Mmmmm chewy

As mentioned yesterday I had a long ride this morning. A loooong ride, about 200km worth. Always a tough session, mentally and physically. It doesn't seem to matter how conservative I am or careful I am with pacing, I always finish this sort of ride absolutely shattered. Something about being in the saddle for that long I think.

A ride this long has a number of challenges. You have to give some thought to things like where you will refill your water etc. But the biggest challenge with a ride like this is finding somewhere that you can ride for that long without going insane. To that end I thought I would try something different today and go and have a look at the cycleway that runs alongside Roe Highway, which is a major road here in Perth. I have been aware of the cycleway for sometime and have been meaning to go and look at it for almost as long, but have never really got around to it. I thought the ride today would be a perfect opportunity.

I was quite impressed, it is a good surface without feeling like you are in the middle of nowhere. It would be nice if it was a bit longer, but as it is you can get about 15 to 20km of uninterrupted cycling before running out of road and have to turn around. I liked it so much this morning that I did it twice. That got me about 100km and then I headed down the Freeway cycleway to pick up the rest. I wont lie, it wasn't exactly an exciting ride. But still there is something special about getting to the end of a ride that long. You know you have put some serious dollars in the bank.

Plus got some hardcore tan lines.

I was suffering by the end though. I got to the point where I was so desperate for carbs that I ate some gu that I found dried up on the inside of my bento box. Mmmmm chewy.

This afternoon I just had a nice easy recovery swim, which I headed down to the river for. It has been a pretty cool day down here in Perth and so it wasn't exactly nice swimming weather. Still it was quite pleasant in, even if I was shivering as soon as I was out. Still it was good to get down there and work out some of the kinks from this morning.

Bone tired now though so I think I am going to go and crawl into bed. I need to get up in the morning so I can jump on the bike...