Day Three Finish

Ok, we've made it to the end of our ride today. We pulled into Mineral, VA, after a 37 mile ride this afternoon for a grand total of five hours in the saddle (today) and 77 miles behind us.

Our distances thus far have been: 54, 62, and 77 miles on the three days of riding.

We hit some pretty fierce wind today; so fierce, that when we crested a particularly large hill (with joy in our hearts and copious amounts of lactic acid in our legs), we were looking forward more eagerly than usual to the downhill coast and respite from the climb.

Too bad I started slowing down.

"What?" says you. Aye, says I. Slowing down. We've posted our top speeds before, so you know that speeds of up to 40MPH are possible on a good downhill. I crested this enormous hill and waited for Will and Matt to catch up to form our paceline (single-file line of riders that helps save energy by letting the lead rider "pull" the others, then rotate to the back to have a rest until it's his turn to pull again; uses around 30% less energy than riding alone in the wind), so I was traveling around 8MPH without pedaling. The wind was horrendous, and we were riding directly into it, so I decided to test the effect the wind had on my non-pedaling speed. Sitting up in my saddle and holding onto my top bars, it slowed me down to 7.5, then 7MPH. Tucking into my aero position and putting my hands in the drops (ram's horn part of the handlebars), I sped back up to 8MPH. Downhill. And a nice grade at that, maybe 10% or so. Then we continued pedaling through that for another 30 miles. See why we burn so many calories?

Speaking of, it's time to round out the calorie count for today.

I didn't drink that shake at lunch, so my total at the beginning of the ride stood at 2400 calories. Along the way, I took in:
220 cal Powerbar
200 cal in sports drink
o cal of Special Atkins Diet Water (really expensive stuff)
...then we finished our ride in Mineral.

Brian pulled up to us in about 30 seconds, and I scarfed down:
900 cal Cyto-Gainer
150 cal Wheat Thins
1/2 pound grapes

...then dinner:
640 cal beef stroganoff
296 cal dinner beverage

...which brings my total calorie count for today to: 4806 calories!

I'm not sure how many calories are in the grapes, so it's probably a little more than that.

Funny thing is: I'll be starving when I wake up in the morning. Really.

Another big day tomorrow; stay tuned. It's off to the sack to rest my weary bones.

At large,
Michael