Yes, both in one ride. Started out with 80 in mind as Mike had to get to work and the time change stole an hour. We started out together as usual, each armed with nuun and a bar and a gel. It was nice out, and I even opted for the tank jersey. Mike took out his PX for the first time to start getting it dialed in since he is racing in a few weeks!
We split for a while, and then met up again for the path along the beach. I mentioned thinking about extending the ride a bit, and he said it might be good. After it (around mile 40) we planned to split for the day so that he could get home and to work soon. We did, and around mile 50 I decided to “not think, just do” as BBB tells me. So at mile 60 I turned around and went back down the path 10 miles to make it about 100 miles total.
But those 10 miles! Headwind, and pretty strong. I was feeling it, and the bar long gone sucked down the gu at 71 as I turned back. The first few miles felt easy and fast, and then the wind changed! So it was more headwind… and too much for me. I called Mike to find out where the nearest convenience store was as I was fading fast. I couldn’t see any from the path, but he knows the area better. Turns out I couldn’t see any since there aren’t any :-/ He had also bonked near the end of his ride and realized I had nothing left with me and had worried, so he wasn’t surprised to get the call, and offered to meet me at the one street the path crosses with whatever I wanted. I was still about 10 miles from it, but it was still 10 miles sooner than I’d get anything if I waited for home, so I took him up on it. I arrived to a smiling face complete with a bagel, coke, nuun, cold water, and gel!
Unfortunately, those 15ish miles of bonking were too much for my gut, and it was not so happy to have food added to the sloshing water, and I called it a day at 92 miles. But I did hydrate better than the last time when I did 101 miles with 2.5ish bottles… this time it was 7 bottles! Oh yeah, it ended up getting WARM! The high at our place was 96 for the day, so I’m sure that played a part in the long hard ride being so tough for me.
Oh and Mike says the bike felt good. Only issue was that the seatpost slipped a bit. But it felt sturdy and handled better than he expected for a TT bike, and he was generally pleased.
Something else Mike didn’t tell me until we were in the car on the way home… the headwind only got stronger the next 7 miles I was facing, and after that turn it wasn’t too bad to home. I’m glad he waited to tell me, since I didn’t let the wind stop my day, but I stopped because, as he said, why keep going at that point? We know the mental part isn’t my weakness…