Road to RAGBRAI: Old Enemy

Distance: 41 mi / 65.9 km
Time: 3 hours 54 minutes
Route Taken: Cedar Prairie Loop, Greenhill Trail

Today could have been the perfect day to ride a bike. Lower 70s, low humidity, sunny, no rain, slight breez-wait no. The breeze wasn't slight.

I knew going into today's ride that there would be a pretty heavy wind (since I check the weather). Out of the west, which is probably the worst place it can come from on my long-distance days. You see, I live on the west side of town, which means pretty much any riding I do back home is...heading west. Usually up a hill, as well.

I set off to ride anyway, because if it's like this on ragbrai I would have to tough it out. I hadn't even gotten to Greenhill road when my asthma started acting up.

I've had some pretty bad history with my asthma. It seems that nearly everything triggers it: heat, humidity, allergens, walking fast, running, going up stairs, and aerosols (like spray air fresheners and perfume). Biking is about the only exercise I can do without feeling like I'm drowning. Today, however, was apparently going to be an exception. I took my inhaler, and it at least opened my airways enough that regular riding didn't trigger it.

This is when I mention the wind again. The forecast had said 14 mph with 23 mph gusts, which turned out to be wrong. The regular wind was blowing about 25 and the gusts had to be up to 40. While I made sure I didn't ride into the wind for most of the trip, there were times, of course, I had to ride directly into it.

Any exertion today (hills, standing, and yes, wind) made me short of breath. It was the worst riding back along Highway 20, before the trail turned north again. After I rode through those hills against the wind, I had to stop and catch my breath (and hack up all sorts of fun things).

I don't mean to spend the entire time complaining, however. While I was a few miles short of my goal of 45 miles today, my legs held up just fine the entire time. This is quite the improvement from Friday, where my muscles hurt for 2 days. I don't thing that will happen today. I can tell that I'm getting stronger, even if it's slowly.

I will be back on the bike tomorrow (for a shorter ride) if my butt doesn't hurt too much. Hopefully my asthma behaves tomorrow...

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...