Too hard.

I have been maintaining a low level of fitness for the last several months. I haven't put in too many weekly hours, but I'm sort of maintaining.

Brady sent me a text last night to inform me of a 70 miler happening at noon today.  I knew my legs don't have 70 miles in them right now.  But I figured what I always do:  I'm not going to get into better shape by NOT going on rides.

While this is true to a point, I think I would have been better off going with my original plan for today.  40-50 miles somewhere.

But no.  I went on the long one.  At no point was it really a "hard ride."  The pace was mellow and easily manageable.  I was set at ease and figured I could surely handle this pace for 70 miles.  But my current conditioning level said otherwise.

It's funny because I was fine for 50 miles.  A distance I feel confident I can cover.  After 50, the wheels started falling off.

By the time I was 3 miles from my home, all I could think about was the scene in "The Big Chill" where Glenn Close is in the fetal position, weeping in the shower.  I knew it would be about 15 minutes before I was doing the same.

As it turned out, once I got home I collapsed in the floor for a while.  I didn't have the strength to cry in the shower yet.

Another funny thing to note.  I did not bonk.  I can now say I understand the difference. If I would have really really wanted to, I could have made tiny little hard efforts at the end of the ride.

I bonked last winter during a long gravel ride.  As excruciating as the end of today's ride was, I'll take it over not being able to turn the pedals at all anymore.

I may reap some benefit from today's ride, but I don't think it was wise.  Perhaps it was even counterproductive.

Another thing I noticed is that I didn't replace fluids enough.  I think this is related to riding in the cold.  Today's experience may have been much less brutal if I'd forced myself to drink more.  You don't feel like you're losing sweat when it's cold out, but I lost 6 pounds on the ride.  "Aha" I thought as I stepped off the scale shaking my head at my own stupidity.  Even in the summer, I will typically never lose more than 2 pounds on a ride.

But damn, it was a nice day for a bike ride.  Plus, Rafal was there. So there's that.