Day 7 to Tetona

Yesterday I planned to do 100 miles from Lima - got there nice and early and so had an early night. Which meant I could have an early start today after a good nights sleep. I also managed to do some laundry, ate in the restaurant across the road where they also made me some sandwiches for today. I eventually left at about 3 am. Headed up into a basin - absolutely nothing there. It was really difficult to get going. There was a dirt road that slowly meandered up through this basin - slowly going and going. Finally the sun came up which warmed me up a little. Made it to Lake View meeting a couple on a tandem coming the other way- had a chat with them and began to feel slightly better and got going a bit more. Finally made it to the Divide but there was a false top - went down and then climbed up again - then down again. It was a very gradual climb up and then down - with that headwind still - bit of a pain. Pretty hard work. On the other side on the way down was a big lake - pretty nice area. Then off into the woods for a bit before popping out where I found a restaurant and ordered a spaghetti bolognese - although I struggled to eat only a little. I was fed up with myself so left. I thought I had about 30 miles or so to Maryville as I was planning on only 100 again today. I had a 5 hour energy drink in the hope it would perk me up! The trail was completely flat but along an old railway track - seriously the worst ride ever - about 2 inches of soft gravel in the railway bed - and you just couldn't go fast. It just seemed so pointless as there were lots of once gravel roads off to the side. I was so angry. This was not fun - made it a miserable ride. I was so angry this actually got me going a little bit. When we left the railway it was really nice - after about 25 miles that was. There was now a great track down by the river - really fun. Great views across the river so I just flew down. This was then where the trail left the main route for the last of the detours. I thought we went closer to Ashdown and Maryville but I got that wrong when I was figuring it out. Actually turned on to what was like a snowmobile trail so I thought "OK I'll keep going" there was another place to stop in about 10 miles. However I couldn't find anywhere there - tried to look at google maps but didn't have a signal so in the end as I was feeling pretty good I decided to carry on. I was pedaling well and in the end made it all the way to Tetona - about 155 miles - a really good day, which I hadn't expected. I got myself a room, got changed and then it hit me. I had pedalled way too hard, too long. Both ankles were swollen and my knees were killing. Walked over to the restaurant and felt awful! Had a bite to eat and went to bed!