I have no idea what got me out of bed this morning. If I had a bit of an instinct of self preservation I would have done the right thing and stayed in bed. Today's ride was brutal... but still enjoyable.

It started last night. I accidentally ended up hitting a bar and drinking five pints. I figured I was carb loading. 1000 calories, almost all from carbs. Over 1/3 of my caloric intake for the day. I was in pretty bad shape when I got home. I tried blogging. Thankfully I passed out in the middle of the post, much before I could hit the publish button. That was at 3am. I woke up at 7.

Today's route was actually scheduled to be 87k, and took a route to Musselman's Lake and back. It would have been very enjoyable if it weren't for the rain. It never let up for the entire ride. There were times near the halfway point where it was pouring. I started off reasonably dry, but after about 10 minutes that was it.

I stopped by Julie's house on the way back to see if there was anything to snack on. She had just made some chicken and potatoes when I got there. Perfect timing. It was so hard to get out of the warm, dry house, put my wet socks back on and ride the last 20k. So hard. But I caught back up to a few riders who I had left the break stop at the same time as.

It was a nice route, going through Unionville during a street festival. I'll definitely do that ride again, however I would avoid riding down Kennedy near Steeles. It's absolutely brutal. There's a simple alternate that would have worked much better.

I also split off from a bunch of riders who weren't following the route exactly. I'm a map geek, and even though I disagreed with some routing I stuck with it. I tried to reason why they should go the way it was marked, but they figured it was shorter to continue the way they were (which was true). I had something to prove, so even though I had an extra 2k, I rode my heart out to try and beat them there. I got there at exactly the same time. Maybe next time...

I had no HRM today, and my speedo was on the fritz, so the only stats I have are from my GPS.

Distance: 89.2 km
Time: 3:36
Actual time: 4:22
Average speed: 24.7 km/h
Max speed: 53.9 km/h
Total ascent: 960 ft

Speed was down, and I know my heart rate was much lower too. I paced myself a little better. I still had some serious lactic acid pain when I stopped to eat and at the end, but I was in much better shape than I was last week. I think with a proper night of sleep and maybe a bit less of a hangover, I should be in pretty good shape for next week.

Now I just hope I can revive my phone. I thought my Camelbak was waterproof, and now my phone is dead. It didn't even die when I took it out of my bag, I was using it fine, and then nothing. Bummer.