Today I had a noon business lunch on 87th street in Lenexa. Consulting my map, I figured it as about 17 miles one way. The route went from the rural roads I normally ride on, thru the southern suburbs of Johnson County, to the busy suburban streets of Lenexa. It was a pretty simple route: East to Pflumm, then north all the way to 87th.

It was a cool but sunny morning, with temperatures in the upper 60′s. The trip north was pretty easy, and I made good time, aided by a tailwind most of the way. Traffic wasn’t bad. Pflumm is 4-lane most of the way, and traffic was light. The street necks down just north of 111th, and that was the only part where I was nervous about the traffic. There were quite a few cars and large trucks thru that section, and the concrete between the street and gutter was cracked and pitted with large holes. If I’d been forced into the gutter, it might have unhorsed me. But I made it thru without incident. The last few miles I took to back streets as the roads got busier. It ended up being about 19 miles.

Since I’d just done 50 miles on Saturday, and still felt strong, I didn’t think the return trip would present a problem, but it did. That 19-mile ride south was just torture. By the time I reached home I was totally beat, and promptly slept for an hour or so.

I don’t know why that return trip left me so wasted. Perhaps it was the headwind I faced almost all the way. Perhaps it was because the return trip was more uphill that the outbound trip. Maybe my lunch of salad and steak wasn’t the right nutrition. Maybe it was just that I’d never done a two-part ride like that before, with a 2.5 hour layover in the middle.

Whatever the cause, it was rather discouraging.