Very nice and well done!

Thank you! ♥️ This route was 50/50 gravel and road, so I was able to pick up speed on pavement. Working on the story and the photos! I’ll post both it all here by nightfall! 😄

I originally wanted to go up to Michaux State Park in PA to play on their gravel roads (they are much tougher than Loudoun County’s; I am very familiar with them from conditioning the horses up there for a year for endurance), but it was going to be a big jump in elevation from last weekend, and my legs were a little tired from yesterday’s 9 miles running followed by plyometrics at the gym.

I decided to stick with Loudoun County again, since by now we’re at least familiar with their roads. I chose a distance and elevation similar to last weekend in case the bike computers decided to be generous again by adding time and distance.

As it would turn out, this ride ended up being exactly the distance and elevation it had said it would be!!!! YAY FINALLY! This one was called the Stockyard 40, starting and ending at the same brewery as last time, but it was 41 miles instead of the 36 last time was supposed to be.

We made sure it didn’t take us onto Berlin Turnpike again…I think we both would have cried if we’d had to repeat that misadventure!

This route ended up being such a fantastic choice! It was a beautiful balance of gravel and road (almost exactly 50/50, actually!) with downhills that were longer and steeper than the climbs. (Though the climbs were no joke either!) It was perfect for transitioning back onto roads and the logistics that come with them (crossing busy intersections, traffic lights, stop signs) where I’d have to unclip and clip (this still gives me a ton of anxiety when combined with traffic, hence easing into it. BTW: This is only my 5th long outdoor ride in clippies.)

It was also perfect for getting comfortable again with picking up speed downhill. I’m getting more comfortable on downhill gravel because I now know a lot of these roads so I know when to expect potholes and washouts, but I needed the re-introduction to paved downhills. Got that crossed off today! (As you can see, I ride with a mental checklist of skills I want/need to practice.)

I also finally had the opportunity of climbing a double digit % gravel hill (it was 12%)!!! The gravel was super chunky. J does NOT want me out of the saddle on gravel hills, specifically, because it’s easier to lose traction on the back wheel with loose gravel. I got to experience exactly what she meant!

I had shifted forward to follow the incline of the hill, lightening my weight in the saddle, when my rear wheel skidded sideways. I smoothly and calmly centered my weight back on the saddle, which immediately allowed me to regain control of the rear wheel. That little skid + being able to control it was actually kind of fun…I can see why that one gravel guy on IG is always doing that on purpose on his bike!

Also: didn’t miss a beat confidence-wise. I totally owned that hill. And every other before and after.

The gravel riding is rapidly paying off in EXACTLY the way I intended it to: the whole idea is for it to make road riding effortless by comparison. Going into the second half of the ride, when I’d normally start to get tired from climbing, I found myself pedaling out of the saddle for most of the paved hills, not even thinking about it. I also finally nailed the sway (“dance”) with the handlebars while pedaling out of the saddle, also without thinking about it!!! ALSO ALSO! Every time I pedaled out of the saddle, I felt it in my hamstrings and glutes like you’re supposed to!!! (It used to obliterate my quads.)

This route takes you through the heart of Loudoun County’s wine/beer country. Carlos counted 4 breweries, 3 wineries, 2 distilleries, and one cider brewery. He started joking about doing a brewery hop ride. (Of course this was joking - that would be terribly unsafe. But the idea was amusing.)

So. You can imagine my surprise when at around mile 27, the route took us straight through the parking lot of a place called Bluemont Station…a brewery!!! Whoever created this route, made the halfway-ish point stop at another brewery! (Vs the usual coffee shop or convenience store. It was a planned deliberate detour into the brewery parking lot!) We laughed and laughed as we flew through the parking lot and connected back onto the main road: we’d have our beers post-ride.

This seriously might be a new favorite route. It was just so perfect in every single way, from everything I described above to the endless spectacular scenery of rolling Virginia countryside against the backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains (through which I’ll be riding 70 miles in May…)

But I think my favorite part of the ride was when Carlos made a sharp turn to the right ahead of me. I’d been completely spaced out feeling the wind on my face and the sun on my skin. Carlos’s reason for turning? We were back at the starting point, Stockyard.

My reaction? “OH! Oh booooo…”

I did NOT want it to be over yet!!! That’s why it was my favorite part: I wasn’t tired! I could have kept on going! I finished feeling like I could have done a solid 15-25 miles more.

It’s the first time since I started cycling that I have been pain-free in my left QL during a ride of this length, not even during the tougher gravel climbs (all climbs on gravel are tough. I prefer short steep climbs over the 4%-6% long ones because those are grinders on gravel.) (I didn’t hurt during GF MD, but I did a week of NSAIDs and muscle relaxers leading up to it to keep the muscle as loose and happy as possible. I was sore afterwards.)

We had stout floats (stout beer with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. If you haven’t tried this, you are missing OUT! We tried these when we first moved to Frederick…there was a new art gallery offering stout from one of the local breweries with vanilla ice cream. We bought Guinness and vanilla ice cream on the way home afterwards and were on a stout float kick for awhile!) and shared a naan flatbread with chicken.

This was such a great confidence-building ride, on all counts!