OVERDOING IT

150 kms | 5 h 26 m | avg speed 27.6 km/h | avg hr 152 bpm | 3.081 kcal

I totally super estimated  my fitness condition today and under estimated the wind strength. I overdone in the distance riding 150 kms, which is the first time over 80 kms since the Etape in mid July. And the headwind and cross winds didn’t  help. But good raining nevertherless.

Hoje eu superestimei minha condição física e subestimei a força do vento. Eu fui além do que devia na distância fazendo 150 kms, a primeira vez que passeio dos 80 kms desde a Etapa em Julho. E a força do vento contra e cruzado não ajudou muito. Mas afinal foi um bom treino.

The idea of the day was to get a steady zone 3 ride and do a loop in a new route. I chose to take the road to Schoonhoven (photo above) and follow the river Linge in the direction of Tiel. The ride into Schoonhoven was nice and quick, pushing 32 kms/h in the cross wind. In there I cross the river by Ferry and then I got quite some tail wind for more or less 15 kms. It was fantastic to be riding 40 kms/h with little effort.

The ride to Tiel is cool. Mostly on top of the dike and nice views and nice turns to keep it interesting. Even with a cloudy weather the rain hold for most of the time and I only got  little showers. The wind was mostly cross and I enjoyed the feeling of keeping the pressure to maintain the speed.

Just a little after Waardenburg, I turned left and the fun stopped. The tailwind that was fun a little before turned into a constant headwind. Speed went down immediately to 28 km/h and it was a long drag to home. The original idea was to hit Wijk bij Duurstede and got on top of the dike over the river Lek, with more or less 40 kms/h to go home. But the wind was too strong and I decided to go thru the roads from the inside. I took the road to Odijk and straight Utrecht.

Right at the end I got some cramps but managed to control it to be able to get home. Good ride to keep the fitness back up. Now back to the gym…