Today was a good day. I decided to ride the Burke-Gilman trail and aim for about 40 miles. My left leg was hurting a little bit at first but the pain went away after about 5 miles or so. I was feeling good so at 20 miles decided to do 5 more to make the total 50 miles. I actually thought about doing a loop around Lake Washington and then come back on the I-90 Bridge which has a guarded bike lane, but I didn't bring a map of the best roads to take to get there so I came back the same way instead. At the 25 mile mark I rested, stretched for a couple of minutes, and drank my first sips of water - actually about half of a water bottle. I also sprayed some on my head. A few minutes later, already heading back, I ate a carbohydrate gel pack which helped out a lot.

I thought I would easily come back in under 3 hours. 2 hours would average out to 25 mph, which I know was impossible based on my previous rides. It took me 1:27:40 to get to the half-way point (Lap 1 is apparently not showing up on the map but it's at the end of the path line on the right side). I thought I could go back a lot faster for some reason and maybe hit 2:45. But alas, I just barely made 50 miles in under 3 hours. I hit the Lap 2 button on my watch with approximately 30 seconds left. Lap 2 was clocked in at 1:31:45, but it included the rest I took, so I think my time was almost exactly the same both ways. The total distance of the bike ride was 50.6mi because I took a slightly longer way to come back by the Fremont Bridge.

I'm actually pretty happy with the overall results because I tried my best to get under 3 hours once I knew it would be hard to even make that time. The last 8 miles or so were pretty difficult - my muscles started to crack up. My average speed was 16.4mph which I think is my best so far. I know I could do 20mph, the problem is the path along the Burke-Gilman trail: many stop and yield signs for cross car traffic and occasionally quite bumpy. I actually go a lot faster on regular car roads - for example the road that goes by the wineries towards the half-way point once the bike trail ends. Still, it might be doable if I take more risks, but at this point my thinking is it's not worth it.

By the way, I don't get a reading for the approximate amount of calories for bike rides because I have the older Garmin Forerunner (201). The new Forerunner 301 has separate readings for running and biking, and includes heart rate data as well.

Total: 50.6m Bike; ??? cal.; 143lb. after workout