One tough day: Check!

Wow. I was just humbled by the same roads that I ride every week....I've just never ridden them for 200k in succession. Sweet baby Jesus that was hard.

I would compare the Horribly Hilly Hundreds route most similarly to the Blue Ridge Parkway ride in North Carolina--absolutely leg shattering climbs that leave you wasted after 100 miles. Although the climbs are shorter, the steep grade of the hills you normally ride west of Madison will suck all the energy from your legs when ridden time and time again.

Near the end of the ride, I had blasted through a solid amount of food--4 nature valley bars, 2 heed bottles, some coffee, 1 bag of trailmix, and a ton of water. Given that I had prepared for this ride on Thursday and Friday by eating up well, I thought I would be fine....not! The last 80k of this ride is pretty desolate, and with the lack of gas stations came the lack of food and energy.

Fred and I hit the wall at pretty much the same time, about 6 hours into the epic. I would say Fred looked something like this:

Yeah, that's Floyd bonking on stage 16 of this years TDF

I think I looked more like a giant red popsicle dressed up in my winter gear for the 40 degree cloudy ride, but hey, Fred did wear some yellow....either way, the last 3k up Mounds Park Road was just about as painful as it gets. I even had my panties on (literally, Nick) and suffered in my 27t gear. Luckily, the pain subsided by the grace of 2 oatmeal cream pies back in Blue Mound.

Saved by the little debbie, yet again.

I'm trusting all the 100+ mile rides for the rest of base will feel easy now. Or I'll just feel like I got hit by a truck for the next 3 days. I'll get back to you on that one!