Short blog tonight... I am tired and its late. Plus you are probably sick of the long blogs :). I took it pretty easy today. There was lots of climbing and Saturday's 160 mile day is quickly approaching. It was kind of "tapering" - 100+ miles, 7500+ feet of climbing - taken slow at 15.4MPH. It is kind of crazy to consider that we have ridden 425+ miles and climbed 20K+ feet in the last 4 days!!!

Because of the hills, today's ride was just a "grind it out" ride.... so that is what we did. Take each hill one at a time and get to the top...

Today's stats:
101.57 miles
6 hours, 34 minutes
7855 feet of climbing
15.4 MPH average speed
134 BPM average heart rate (taking it easy worked - HR dropped!)
6,214 Calories burnt!

The route can be seen here (this shows elevation, heart rate, etc as well): Day 4 Route

Cumulative Stats (4 days):
425.46 miles
24,774 feet of climbing
26,358 Calories burnt!

Tonight we are at the Marriott in Bloomington, IN. We also got to find our own dinner in town. Most of us went to Grazie (see below - that is our group on the left).


Today's Intake:
Breakfast:
Oatmeal
Fruit and Yogurt

Lunch:
Wendy's cheesburger

Dinner:
Chicken Saltimbocca
Antipasto appetizer
1 Buttern Pecan sundae

On the bike:
2 Gu energy gels
1 Gu chomps
1 package of Shotblocks
5 bottles of Cytomax
2 bottles of water
1 piece of blackberry cobbler with ice cream (met my parents & got cobbler at Velma's Diner in Shoals...)
1 pineapple milkshake

All right - tomorrow is a 100 miler - and it is supposed to be flat. BUT, we may have a 10-15 MPH headwinds... Hopefully we can get in a 19-21MPH groove and knock it out quickly.

And - the squeak in my bike is back. Two mechanics looked at it - but no luck. We will keep trying tomorrow.

Good Night.

--Marcus