3 hour tour

Left BWW at 1:30 PM today with a ton of other guys. Blackford, Basso, Waugaman, Mason, Huerter, Wild Bill, Bach, Doughty, Ryan VH, and Osborn (think that was everyone). It was Chad's ride, but he didn't really have a solid route planned. Seemed like everyone turned to me to ask where we were going and what the pace was gonna be. We headed out of town on 60th St towards Booneville Road. It was quickly obvious that my pace was a lot slower than what most people wanted to ride today. We had some regroups to make sure that everyone was following the same route. Got about 15 miles in when Bach stopped and asked me for a multi tool to fix his loose pedal. Turns out that his pedal somehow got cross threaded and it was pulling out. We pulled it out of his crank arm, got it rethreaded as best as we could, and I sent him on the short route home. His pedal ended up coming out after a large downhill, but by that time, the fast guys had caught up to him and ended up towing and pushing him back. I ended up pulling sweeper duty, catching up to Doughty and Huerter in the process. After helping Terry with a flat, we both just cruised back in for a bit until he told me to go ahead ride without him. Stopped for some coffee with the fast guys before heading home. Got 30 or so miles rolled out in about 3 hours. In the end not a terribly satisfying ride for a number of reasons. Just one of those days I guess. At least the La Cruz is clean and I didn't spend the day inside on the rollers.

Sunday .783 Metric

I left the trailhead behind the Cumming tap this morning at 8 AM sharp. No one else showed up for the planned metric century. I wasn't too surprised as the winds were blowing at 20 MPH and no one else really needs to get outdoor miles this early due to their event schedules. I pulled the bike out of the truck and got down to business. A 1/2 mile of pavement followed by a quick mile jog north got me onto the planned route. I turned west and was blasted by the wind as I crossed the freeway. This wasn't going to be a fun day. My legs were feeling a little heavy, but I finally got into a rhythm and just kept driving west into the wind. I stopped to take a quick drink and realized that I had not heard the beep on my GPS and missed my turn south. Instead of turning back, I opted to keep heading west into the wind since the roads were in decent shape. As I passed near Earlham, I opted to go into town and grab a cup of coffee and a doughnut at Casey's. About that point I realized that I had probably didn't have the legs under me to ride a metric today. I had the hilliest part of the route ahead of me and the roads were starting to get soft under the now visible sun (BTW, it's been a while since we've seen that yellow ball around here). I put my helmet and balaclava back on and retraced the now softer roads back to Cumming. The rest of the ride was uneventful other than the ache in my legs and a couple of "oh crap" moments when my front wheel started washing out on some of the soft gravel downhills. Stopped in the Cumming tap after the ride and had a couple of pints of Fat Tire before heading home.

I would have liked to have gotten a full 62 or so in today, but it just wasn't in the cards for me after the trainer workout yesterday and the headwinds today. I still managed to get a good ride in today, so that's not all bad.

Saturday Metric report

Had a good group show up on Saturday morning. Managed to get them all inside where it was warm before all 10 of us took off around 8:45 AM for parts north and west from my house. Had four riders peel off at Granger due to time or other constraints. The rest of us took in an incredible display of atmospheric optics due to all of the ice in the air and then soldiered on to Woodward. Courtney, Billy and I were the only ones who continued to the turn around point in the middle of nowhere. After that, we nursed a now "deep in the bonk" Billy back to the Casey's in Woodward, where I had my wife pick him up. Courtney and I picked the pace up for the last 20 or so miles to finish the ride out around 3:30 PM. The thaw and head winds on the way back gave notice that I've lost a lot of fitness over the winter. I just didn't have enough power to really drive the bike through the soft, wet surface of a thawed gravel road at the speeds I would like. Time to get more miles in.

If the weather holds out, I'm planning on another one this weekend, leaving the Cumming Tap at 8:00 AM, and finishing there too. Route will either be a loop, or an out and back between Cumming and Winterset.

Photos from the ride are here.

Here we go

Commuted to work by bike 7 of the last 9 days that I've been back to work. 25-ish mile loop of town on the MTB with Squirrel, Blackford, Courtney, Bob, Terry and Nick last night. 100K gravel ride planned for this weekend. Only two days on the trainer so far. Life is good. I've sent out FB invites for the ride on Saturday. Feel free to show up at my place. Leaving at 8:30 AM.

Damn. That was quick

Registration for the Dirty Kanza 200 opened last night at 11:01 PM CST. The field of 150 riders (expanded to 160) was filled in right around 12 hours. I was fortunate enough to get in for the third year in a row. Looking over the confirmed rider list, I see a lot of strong riders. I expect that the eventual winner will have been run through the wringer by the time he or she crosses the finish line. Since the race is a week later, I'm expecting it to be even hotter than last year. Then again, we could just as easily be treated to rain and softball sized hail too. Regardless of the conditions, I'm looking forward to making the trip to Emporia again in early June.

Starting the year off right

Up at 6:15 AM on New Year's Day. Met a group at Hy-Vee on the corner of 74th and University for breakfast and then off to Steve and Nancy's place for a 2 hour spin on the trailer with eight other people. Good way to start the year. I still despise trainers.