Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Road to RAGBRAI: Punishing Winds

Distance: 40.3 mi / 64.9 km
Time: 3 hours 35 min 
Route Taken: Riverside/Cedar Prairie Loop/Big Woods Loop

My goal that I set today was 40 miles. I got ready and walked out of my house to...wind. Lots of wind.

I started off with a tailwind, which is fun of course, but meant that I would be riding home in a headwind. I still went out and did it, though.

I was originally going to take the Cedar Prairie trail the opposite direction that I did last time, but I changed my mind and went on the Greenhill trail. I decided to stop at Europa (the bike store) to get a 2nd water bottle cage put on my bike, as I'm quickly finding out that one bottle of water is not nearly enough. I want to get a rack bag too, but I don't get paid until Thursday so that will have to wait. I'm probably going to buy one online. The cheapest one that they have at Europa is 50 dollars, and I don't really like that one. I'll look around more later today.

I went down the south riverside trail to get to the Cedar Prairie trail and...turned into the headwind. The next 10  miles or so it blew at me diagonally, making things a bit more difficult than it should have been. I was exhausted after 20 miles but after a short break, I kept pushing myself. I swore a few times, and got stared at a lot. I guess I looked like I was working hard or something.

I took the trail all the way up to Big Woods, and after resting another 10 minutes, took the loop through Blackhawk Park. Another 2 miles into the headwind. The return trip was tailwind, and somehow that gave me enough energy and motivation to do the last 2 miles home; uphill and against the wind.

I made my goal, thankfully. I haven't decided if I'm going to ride tomorrow or not. I should try to get at least 20 miles in, but we'll see how my legs feel tomorrow. I'm exhausted.

No pictures today, since I managed to forget my memory card for the camera...

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