On July 12-13 I completed the Ride for AIDS Chicago, for the second year in a row.  This ride is a double century – riding 100 miles from the Chicago area to Wisconsin on a Saturday and then riding home the next day!

In all, it was a great weekend for riding.  It was threatening to rain both days, but it never really came down on us full force.

This ride loosely follows the Green Bay Trail and actually goes onto the Robert McClory Bike Path and the Des Plaines River Trail.  Once we get into Wisconsin, though, it’s pretty much all rolling, country roads.  Given my fears or riding on roads with vehicle traffic, I tend to be pretty anxious on this ride.  Yet, I continue to do the ride because it’s a mission-driven event that raises money for AIDS services organizations and because it’s a great endurance challenge.

I think many reasonably-fit cyclists can gut out a century ride.  But, getting up the next day and doing it again is, I find, an incredible challenge, both physically and mentally.

This year’s ride was one week after my week-long bike trip on the Great Allegheny Passage and C&O Towpath (GAPCO) trip, and I was worried about being exhausted.  However, during the week in-between the events, I lightly worked out on 2 days and then took the rest of the week completely off from working out.  On the day of the Ride, I felt well-rested and strong.

Nutrition-wise, during the ride, I was drinking at least 1 water bottle per hour, switching between drinking plain water and water loaded with a Nuun electrolyte tablet.  I ate lightly at the pit stops, mostly focusing on eating something a bit salty, like pretzels, and grabbing a piece of fruit.

I rode alone for most of this year’s ride, although I kept encountering some of the same people over and over again.  This year, I ended up finishing both days’ rides in 13 hours altogether, which I’d estimate as being 1.5-2 hours faster than the previous year.

AIDSRide2014

When I got to the finish line, I saw a woman holding her bike up like that and I thought it was cool, so I copied her!