As mentioned in yesterday’s blog, I did my long bike ride outside this afternoon.  The weather turned out as forecasted, so early afternoon I left home on my bike.  It was my first ride outside since November.  I was so excited.

For this ride, I chose a familiar route to the north of my house.  My ride was scheduled to be an endurance ride, with no hard intervals. Even so, my coach did suggest that I pick a hilly route, which was quite easy to do, here in western Pennsylvania.

The first part of my ride went quite well.  I find that riding outside is so much more fun than riding the trainer.  The feeling of the air rushing by my body, was something I missed. 

Half way through my 3 hour plus ride, I stopped for a quick break.  I stopped at a small church, that I have passed many times before.  It is located in the middle of farmland, well away from any villages.  I took a few photographs and ate some rice cakes, to keep up with my nutritional needs.

The second half of my ride was very different from the first.  Soon after getting going again, I started to feel very fatigued.  I also was aware of a headache building up.  I felt so bad, that I changed my original route, and headed for home.  It was a long hard slog, with much of it into the wind.  I was tired and my head was really hurting.

Eventually, I made it safely home.  What had started out so good, ended up being very tough.  Usually when I have this kind of ride, I try to look back and figure out what may have happened to cause my fatigue.  In this case, it was very easy.  I had received my second Covid vaccine shot yesterday.  Clearly, I was feeling some side effects from that.

All in all though, it was good to get back outside for a long bike ride.  I can’t complain about being outside before April.  I’m sure future rides will be much, much better.