Road to RAGBRAI: Errands

Distance: 22.2 mi / 35.7 km
Time: 1 hour 32 min / 40 min (total) 
Route Taken: Wal-Mart/College Square Mall

Today was meant to be a much shorter ride, maximum 25 miles. I didn't quite hit that mark but I think I did pretty good.

Karie and I went to Wal-Mart today to look at bike stuff. Yes, I realize that Wal-Mart doesn't scream "High quality goods" when it comes to bikes, but they sometimes have some good accessories. I was looking to see if they had bar ends, and she was looking for a computer, a tube bag like I have, and a lock. At least, that's what she bought.

The ride there was pretty decent. The wind wasn't nearly as bad as yesterday, thankfully. I had some residual soreness in my legs, a bit more in my butt. Not enough to prevent me from riding, thankfully. It wasn't too warm out, either, but it wasn't unpleasant at all.

I didn't find bar ends at Wal-Mart, so I convinced Karie to ride with me to Scheels at the mall. We had to take some actual roads for this trip, which is always a thrill ride. We didn't do too badly though, but people need to learn how to behave around bikes. Or more bike riders need to learn how to behave around cars so the people driving don't get all nervous around us. Well anyway, I guess paying attention is the most important part. We made it fine, although we had to circle the whole mall just to find the bike racks.

Scheels has a bike rack out front, but for some reason they seem to have decided to use it as advertising space. They had a bunch of used bikes all locked out front. There were only a couple of open spots, on the back of the rack, and that sort of annoyed me. At least they didn't take up the entire space.

Anyway, I found my bar ends, bought them, and we went back to Karie's house. I hung out for a bit, helped her install her new bike computer, and then I took off for home.

My second ride of the day was over to my best friend Dave's house to do laundry, and to make him install my new bar ends. We went and ate Hy-vee Chinese food in the meantime. After we got back, he installed them. He had to cut off the ends of my original grips, and bolt the new bars on the ends. It only took about 15 minutes to install both of them. I took them for a short test ride, and they were solid and felt pretty comfortable.

I left after finishing laundry and watching a couple episodes of River Monsters (one of my favorite shows!). On the ride home, I of course tested my new handlebars. The verdict? I love them. I feel like I have much more control than I did before. They especially help on hills. Switching hand positions to brake and shift will take a bit of getting used to, but I was already instinctively using them. The only downside I noticed was that the bare metal got a bit cold in the cooler air of the night, but I plan on buying some handlebar wrap tomorrow, so that will be taken care of soon.

I posted a picture of my new water bottle setup, too. Enjoy!

Road to RAGBRAI : Scaring Butterflies

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!