Pittsfield, MA to Poughkeepsie, NY
Today we started our 7 day streak of biking with no build days or rest days in between. Up until this, we had only ever biked 3 days in a row! To start off the streak was an 85 mile day, the longest of the trip so far and a lot of people's longest ride ever, myself included. I headed out with a group of girls that I bike really well with and we were just cursing through the miles. There were some hard uphills, but they always seems to come with either a nice view, a nice downhill, or both. Biking out of the Berkshire's was absolutely gorgeous. It was by far my favorite scenery in Massachusetts (and not just because I was happy to be leaving them!).
By the time we made it to lunch at mile 45, we had already entered Connecticut, left Connecticut, and entered New York! We were kind of hoping that lunch would be in Connecticut so we could say that we had breakfast in Massachusetts, lunch in Connecticut, and dinner in New York, but lunch was about less than 5 miles into New York.
After lunch, I set off with the same girls again and we kept on cruising through the miles. There was only one big hill that came our of nowhere and seemed to never end, but once you got to the top it felt like you could see everything.
After that we just chipped away at the miles and made our way into Poughkeepsie. We had woken up an hour earlier than normal, 5am instead of 6am, so we got to the school we were staying at relatively early. It felt amazing to have done an 85 mile ride and feel o great while doing it. We're starting to feel like we're getting stronger now, which is super cool! The best part about the school we were staying at was that we all got our own beds! First time on the whole trip. Not only was it way more comfortable than the thermarest, but it meant we didn't have to pack up the thermarest in the morning. The second best thing was that it had a cable TV. We spent the next 2-3 hours watching Tattoo Nightmares and resting on the couches and chairs. It was amazing. Just before dinner though, I got back on my bike an headed to Vassar College to see the campus where both my grandma and aunt went to college. It was. Beautiful campus and so much fun to bike around!
I think it's pretty cool that this route just happened to take me by both of the colleges were my grandparents attended as well as where my brother is currently attending. Plus, we basically started where I went to college. Sorry mom and dad, upstate New York doesn't sound like a fun detour. After dinner, we all sat down as a group and worked out a team charter--basically things we want to define us as a group. For example, we talked a lot about respect, communication, and patience to name a few. It was a great conversation and I think it will really help shape the kind of culture we want to great as a group for the next two months. To end, some great news we found out today is that on our day off in Pittsburgh we will be going to the Pirates vs Phillies baseball game!!! Could not be more excited!
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