This ride was the best I've done in the past five years, in the sense that I felt strong at the end, didn't have a sore butt and met my goal of averaging 12 mph -- a mph more than the last two years. It is all the result of the five 40+ mile rides I did in Sept. and October. In previous years, I had ridden about the same number of miles, but those miles were done in shorter rides of like 12-25 miles.

I had another "brilliant" idea: come home for lunch. I knew that it was almost exactly 40 miles from home to Shipshewana and back, so if I were able to make the ride to Elkhart 37 miles, I'd be on the miles I wanted. So, the job was to figure out a way to make the ride to Elkhart 37 miles. I did that by riding through Violette cemetery, and making loops at Koops, Shanklin Park and Ox Bow Park, than taking my old commuting route home from Elkhart. Plus going home for lunch added three miles. When I got home, I was at 36 miles -- not bad for an estimate.

The other advantage of stopping at home, besides not having to go into a restaurant, was being able to change clothes. I had on three top layers and the warmest leggings I had. i took off one top layer five miles into the ride and changed my second top layer that was sweaty and put on a lighter leggings.

I was averaging 12.2 mph for that 36 miles. The wind, as forecast was from the NE, which meant going to Shipshewana would be into the wind. I figured that if I could make it to Shipshewana at 11.9, I could make 12 mph by the time I got home. I rode the Middlebury-Shipshewana road for three miles from Shipshewana to take more advantage of the wind.

When I got in town, I was a little short of 77 miles so I rode down to Kercher Rd. on the Winona Trail to add two miles. I arrived home at 78 miles and 12 mph.