My Saturday rides are starting to get longer now. I had planned to try and hit 4 hours this past Saturday, and I did it. I avoided my traditional ride nutrition for something new. My riding buddy suggested I try Infinit. This is a drink that has all the calories, electrolytes, and other good stuff that can keep you going in an endurance event.

My first day with it was pretty good. I felt strong throughout the ride. It was a little odd to get a grumbly tummy, take a swig of the drink, then feel fine for a while. Plus, the taste is a little weird at first. I had the lemon lime flavour, but it had a salty underflavour as well. Like I said, it was weird. I’m not drinking it for taste though.

The route I chose was to go out and do the Metchosin section of the Tour course, then hit Munns. Most of the time when we get to Munns, we are pretty fresh, but this time we were already a couple hours into the ride.

Amazingly, Munns felt alright. We made it up and over without too much complaining, then on to Ross Durance Lake Rd. Again, this was fine, but as I rounded one corner, my riding partner was stopped at the side of the road. I thought he had flatted, but turned out he had crashed. No major damage done except for a sore hand and a scraped up knee, but it certainly put a damper on the ride for a bit.

After going down Willis Pt Road, we started heading back along West Saanich Rd. I was getting a drink at one point and was having trouble putting the bottle away, I looked down to see what was wrong, and when I looked up, I was heading off the road. I dropped the bottle grabbed the bars, and hit the brakes. I had to spin around to retrieve my bottle, but thankfully, nothing bad happened there.

We crossed on Royal Oak, then headed through Mount Doug Park. We followed the course along the water (mostly), until we turned off to my buddies house. I then came straight through downtown.

What a ride! I was tired at the end, but I feel great today.

View Tour de Victoria, April 28 2012 in a larger map

Total distance: 108.87 km (67.6 mi)
Total time: 4:34:28
Moving time: 4:20:55
Average speed: 23.80 km/h (14.8 mi/h)
Average moving speed: 25.03 km/h (15.6 mi/h)
Max speed: 64.63 km/h (40.2 mi/h)
Average pace: 2.52 min/km (4.1 min/mi)
Average moving pace: 2.40 min/km (3.9 min/mi)
Min pace: 0.93 min/km (1.5 min/mi)
Max elevation: 246 m (808 ft)
Min elevation: -16 m (-53 ft)
Elevation gain: 2340 m (7676 ft)
Max grade: 47 %
Min grade: -41 %
Recorded: 4/28/2012 7:48 AM