I haven't done any rides longer than my 23km commute in the mornings since I got back from the Gold Coast trip at the end of September, as far as I remember.

This morning I set out with the idea of riding my old favourite route towards Bulahdelah and turn around for a 120km ride. I thought that riding fairly regularly in the mornings and having lost a bit of weight since September (6kgs), the 120kms would be easy and, in fact, I was secretly going to aim for my maiden imperial century (160km ride).

Well, how wrong was I. My knees have been taking strain ever since I had the cleats on a couple of weeks ago, but my morning rides are never long enough that it would bother me much. Well, by 35kms my knees were hurting, my lower back and butt were hurting and my legs were burning a little, almost like lactic acid build up. I'm making it sound worse than it was... I wasn't seriously suffering, but I was not enoying the ride at all.

Turned around and had a 68km ride in total. Not great, but it just shows that I should put more effort into longer rides. I adjusted my seat hegiht numerous times during the ride and may have found a better height towards the end, so I'll see on the next ride. I was also happy that I cycled up the final hill coming back toward my house, which I've walked up on (I think) every ride prior to this:)
So next weekend I'll take on the open road again, possibly with a sleep-over on the Saturday night.