The Weekend.

Friday was pretty dang busy at work so I wasn't able to leave early.  Once home we had running around to do so I nixed the idea of a ride.  Since I was riding the next morning I was ok with it, sort of!
Saturday morning I was out on the bike a bit before 7:30.  I would have left earlier but it was a bit too chilly for me.  As it was it was below freezing when I left.  I had a route planned out and loaded on the Garmin.  It's kind of nice just following a purple line and not worrying about anything else.  It also made the time fly by.

The route ended up being way more gravel than I anticipated.  But with a mostly tailwind I was able to keep the speed up.  I'm usually not too concerned with speed but I had a wedding to be at so I was on a bit of a time crunch.
My first (and only) stop didn't happen till Renville, about 105 miles in.  It was here I noticed I had a broken spoke  on the rear wheel.  It seemed to not be getting worse so I pushed on.  I started to deviate from the course to stay more on paved roads (to protect the broken spoke wheel) but I still hit lots of gravel.  Down in farm country it's pretty easy to navigate since everything is laid out on a grid work pattern.  Plus I knew I had highway 23 somewhere on my left.

My original route had me crossing highway 23 at Hanley Falls.  Because of time and the spoke I planned on jumping on 23 and taking that the rest of the way to Marshall.  But the idea of riding on 23 wasn't too appealing so I stayed off course and took many gravel roads almost the rest of the way to Marshall.  Not bad, I was able to go the entire route without riding on 23!
I ended with 160 miles in 8 hours and 22 minutes.

Overall I felt pretty good.  Having not been able to ride much this was a huge confidence boost for the upcoming Dirty Kanza 200.  While I know I had a tailwind most of the way I am still happy with how it went and how I felt.

Sunday we headed back home, in the car, to celebrate Harper's 5th Birthday!  We got home before the rain started and we had some time so I snuck out on the mountain bike for a bit over an hour.  That did wonders for the legs.

I was only able to get 3 rides in last week but ended up with about 11.5 hours.  I hope to up that this week.  However...the weather!  It rained all last night and turned to snow at some point.  Only the yards have snow, but still!
A ride today is doubtful and the gym isn't looking too promising either.
The rest of the week is looking better so I get what I can.

Happy Monday.