Carol - Last Sunday I had set my alarm clock for 7 am so I could begin my ride early.  I had the best of intentions, however, Saturday was opening day of boating season and Cinco De Mayo.  The day began with the yacht club reception, opening ceremony, boat parade and finished with dancing.  A very fun day and a very long day.  Needless to say, I did not get up at seven on Sunday.  It was actually about 8:45 before I got on the road.  I also started out with a slight headache (I wonder what that was from).
Once again I rode down to Lincoln Street and up over Galbraith.  This is the first real ride I've taken with my new clips.  All was going well until I got to the end of Frasier Road where I stopped a little too fast and lost my balance almost landing in a heap on the pavement.  I decided that I would really need to concentrate on my stopping technique until mastered it.  Turning up Lincoln I continued on up and over Galbraith Mtn. This is the second or third time I've ridden that section and I noticed I did not stop as often and I rode faster then before.  It's always nice to see improvement since I've put so much effort into my training.  I continued on my usual route to Colony Mtn road and down to Skagit County, however, instead of riding to Sedro Woolley I rode down the Ershig Road and on to other rural roads that eventually took me to my friend Lindsey's house at the Burlington Country Club.  After consulting with Lindsey about her landscaping I headed out through Skagit flats towards LaConner then back over to BayView.  It was at BayView that I saw the most beautiful scenery of the day.  The apple orchard on the hill as you head back down to the flats was in full bloom.  The apple blossoms were pure white against the blue sky and behind the orchard stood Mt. Baker with just a few feather clouds around her top.  I sure wish I would have had a camera.  I stopped and took in the beautiful sight before heading down the hill to finish my last ten miles.   By this time I had traveled about fifty five miles so my speed had dropped a bit but I was still riding at about thirteen to fourteen mph which I happen to think is fairly respectable.  However, by this time I was actually looking forward to just being done for the day and I was a little bit tired, that is until three younger girls (maybe in their late twenty's) flew by me.  This really got my competitive juices flowing and I found myself trying to catch up and draft off them.  About the time I was close enough to start drafting they decided to pull off and eat some performance bars.  So I decided to pull off the road about a quarter mile in front of them have something to eat too.  We ended up playing hopscotch for the rest of my ride.  Sometimes they were in front and sometimes I was. It was a fun ending to a wonderful day.  As to my recovery, I didn't have any muscle fatigue or any other problems on Monday.  All the training is actually working.

Ride notes:
Average speed -14.2
Ride length - 65 miles
Actual ride time - 4.5 hours
I tried some high performance gel...it helped my energy level almost immediately with no stomach issues.