I don’t usually get up at 4am, but a friend volunteered to do a half-century (50-miler) with me. We arrived at the tip of the Cape Cod rail trail just before 6am. It was light outside, but there was no one on the trail.

We rode the path pretty much straight to the end, and then followed a local road to the beach where i got this picture:

The way back was a bit more eventful, as we went off the bike path to see the Nauset lighthouse. We lost the path for a bit and did some road riding but eventually found our way back. 51 miles total by the end.

It’s a pretty flat path, so it wasn’t all that challenging. The guy I was riding with was on a mountain bike, so we couldn’t exactly maintain a quick pace…was about 4 hours of riding. My butt definitely started to hurt around hour 3. Brooks saddle on the way, perhaps?

I’d like to do a more hilly half-century, or maybe I’ll just go for a metric century (~62 miles). Been thinking about riding from home to Little Compton, RI: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/47436.

My other thought is that I probably want to get a road bike before too long. I rented a Trek 1.2 on vacation and couldn’t believe how quickly it got up to speed. The 1.1 is cheaper but doesn’t have as wide of a gearing ratio. I hear the Pilot has a slightly more upright position, which would probably be better for me. Need to think about this one…a month or so left until my birthday 🙂