25 Miles. Wow!
We finally got back out on the bikes this weekend after being away for three weeks (travel and Ren Fest got in the way). We tried to get out on the W & OD Trail yesterday, but were hampered by the fact that everyone else in the Universe thought it was the perfect day to get out on the trail, too. We ended up biking close to home, and only did about 5.5 miles.
Today, however, we loaded the bikes on the car and drove up to Andrew’s work in Herndon (this is fast becoming my favorite place to bike from, since there are usually relatively few people on the trail up there). I tried to push myself on our way out, pedalling hard on the down-slopes when we could have just coasted, and trying not to slow down as much on the up-slopes. I was actually tired when we reached the little country shop in Ashburn (8.75 miles from our start point), but wanted to try for our 25-mile goal. After some orange juice and half a candy bar, we decided to push on. We turned around and 12.5 miles almost exactly (though it was hard to tell, because my wheel had been spinning when we drove up to our start point, so there was already ~1.25 miles on my computer when we started the ride).
The quarry pictured on the right was past our furthest one-way trek of 10 miles, so we stopped at the overlook. The silo is actually something we’ve seen on our other trips out of Herndon, and I’d meant to stop for a picture several times, but only managed it this time.
25 miles is really pushing my abilities at this point. I trust that next year it will become routine, but as for today, there were times I wasn’t sure we were going to make it. My thoughts roller-coastered along with the terrain: when we were on an up-slope I was sure we weren’t going to make it, on a down-slope I wondered why I thought 25 miles was so hard. Anyway, my goal has been made. Yay me!