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Remember the four key elements? Today was about ‘rest’. Today’s 36-mile ride was a nice recovery ride mostly downhill. It was a chilly 55 degrees when we started at 9 am – yes, 9 am! Normally our starts are between 6:45 and 7:30, but we had a little rest after yesterday’s big ride and there wasn’t any rush to get into Missoula today given that we would arrive in the morning and likely not have hotel rooms ready.
On the ride, I took it easy downhill and rode with two of the fellows in the group. There were a few windy spots along the way, so they tucked me the middle and protected me from the wind making it an easier ride. We were separated at the break stop at mile 22 – no issues there. They wanted to move quickly, and I was wanting to back off and give myself a recovery day. I rode the rest of the way at a cool easy pace with a few other riders. We arrived at the hotel about 11:45 after a rather lengthy stop at our rest station.
With rooms not yet ready, we were provided a room in which we could change. I quickly did so and walked to my massage appointment for 12:15 nearby at Float Missoula. It was a much needed pretty deep tissue massage working out the knots in my neck and upper back, as well as giving my legs and glutes a solid working over. As intense as it was at times, it was mildly relaxing and a nice change of pace being off the bike.
I left my massage very hungry and made my way to Market and enjoyed a delicious buddha bowl with chicken feeling like I’ve not had enough protein lately. I drank two wildly delicious lattes this afternoon after nearly 10 days of fair to mediocre coffee with the Starbucks in Walla Walla being the exception.
We had a lovely reception and dinner in the restaurant at the hotel. The food was fantastic – I thoroughly enjoyed the delicious beef, mashed potatoes and ate copious amounts of beautifully cooked asparagus. We had a delicious chocolate dessert of some sort. It was a fantastic meal.
Given that it was only 7:00 when we finished, I opted to grab my laundry and spend my Saturday night in Missoula cleaning the sizeable pile of laundry that had accumulated. It’s now clean and is hanging in my closet to air-dry until tomorrow night when it will be packed up and ready to go when we leave Missoula on Monday morning to head to Helena.
Tomorrow is a rest day, and I fully intend to sleep as long as I can but still make it to the restaurant in time for breakfast and also Mass at 10 am near the hotel. The rest of the day… not sure what it will bring but I would love to venture into the river outside my window and soak my legs in the cool waters resting and readying them for the next span of riding.