Well, I decided to use this thing again.
The reason I am beginning to post again is that I will be doing quite a bit in the next couple of months to prepare for RAGBRAI. That stands for "Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa". It is a week long ride in July across the state of Iowa. This year's ride is 471 miles (758km), which is about average as far as distances go.
Obviously, this sort of thing requires a lot of preparation, both on and off the bike. I have to get my bike that I'm using (a late-90s Trek mt bike), my legs, my butt, and my confidence all ready to go. A few obstacles are money, time, energy, and a few persistent health problems, but I should be able to make considerable progress.
I'll address the issues individually as they arise, but for now, lets talk about today's bike ride.
Distance: 22.1 miles / 35.5 km
Time: 1 hour 55 minutes
Route Taken: Riverside Loop / Big Woods Loop
I didn't really intend for today's ride to be nearly as long as it turned out. I was, at first, just going to ride the Riverside loop, a total distance of about 12 miles. However, after I got going, I managed to talk myself into going further. "I will not get better unless I push myself," I thought, "so let's go for it." I'm pretty glad that I did.
The weather today was beautiful. This last month or so has been a mix of windy, cold, and rainy, and it was beginning to interfere with my desire to ride. I suppose that is April in Iowa for you. The forecast said 72 degrees with only a little bit of wind, so it was much better today. It was only barely in the 60s when I started off this morning, but warmed up quite a bit during the two hours I was out.
I did the Riverside Loop first. I only passed a few people out, but I guess 10 am is a bit early. For a majority of the ride, it was just me and the butterflies. There were hundreds resting along the sides of the trail, and they would take flight when I rode past them. I felt like I was in some sort of Disney movie or something, although in Disney movies the butterflies don't go splat if they don't get out of the way in time. Thankfully I only hit a couple, and those bounced off my arms or legs. I'm sure they're still okay, somehow.
I took my first break when I got up to Big Woods, after about 11 miles of riding. I parked myself at a bench a short distance from a pair of geese, who looked at me warily but otherwise didn't move. As soon as I stopped, it started to sprinkle rain. It only did this for about 5 minutes, and the sun shone the entire time. After a few minutes of walking out some leg stiffness (and butt pain), I was on my way again.
I did a lap and a half around Big Woods lake, and then proceeded the rest of the Big Woods loop. This trail system goes through North Cedar, the part of town, well, north of the Cedar River. It runs through Blackhawk park, and then back to downtown. I managed to make the whole thing without stopping until I got back downtown. By then, my butt hurt so bad I had to get off of it for a little while. This was my second break; walking in circles around a picnic table in a small pedestrian area next to the Ice House Museum. I only stayed there about 5 minutes as well, before riding the mile and a half remaining back to my house.
This ride set a good baseline. I now sort of have an idea of how long I can make it before either my legs or butt give out. This is a figure I need to at least double before ragbrai...and I have 3 months to do it.
I work tonight, and I usually ride my bike to work (a round trip distance of 10.4 miles) but I'm not sure if I'll do so or not tonight. I have a couple of hours to decide this, I guess.
The next big ride tentatively scheduled for Thursday morning. Hopefully I'll make 25-30 miles this time. Wish me luck!
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