I rode 50 miles today.  It’s been a long time since I’ve ridden 50 miles, and I had fun!

It was the Go the Distance for Autism ride I was doing as part of my co-workers team.

It was an absolutely gorgeous spring day out.  Mid-50’s, sunny and a slight breeze.  It was a bit cooler in the morning, and I ended up wearing two jerseys (I bought the event jersey) and my arm warmers the entire time.  This lead to some rather interesting tan lines at the gap between my jersey sleeve and the arm warmers.  Thank goodness for cardigans at work!

The ride was great.  Good company to help keep me going, very well marked course, and although there were a few challenging climbs, they were not constant nor impossible.  I hit a bit of a brief wall around mile 42, where all I wanted to do was stop and just throw my bike away, but after a forced stop at a busy intersection, I found another wind (my 5th or 6th or 100th wind at this point), and was able to rock it up all the hills to the finish!  Thank you bag of potato chips I wolfed down at the last rest stop!

Now that it’s over the last thing I want to do is prep any form of food.  Which is why I am so glad I made some banana oatmeal the day before.  Wholesome foods are easy!

The best thing about oatmeal is that it is a blank slate.  As long as you know how to cook the oatmeal base, the combinations of mix ins are endless.

This time I added the following:  mashed ripe bananas, a little unsweetened cocoa powder, cinnamon and nutmeg.  When it comes time to enjoy (I always make a huge batch so I have breakfast for the rest of the week), I also like to thin it out (it thickens a lot over time) with some unsweetened almond milk and sweeten it up with a drizzle of pure maple syrup.

Easy, delicious and reheatable.  Just the way I like it!

Now I need a nap.