Proving I’m Still Capable: Long Bike Ride

Hubby and I set out to go for a bike ride but ended up going a lot farther than we had planned! Once we got out there on the trail we realized how much we had missed those long bike rides—so we just kept going! We got to a stopping point and realized we were only 2 miles from the next town over, it’s been a goal of ours to make it that far since we started biking—so we just kept going again!

Overall, we biked 21.43 miles in 2:49:56. We stopped here and there to rest and hydrate. I was THRILLED with my 1481 calorie burn!!

I love taking pictures on our bike rides. I was trying to find glimpses of fall, but I think it’s a little bit too early yet! I did find a few signs of fall though!

This is what you see in rural Iowa right now—Harvest time! It’s hard to see—but we’re all about John Deere around here.

This is a tough trail—it’s all pebbles, grown over with weeds and very rocky at some points!

Hubby:

Me:

I saw this written in the pavement…Chickenman. lol

Us:

There was a lot of damage to this path from the wind storm we had this summer. They basically just cleared the trail and pushed all of the dead trees off to the side. We noticed they had built a new bridge and looked down and saw why!

Must have gotten blown over.

It’s hard to tell in this picture, but this tree must have gotten blown over in the storm, but it held on tight because it took all of the earth beneath it with it! This was a huge chunk of ground with a big drop on the other side, didn’t want to get too close to that!

I love how this picture turned out:

And then we made it to the goal town and decided instead of turning around, we would take the highway back. It’d be easier, right? WRONG! It had MAJOR hills! I had to get off my bike a couple of times and walk up them. And I felt like such a failure. I wanted to cry. I could tell my endurance wasn’t as good as it was earlier this summer. But I don’t usually bike hills, so I told myself to just calm down.

A much flatter part of the road:

Once we got closer to home we took a gravel road—with lots more hills. Yay! And when I got off my bike to walk up one of the hills, I fell down, hitting my hands on the gravel. Ouch! lol. Wow—I don’t know if it was because I was so incredibly tired or I’m just a klutz. Probably a little of both! Hubby and I couldn’t help but just laugh. I didn’t think I would make it home. This was the hardest ride we have even been on. Not the farthest distance, just a lot more hilly than usual!! But an awesome workout. Even if I had to walk up a few hills—I completed 21.43 miles and that counts for something!!

Sorry the pictures are just kind of random—but it’s a good idea of what fall looks like around here. I’ve taken pictures of this same trail in the spring and summer. Quite a difference it makes!

Here we are when we got home. Can you tell I’m tired?