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I have been riding my bike a lot this summer to start training for a half century (50 miles). One of the training rides I did this past weekend at the Eat A Peach Challenge. I only attempted the 33 mile route, and it was a challenge. I wasn’t dog tired at the end, but I felt it. I probably had 40 miles in me, but I was leaking energy slowly that it could be a problem.

Anyway, I finished 34 miles in 2 hours 30 minutes roughly. That’s time on the bike, but in reality it was about 3.5 hours total. I don’t know where that extra hour came from because I know at the two rest stops I did not take more than 15 minutes each sometimes less.

While I was getting ready in the parking lot, the cyclist next to me said that it was a good day for the challenge, because it was cool. I thought it was going to be too cold so I brought my arm warmers and jacket just in case. When I saw everyone riding in just jerseys, I thought I should follow suit. It wasn’t cold, because the exercise warmed me up.

I asked this cyclist also how hilly the course is. He asked from which direction I drove in that morning. I told him 140, and he just said you missed the hill. O, boy I couldn’t wait to see what he was talking about.

Later on in the ride at the first rest stop I ask the same question from a fellow rider. He had ridden the course in years past including the 67 mile route. He was riding this year’s challenge’s 33 mile route, because he was slightly out of shape. He tells me its “rolling hills,” but save some energy for the last miles with the hill being a particular nasty one.

The first thing out of the parking lot is a hill. According to the cue sheet, it is only 0.3 miles long. I ride easily through it my heart rate not going about 165. That’s easy, but I still have a long way to go.

Now the course is laid out in Carroll County, Md. The county has some nice asphalt which makes you fly. In the early part, I was cranking out 21 miles per hour. I think I should’ve held back some of that in reserve for the hill, but don’t.

The first few miles go by on a quiet country back lane called Salem Bottom Rd. I reach my max speed here, 38 mph. Of course it was going downhill fast which I love, yet realize that what goes down has to go up.

The route also traverses Liberty Rd. If you’ve been on route 26, then you know that the posted speed limit is 55 mph. I don’t even come near that because I spy up ahead a hill. I have to ride up that?! No, but the turn off runs you right into a hill that dropped my chain and is steep. I make it up it with no problems once the chain is back on. Hey, this could be an easy day.

At the top I get lost. I lose my way twice that day.

The rest of the mile flow nice and smooth. There’s a good flat bit that runs through farmlands and is serene and quiet. I liked it until it was time to head north and home to the car.

Going north every time you cross a street, the road went up. The first hill I blaze through it. Not bad, but this time my heart rates hitting 170s.

The next hill is long. I would guess a mile or more at a nice steady pace. I unclip and walk the bike a ways and rest some. I make it up this one on the bike, but only after the rest.

The next hill comes and I get halfway up again. I am gulping air. I stop and walk the rest of the way.

A smaller hill kills me, but I spin up it at 5 mph. I shift gears at the top and spin away, but only at 7 mph. Around this time at the 25 mile mark I feel my legs running out of gas. I begin to watch the odometer thinking of how much more I have to go.

THE HILL: Kate Wagner Rd. It is on the opposite of a steep downhill. If you have enough speed you can coast partway up on momentum. Unfortunately, there’s a light at the bottom. I don’t make the light.

I sit there with another cyclist waiting for the light to change. It goes green and the other guy goes. I stand up on my cranks and realize that I hadn’t changed gears I am still on the big gears. It becomes a struggle on the flat at the doorstep of the hill.

This thing is killing me. I struggle to get the gears to change. They finally do, and I begin to spin up the hill. A quarter of the way up, I attempt to change to my granny gear (Thank god for triple chainrings!) only to find that I was in my lowest gears from the start. I’m cooked. I walk the bike the rest of the way up.

Finally, I spin for home feeling it in my legs. I follow some lady who was portly but she keeps me in a safe distance away.

I get the feeling that I need to do some training for the ride in September.