My First Half Century Bike Ride

Yesterday afternoon I decided to hop on my bike and just go riding. This was the first weekend day in a long time where we had no family plans and I just needed to be home for dinner.

Off I went.

I had no map, no real goal, just ride at my own pace and enjoy the day. I went south toward South Carolina and the first ten miles was on a busy road that I didn’t like at all, but after that, I hit some nice backroads where I could relax and look at the scenery. Here are a few photos from the ride and all photos taken with an iPhone XS:

I’ve been riding mountain bikes a lot lately so I assumed my legs would be fine but what I didn’t realize is how painful it would be on the other body parts. After an hour and half my feet started hurting. I don’t know if it’s my shoes or my clipless pedals, or what, but I had to stop and take a break and they then stopped hurting for a while, only to have the pain come back.

If you are interested here is the Strava ride that shows the loop I made and all the details. I wasn’t trying to break any speed records and my bike is slow with the tires it has. I plan to change those this winter.

All in all, it was a fun trip and I hope to do even bigger rides now that the weather is turning cooler. I do dream of riding a century on all gravel roads or roads that are so backwoods you don’t see a car all day. Now that would be bliss.