Training Ride on the Trail

Less than two weeks to go until the ride. I've been making up my own training program, but since the weather broke I've been trying to ride 5 to 6 times per week, with at least one long ride on the weekends. Last weekend was a holiday weekend, I did 4 fairly long rides in a row, with the longest being 62 miles. I also have been commuting to work by bike, schedule permitting. Some days I extend the ride home, but almost always try to ride at least part of the ride home hard.
This weekend my goal was to do my longest ride yet. Today I went to the trail head in Boston, PA. This is where we will start our ride. I rode 35 miles out and turned around for a total of 70 miles. Then I drove home and did a loop that included the Pittsburgh part of the trail. There is a 9 mile gap in the trail, so the part closer to my house isn't connected to the rest of the trail. I added another 20 miles for a total of 90. It was really hot and humid, so I expect that today's ride will be at least as tough as the last three days. The truth was it really wasn't too bad. I didn't feel sore and I didn't get biker's butt. The heat got to me a little bit at the end. It was tough to stay properly hydrated. You can only drink so much water. I had about 200 oz. of liquids and my weight was still down about 6 pounds after the ride.
On the last loop I rode past R.E.I. where Laurel works. They built a store last year that is right on the trail. Today Laurel, her co-workers and volunteers were doing trail clean-up. I rode the portion of the trail that they cleaned. They did a nice job, but I got there too late to see them in action.
I've included a few pictures of the the trail going east from Boston. Throughout the trail communities have done a nice job restoring old rail stations. Below is the station in West Newton that is almost done. This section went through a nice park called Cedar Creek Park that is in Westmoreland County. They use the old station in the park as a snack bar, store and bike rental facility.
From this point forward, I'm going to start to taper. I feel I'm as ready as I'm going to be. This past week I rode 245 miles. That's the most I've ever done in a week.