My longest single-day bike ride

Yesterday was a tough day, even though that wasn’t the plan at all. It was a holiday and the weather was perfect, so I figured I might as well go for a bike ride. What else was I going to do…

I checked the wind direction; it was coming from the southeast, so I figured I should head northwest. I planned a route from Braunschweig via Gifhorn to Celle. From Celle, I could have taken the train home; it would have taken two hours. The naive thought that it would only take three hours by bike led me to decide to make the return trip under my own power as well. Added to this was the perhaps overly ambitious goal of wanting to ride over 100 kilometers and the fact that the stores were closed for the holiday.

In the end, I rode 136 km, 60 of which on the return trip were almost entirely against a 10 km/h headwind. I drank quite a bit, but I ate far too little. The return trip in particular, especially once I was already a good distance out of Celle, was physically, but also mentally, very difficult at times.

My average speed kept dropping, and my strength was noticeably waning. I had still felt fine back in Celle itself.

Then last night I could barely sleep because I was so warm the whole time and felt pretty wired. Some research found that this was likely due to all the cortisol from overexertion and insufficient calorie and electrolyte intake.

Well, I’m still proud of the longest tour I ever rode in one day, and I’ve also learned from my mistakes. On my next big tour, I’ll be really strict about getting enough food and will eat even when I’m not necessarily hungry. And if a headwind threatens, maybe I’ll swallow my pride and just take the train home.

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