Bos/Treal Training Ride #9: At 70 Miles, It's Getting Real

Yesterday I completed the 9th training ride of the suspenseful prequel to the 400-mile Bos/treal ride that starts May 25.

These training rides began in early March. Here's a list of them, to give you an idea of the mileage progression and the sometimes clever, sometimes mysterious names of the rides:

01: 3/2/24: Watah Views, baby, 31.1 miles

02: 3/10/24: Tri-ed and Fells Anyway, 33.2 miles

03: 3/16/24: Loop de Ponyhenge, 39.3 miles

04: 3/24/24: Broadmoor Review, 43 miles

05: 3/30/24: The Rapper-Tapper, 57 miles

06: 4/7/24: Blue Hills Blaster, 60.0 miles

07: 4/13/24: Salem Strand Sprint, 53.7 miles

08: 4/21/24: Full-Fledged Framninghammer, 67.9 miles

09: 4/27/24: The Womp Womp Winder, 70 miles

So far, I've completed six of these training rides, which occur every weekend. With the exception of yesterday's Womp Womp, I've been pretty miserable each time. I blame my conditioning, my bike, the weather, my numb toes, my attitude, and I'll throw speeding cars into the mix too, because we bikers blame cars for everything.

Yesterday, however, I was not miserable. In fact, I was a bit euphoric. It was sunny and in the 60s, I rode a new trusty steed--my Specialized Diverge--and my cardiologist had finally given me his Good Heartkeeping Seal of Approval.

This was the route on Ride with GPS:

It was called Womp Womp Winder because it passed through Wompatuck State Park in Hingham (an enormous 3500 acre state park with 40 miles of trails which I had never heard of--and only 15 miles from the Boston Common).

We started at 8:30 at Ruggles station near Northeastern with a pre-ride meeting:

Then we embarked. It was just a beautiful ride.

Eun-Joo, Lauren, Sam, and Jackie at Osprey Overlook Park in Weymouth:

Eun-Joo and Lauren enjoying amazing Greek food during our lunch stop at the Cedar Cafe in Norwell:

And finally, an action clip of the entire group collectively figuring out how to cross the Great Pond Reservoir in Braintree, when construction blocked the planned route:

In the end, my app told me I had ridden 80 miles in 7 hours and I did not move from the couch for the rest of the evening. In a month, we have to be ready for this kind of ride daily for 5 days in a row. Looking forward to it--maybe!?