Monday, April 18, 2011

Riding Recap.

Friday morning I was out riding by 4:40 a.m. or so, worked at nine. Again I struggle to remember exactly the route I took. They all mesh together the further out time gets. I believe I rode mostly pavement this day, riding through both Santiago and Glendorado. Ended with 3 hours 10 minutes.
Friday night several of us hit up the White Horse to carbo load for the half marathon, Durand road race, and cheering. I did the cheering.

Saturday we woke to snow covered yards, yuck. The Earth Day half marathon is always a fun event to watch. So many people I know do it, so there is always someone to cheer for. The hard part is picking everyone out in the mass of runners. Usually they spot me before I them.
After the race I decided to head out for a ride. The wind was whipping, with gusts up to 30 mph. In an effort to avoid the wind I ended up riding more than I was planning on, a bit over 4 hours. The wind has been out of the north the past several days, making my routes from home similar. So I started out going with the wind for a bit to change the route up. I have been pretty good dealing with the wind mentally, but it started to get to me on this day. Once the corner was turned for home, however, the wind and I were best buddies.
Saturday night we went out to the Imholte's annual pig roast and game feed. I had wild pig, turtle, ram, rabbit, bear, caribou, gar, and lots of sweets. Good times.

Sunday was a somewhat early start, out riding by 6. This is to be my last "big" ride before Trans Iowa V7. I took paved roads out to Rice on to Royalton...yeah the wind was out of the NW, again. From Royalton I took gravel into Bowlus. From this point on many of the roads were new to me. Found some "endless" gravel roads. They seemed to have no end in sight. I spent the time going west for awhile, then north, back to west, and so on. Hit up Elmdale, Swanville, Upsala, Holdingford, and home. I was pretty close to Grey Eagle and thought about riding out to the lake but thought that would really push me over the time limit I gave Jen so I turned for home. The roads around Swanville were pretty hilly and scenic. It was nice to have new roads to explore.


Out riding for 6+ hours and this is the one photo I took. Avery thought it was pretty sweet, so a good photo!


Ended with 6 hours 15 minutes and 99 miles. I thought about riding on a bit more to get that ubiquitous 100 but why? So 99 it was.


Ended the day by picking up 3 grocery bags of Zoe poop from the backyard. Amazing.


6 days till TransIowa. I feel ready both mentally and physically. I still need to do the final gear selection, etc. but that should be fairly easy.


Week Ride Recap:


Monday: 2.5 hours


Tuesday: 2.5 hours


Wednesday: 3 hours 20 minutes


Thursday: off


Friday: 3 hours 10 minutes


Saturday: 4 hours


Sunday: 6 hours 15 minutes


Total: 21 hours 45 minutes, or so. TransIowa has yet to be finished in 24 hours. It's going to be a long ride!



Later.





1 comment:

chance said...

good luck at the big one boss! i know you'll do well and will be looking forward to the recap!