Longest ride so far

A few Saturdays ago, I did what was my longest ride ever, so far - 76.2 km. Ed and I went out with Alex Stieda and some others, starting just on the outskirts of Edmonton and heading west basically - looking at a map afterwards, we were as far west (Range Road 10) as Stony Plain actually (just further south). We started at Woodbend Hall, looped around by Blackhawk golf course somehow, then headed west on Graminia Road crossing Highway 60 and kept going. I'm sure the rest of the group could have gone faster without me, but it was nice that Alex kept everyone together - even made me ride out front at times. I got some good tips - I know I should be spinning more but it's hard sometimes to resist pushing a bigger gear to try to keep up better, but in the end I think I was less tired thanks to the reminders to keep spinning at a higher cadence.

A few tense moments (for me at least) with some dogs trying to chase us on one road ... then we headed back along Garden Valley Road and that's where everyone went their own speed. Except my back was really starting to hurt by then (it was sore the night before while sitting, but seemed to be okay initially that morning), so I really slowed down and at one point even stopped. Ed waited for me :-) and was supportive and encouraging when I thought I wasn't going to be able to ride again - but just getting off the bike and stretching a bit seemed to help (so I did that a few more times before we finished).

Somehow I had in my head that Winterburn Road = Range Road 231, so I was getting quite discouraged that we were in the 260's for range roads - but then we were at the turn and back again. (Winterburn Road = Range Road 260 actually I think it was).

Other than my back concerns (which didn't improve the next 2 days so I ended up going to physio three times that week - SI joint inflammation and hypomobility apparently), it was a good ride and good confidence booster for the MS Bike Tour the following weekend. I started plotting the route we took that day on Google Earth and will add it when I finish.

Edit (June 17) - here it is: