent knee surgery. I’m excited to see how well it works! Really nice experience.
Then things took a turn for the worse unfortunately. Google maps decided to take back all the good that it gave me in the morning and put me on a road that got progressively worse and worse until the pavement ended. Yet Google maps was convinced there was a path to the highway a few more miles down. There wasn’t and I had to turn around. All in all it added about 20 miles of extra riding which was unexpected but I was in the right mindset and my body felt good so no problem. It’s a little funny, last night when I went to bed I was starting to have a few doubts creep into my head: will have a break down in a remote location; am I crazy for wanting to do this; those kind of things. I guess that is normal, but it was the first time they popped in my head. Today though I felt really good and even when the route was extended I was in a great mindset. I think each day and each mile is opening up my mind to what more I can achieve.
Tonight in the tiny town of Superior, had a fantastic meal of chicken Alfredo, homemade bread, and a salad, and of course some medicinal beer for my back. Tomorrow is a shorter day, just 25 miles but over 3000 vertical feet of climbing. Should be pretty reasonable and I will have a nice stay in globe Arizona.
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