My Longest Ride : 117 miles

I know this is a terrible cover pic for the blog, but Pat's def is the King of Steaks

Back in 2017, I had the amazing idea to ride from NJ to Philly. It was going to be 55 miles on the D&R canal path, and then the streets to the Liberty bell with an overnight in the City of Brotherly Love a massive amount of cheesesteaks and then a ride back the next day. There was planning, limited routing and a date. 5 of us were going to do it until a light sprinkle killed our day and it never happened. #fail

D&R Canal morning

Enter 2018 ... 6 months after completing 800miles in Spain, I was itching for adventure. I was trying to keep up with my miles and training, had incorporated a bit of running in to the plan and was not as in shape as Spain, but good enough to complete a new NJ->Philly plan. The new plan was basically do it all in one day! :) I talked my unsuspecting dad in to doing it with me by telling him there was no wind, climbs and reducing the miles by about 15 😀

On June 21st 2018 we set out to the D&R canal in NJ. I had mentioned in a few previous posts about some rides along the canal. It was a bit overcast, a little cool and there was a slight mist in the air, but the temperature was not too cold. Really perfect conditions for a long suffer-fest ride.

not bad for 11 year old tech

After coming back from the Spain trip and NY warming up a bit, I dove in to everything road cycling. I've abandoned my love of old bicycles and embraced modern tech. Well not completely modern, but more modern than 1990. I chose to ride my 2007 Jamis Ventura Comp. I had been riding this around Staten Island, getting more accustomed to the road bike geometry, shorter wheel base, thinner tires and more slammed riding position. I had been fighting moving over to the newer bicycle, but logic won out and I haven't looked back since. Here is a link to the Jamis 2007 Catalog with the specs on the bike. 2007 Jamis Bicycle Catalog Shimano Tiagra componentry is a big step up from 1990 mix and match. 😁 For this rid I also chose to use a 10 liter bickpacking rollup saddle bag I bought for $17 off of ebay. I dont think it actually holds 10l, but I am also not going to check either. It is big enough for what I need on a day trip and honestly I think it would be large enough for a multi day ride. As for gear I brought:
- A multi tool
- 2 spare tubes
- 2 battery packs
- little bit of cash
- my iphone 6
- Banana, apple* and a purpley low cal Red bull. [ Love them ]
  * my apple fell at least 4x everytime i went in to my bag.

My dad rode his new 2017 Trek. A nice hybrid bike that had straight MTB bars that I took off and put on butterfly bars before we went to Spain. Unfortunately the only pic I have of his bike is when he was examining his "slow leak" in a video I was taking. The return of "el flato" or as we call him in America Leon "Slow Leak" B. 😂

Dad is wearing his catchers knee pads just in case a baseball game suddenly broke out

Ride Statistics

Strava Link: https://www.strava.com/activities/1653698715
Distance: 117.24mi
Moving Time: 9:12:26
Elevation: 1667ft

Philly streets portion

We had an early start as dad slept over and we were pedaling along by 6:30AM. The D&R canal route was as expected for a weekday. It was empty, overcast and a pleasant ride. We stayed on that until the end of New Jersey and had a short ride through Trenton.Once we made it in the Pennsylvania we cycled the streets a bit and picked up the D&L Canal route. This was a nice bit of unexpected extension to the covered, safe bike path. For the next 20+ miles we hit the streets of Philly to the liberty bell. We had made it... but wait - there's more...... 

I cant look at Independence Hall without thinking about Nick Cage

Benjamin Franklin Gates: I'm gonna steal the Declaration of Independence.

  

Liberty Bell ... duh

I mentioned to my dad that getting a cheesesteak [ or two ] is a rule when visiting the city.He asked how much further, i lied and said a mile, and then he said... oh boy two more miles round trip. Ive discovered that after doing a few tours and a lot of group rides that it is valid to lie over a few miles and a few hundred feet of elevation. I consider these "rounding errors". How do I know if the calculations I have are right anyway. :)

Two nice philly cheesesteaks later[one from Pat's and one from Geno's and we split em ] we had hit about 57-ish miles and were ready to head back. Pacing down to Philly I think we stopped maybe once for a 2 min water break and was averaging over 14mph. We had a great pace. We kicked it in to high gear and took a bit more scenic route home passed the Ben Franklin Bridge.

seems like he was enjoying nicely :P ...ahem, excuse me ... you have some cheese on your mouth.
I dont know why he has his gloves and helmet on still, we were there for 30mins... i think they bonded to him molecularly

ahem ... helmet still on. :)

Pat's

mehhhh

Ben Franklin Bridge

We were carrying on at a good clip until mile 80 when we made our last and final stop at McD's. I couldn't help myself and pigged out. We were at about 13.3mph... the last 37 or so miles took us a little longer, about 12mph and we ended at an average of 12.7mph. Not bad, we wont be entering the Tour d'France, but it was ok.

We made it back to the trail in NJ and the sun was out for a bit. Was really nice. The last 3-4miles were basically a death-pedal. We couldnt wait to reach the car. Super pooped.

We made it... 117miles- and we both agreed that we didnt think we would want to attempt to break this record any time soon. :) 

We made it home and scarfed down some meatball pizza to round out the day. I should really count up the calories and see how much I ate.

At about 4 months later I think I am ready to go for a 150 day and build towards 200 :)

my second cup =P

hidden gem

love meatball pizza... im gonna marry a slice