33 mile ride to Salmon Creek Rd

My longest ride so far. I made a lot of bad decisions before setting out, which led to a pretty miserable experience. The most important thing I learned was that I need food and energy drinks for anything over 25 miles (seems pretty obvious in retrospect). My coworkers also had a bad biking accident on the same day which made me realize that I need to carry my phone, cash, emergency contact info, bike tools, etc, with me anytime I am on my bike, especially since I tend to ride by myself. I ordered a small bike bag so that I can stash all of this under my bike seat. While I was at it, I also ordered an inexpensive bike computer to help me keep track of distance and time.

I also had my first (and second) bike fall. The first one was the "clipless moment" everyone has been telling me about. I stopped too quickly at a stop sign and started to tip over. My instinct was to try to right myself by putting my feet down, except they were clipped into the pedals so I fell over instead. Remarkably painless, although I was black and blue the next day. The second fall was more of a collapse. By the time I made it home, I had such low blood sugar that I just toppled over on my lawn because I didn't have the energy to unclip. Won't make that mistake twice.


View Larger Map