"It's just an 111 mile recovery ride."
Said no one ever.
Until today. I actually heard this come out of several people's mouths. To be fair, in comparison to the previous two days, it kind of was a recovery ride. There was some initial climbing, which I'll admit didn't feel great, but after about mile 20 is was a gradual downhill (with a few minor bumps) all the way to Columbus, MT. And the wind was in our favor most of the day, so we made quick work of the ride, which means a couple extra hours of recovery.
After lunch my group switched things up a bit. We had been doing 10ish minute pulls each, or as much as people could handle. If someone was tired they didn't pull as long, if they were feeling strong maybe they pulled a bit more. However, after lunch we had a little over 40 miles left and a very favorable route, so we switched to 1 mile pulls. With 8 people that meant 1 mile on, 7 miles to recover and each person had 5 pulls. At the pace we were maintaining that was only 15 minutes of work each over 2 hours. Not bad.
As for the scenery, there were lots of beautiful mountains and rivers. However, the mountains weren't quite as visible as the previous few days due to smoky air.
Today was our last full day in Montana. Tomorrow we head to Wyoming. I never thought I'd be looking forward to a 90 mile day, but here we are. After 362 miles in 3 days, I couldn't be more excited for a short and relatively flat 90 miles tomorrow.
Day 14 stats:
distance: 112 miles
elevation gain: 2625 ft
nutrition:
breakfast: eggs, potatoes, sourdough toast
lunch: PB&J, pasta salad with peas and tomatoes, grapes, 1 oreo cookie, 1 small coke
post-ride: 1 recovery drink, Kate's chocolate mint bar, 1 small coke, 1 lime La Croix
gels: 5
bloks: .5
26 oz skratch superfuel, 78 oz zym, 26 oz water
Day 15 details - Columbus to Lovell, WY
planned distance: 90 miles
planned elevation gain: 2627 ft