Lilydale to Warburton Rail Trail

5:00:00 | ~78kms | 15.6km/hr

Somehow I missed the fact that this trail was somewhere between 38-40kms ONE way...

I digress.

Last Wednesday I had the whole day to entertain myself, my one day without any plans/appointments/catch-ups. So I decided to head out to Lilydale station, the start of the rail trail. It's well signposted, but for those that need to know, the trail starts at the end of the station car park.

The trail is pretty flat and for the most part, gravel. Not really suited to road bikes. I took the (new to me) Giant Yukon MTB. I passed through forest, farmland and via the old original platform stations which were pretty cool.

There's a couple of toilet stops along the way, as well as places to fill up with water. There's also a couple of cafes on the track, but they're only open Thurs-Sun and I went along on a Wednesday. Super disappointed! I would have happily stopped for a coffee. Multiple times over.

The trail is set up quite well for road crossings, there's only a couple of places that didn't have pedestrian lights.

I didn't love the section from Yarra Junction to Warburton. Partially because I was battling at this stage and partly because you're riding parallel to the Warburton Highway, so it's not quite as peaceful as the rest of the ride.

It was a fairly big relief to reach Warburton. I'd thought about turning back earlier, but then questioned when I'd have time to tackle the ride again, so I persisted.

I was pretty underdone on nutrition. I'd eaten two trail bars in 2.5 hours of riding. Not quite enough for me. I smashed a cauliflower and broccoli pie, a vanilla slice and half a bag of mint leaves at the Warburton bakery and felt a little better.

The ride home took a whole lot of mental energy. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, I was dehydrated. By no means was it a hot day, but I'd failed to drink enough. I took my hydration pack so there was no excuse. On the road bike I'm used to sipping on water every 10 mins. But I forgot to do it during this ride. I need to install an odometer, that will act as a visual cue for me.

I also started to get quite uncomfortable, 4+ hours is a long time to be on a bike that you've only ridden a handful of times! I missed the luxury of tri bars and a different hand position.

But I made it and I'd do it all over again knowing that I need to fuel and hydrate a whole lot better than I did.

Tues; run: 50:10 | 8km | 6:15m/km. I'm not quite as exhausted from work as I usually am. Took the opportunity to run, but gave myself permission to go as slow as I needed to, to get the job done. In the end not unhappy with the pace given I've not been running much.
Strength: 25m.

Thurs; personal training/strength: 1:00:00. Focus on good form for upper body/back workouts. Squeeze the scapula!