Details from Saturday's ride (aka botched century):

Okay, here’s the story. i started out nice and easy for the first hour of the ride on Saturday. I was following a couple other people who got started before me. At the 60min mark, I start the z2-z3 interval and pass them all quickly.  Then the heavy rain rolls in, but I’m doing fine, following the orange arrows and making all the turns.  Or so I think.  Apparently, somewhere after the first rest stop (which I skipped because it was barely 25mi into the ride), I started following WRONG orange arrows.  Needless to say, I didn’t see the rest stop at 34mi, or 55mi either.   I was getting a little nervous about refilling my bottles because things weren’t unfolding as planned.  Finally, I stop at an old farmhouse and a nice elderly man fills my bottles with water. Good thing, too!  I was getting a little light-headed.  Luckily,  I was smart enough to pack an extra bar, and 3-4 extra gels that would get me through.  I was obviously a little out of it, though, because it was getting hot and I only had the guy fill up 2 bottles. Dumb move.  Needless to say, I’m horribly lost (but still following little orange arrows all over the countryside), and I’m nowhere near the lunch stop.  People I talk to don’t even know where Greenville, IL is!!  That’s typically not good.  To add insult to injury, I see a bunch of riders… and then realize they’re on the Tour de Donut.  Their course is marked well, and they’re at least getting fucking donuts for the money they paid!  Me? I get nothing.  Things were thrown, words were said.  I was not a very happy camper about 75 miles in when somebody told me that Greenville was about 20mi down hiway 140.  okay, great, so I ride a ways, stop at a gas station to steal some ice from the soda machine.  That was a good idea, at least!  A guy there tells me Greenville is about 30 miles away.  Shit, it’s getting farther away.  What a cruel ride this is.  And it’s near 90F now, and I’ve got 2 gels left.  I’m doing lots of calculations in my head trying to figure out when I should take my last fuel sources, and I’m checking out how I feel.  Other than a little frustrated, I was actually fine.  I think those Thermolytes were a lifesaver, because I only had 2 bottles of Gatorade all day.    I took gels more frequently to replace those calories as best I could, though.  So I head off to what I think is a 30mi ride back to the starting point, and I’m happy to see a sign that says, “Greenville 23.”  Woohoo!  It was flat, and fast, and I covered those last miles in about an hour.  I took my last gel about 20 minutes from the end, and then sat up and spun easily for a bit.  I was so glad to be done. Finished with a 19.2mph avg after riding over 107miles with 5:35 of actual riding time.  I’m incredibly lucky that I only had to ride a little extra.  I was so freaking far away from where I was supposed to be, it was stoopid.