I went on a 7 hour ride yesterday and it felt great. I got a flat in my rear tire around 25 miles into the ride. A small rock had worked its way through my tire casing. I booted the tire with a powerbar wrapper and inflated the tube with CO2.
The weather was gorgeous and sunny, but I still wore my rain gear, all this melting has left plenty of water on the roads. I stopped for a quick lunch at Subway and the food sat in my stomach for an hour refusing to digest...
I was mostly following the Reston Century route, but I skipped a loop out near Hillsboro, and then had to find my way home. The route jumps onto the W&OD trail around Purcellvile and its a straight shot back to Reston. The trail was still snow covered and impassable with my 700x23c tires. I zig-zagged around the countryside, basically heading east. I got on Sycolin road, which seemed to parallel the Dulles Greenway. The only problem is that Sycolin turns into a dirt road then is paved for a short stretch(over the Greenway) and then its back to dirt until just before you hit Belmont Ridge Rd. When I hit Belmont, the light was fading and I figured I had to get someplace close to my house where my wife could easily find me. I was able to make it to an Ice Skating Rink across the road from where she used to work(it was well after dark by then).
My neck is a little sore from holding up my helmet, I think I'm going to switch back to my older helmet. Its a good bit heavier and should make the newer helmet feel lighter during the 24 Hour TT. My legs feel fine, and other than the Subway SNAFU, my nutrition and hydration plans seemed to work pretty well.
