Today we had our longest ride of the entire trip: 118 miles from Huntington, WV to Paris, KY. We woke up at 4 am and got out on the road as soon as the sun came up around 6 am. On days where we ride over 90 miles we have two lunches so it was nice knowing the day would be broken up into more manageable chunks.
I was riding with Sarah M, Mary, Dalton, Justin, and Stewart. Within 8 miles we crossed into Kentucky and it immediately became hillier. All of a sudden we actually missed West Virginia (never thought we would say that).
We chugged through the first 40 miles at a pretty steady pace to get to first lunch, taking very few breaks (something I would quickly regret). For those of you that know me well, you know I've been struggling with back problems for nearly 10 years now. My back has been fine during the first two weeks of riding, but it decided to rear its ugly head today. I rode into lunch, tears welling in my eyes from pain, and just plopped on to the ground feeling completely defeated. I was so nervous that I wouldn't be able to complete the longest ride with everyone else.
After a few minutes of moping and shoving some ibuprofen down my throat, I decided I would give the next leg my best shot and if it didn't work out I'd just call the van to pick me up. I made myself a delicious peanut butter, Nutella, banana, honey, and pretzel sandwich and shortly after we hit the road.
My riding group was so patient with me as I figured out the best way to cope with my back issues. It actually became like clockwork: after 6 miles my back would start to stiffen up and by 8 miles I would need to break to move around. It ended up working out really nicely since everyone wanted to get out of the saddle and give their butts a break. It didn't even really delay us too much.
By the time we got to second lunch my spirits were up and I was feeling like I could handle just about anything. We cruised through the day pretty easily with only a few small hills to tackle. Around 25 miles out we were slightly delayed when it started thundering, but it soon passed.
We spent the rest of the ride trying to outride impending storms that looked like they could dump on us at any moment. It got a little dicey when the temperature dropped suddenly and we became worried about the potential for tornadoes. Luckily the bad weather stayed behind us and actually worked wonders as a motivator to keep up a good pace into Paris.
Surprisingly the last 10 miles were some of the strongest miles of the entire trip so far. I got an incredible second wind and me, Sarah, and Justin were going well over 25 mph on the flats. When we got to the host around 6 pm I was absolutely overcome with a sense of accomplishment and pure joy. I honestly don't think I've ever experienced an exercise-induced high quite like that. I've been over the moon all night and am excited for our ride to Louisville tomorrow.