Newark to New Hope

So this is not a race report but I thought I would do a short write-up about an interesting training ride I did on Sunday.  I am seven weeks out from Chattanooga Ironman and was looking to get in a long ride, and work on my nutrition strategy for the bike.  I loaded up three bottles with a mix of Carbo- Pro, EFS electrolyte drink and a scoop of Base salt, 300 calories per bottle.  I also carried two bottles of EFS liquid shot at 400 calories each and 2 bags of Honey Stinger Chews each are 90 calories.

I left my house at 5:15 am to meet Ken Wilson at the commuter parking lot at exit 109, I loaded my bike on his rack and we headed to Newark where we would meet up with the Major Harris Cycling Club of New Jersey who was hosting the ride. 

We parked at Newark-Penn Station and headed over to Prudential arena to register and meet up with the group.  I would estimate there was probably about 250-300 cyclists and one Inline speed-skater(no joke) who would head out to New Hope.  Ken and I talked with the Inline skater and he said he was probably only going to do about 60 miles due to time restraints and usually he averages about 20mph and 35 on down-hills(with no brakes mind you).

We headed out about 7:40 am with a full police escort which would lead us out the first 25 miles to the first support stop in New Brunswick.  The pace was slow and we were getting some strange looks from the pedestrians as we rode through Newark, Edison and Rahway. We finally got to New Brunswick about 9:15, I finished off my first bottle and grabbed a couple of Fig Newtons.

Ken insisted we ride with the A group and we took off from New Brunswick with a group of about 40-50 riders.  The group took off like a shot and never looked back, we averaged between 25-30 mph for the next 30 miles as we rode straight through into Lambertville dropping about half the group and then walking our bikes over the bridge into New Hope. 

I finished off my second bottle, a bag of chews and my first flask of liquid shot.  I loaded up my bottles with Gatorade as it was starting to get a bit warm out.  I also decided to eat half a turkey sandwich to see if I could tolerate any solid food.  We hit the restroom and we were ready to go, only problem was the rest of the group sat around for the next 45 minutes bullshitting and Ken and I had no idea how to get back on our own.

We finally took off for Newark and rode hard till we got back towards Edison.  There was a lot of traffic but these guys clearly had no concern for the cars or for rules of the road.  The last 20 miles back into Newark was a blur of dodging cars, running red lights and trying not too get killed.  We averaged close to 20mph on the way back and I felt pretty strong all the way back in.  There was only about 10-15 of us left when we finally rolled into Newark and headed back to the car. 

I am glad I was able to get a long hard ride in but I would not recommend it and would certainly not do it again as it was probably the least safe ride I have ever been on.  Not really sure how Ken talked me in to this one but I ain't mad at you Kenny.  Overall my nutrition seemed adequate on the bike and I hope it works as well in Chattanooga.