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| June 23--Early morning ride on very hot summer day, bike near C Avenue on Lindale Trail. |
The last time I didn’t ride RAGBRAI, my family team and I made up for it with alternative, non-RAGBRAI miles. Not so, this year--some are riding some of RAGBRAI while I am sidelined.
As of today, I have biked 711.87 miles in 2025—a pretty low figure for this point in recent years. My riding has been constrained by serious health issues—I had heart bypass surgery in January and was subsequently knocked off two wheels for a while.
I was back to riding in a couple of months, but a lingering heart flutter kept me from longer rides—and now I’m off the bike again due to yet another heart treatment. I developed a heart flutter following my bypass surgery, and the flutter required what’s called a cardiac ablation. On Tuesday of this week, they put me to sleep and snaked a needle through my veins to my heart, where some tissue was frozen to end the errant nerve signals causing the flutter and to put my heart back into normal rhythm.
And now I have to take a week off from most activities, including biking, in order to recover from that procedure. We’ve had some beautiful days this week which I have been watching from a recliner in my living room. Not to complain too much—the procedure was apparently successful and the recovery is far less onerous and lengthy than the one that followed the surgery.
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| July 10--Above and below--Black Swallowtail Butterfly seen at Hanna Park garden in Marion during bike ride. |
Still, no RAGBRAI riding for me this year. Good luck those of you that are setting out Sunday, crossing the state the west to east, I’ll be thinking of you and hoping you have a good ride.
In the meantime, if all goes well (and the first two days of recovery have gone well), I should be back on a bike by the end of next week.
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| June 13--Pretty day, late afternoon ride, bike at north end of Creek Trail near Tower Terrace Road. |
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| June 14--Two rides totaling more than 14 miles. Evening ride, final one before heart procedure, is to see grandson play baseball in Marion. On the ride, I encounter one of those indifferent deer on the Lindale Trail--it's such a heavily used trail with woods that deer love that they become too used to humans. |
I rode over 14 miles on July 14 and had my heart procedure July 15. I expected my miles in June to exceed my May miles. That did not happen—I rode 228.9 miles in May but 228.78 miles in June. So, I was not off much, but weather got more complicated at the end of June and my heart flutter was getting to me, a bit, making my rides shorter.
We’ll see what tomorrow brings. Tomorrow as in the vague future that starts in the second half of next week when I can start riding again. It’s been an interesting summer in Iowa, some very hot weather, but no extreme heat, and the June wet period has lasted into July, when a dry time usually starts.
Recent rides may have been a bit short, but have also been pleasant and pretty. I’m looking forward to rolling across my corner of Iowa again soon—I hope to see some of you out there on the trails next week!
Still, no RAGBRAI riding for me this year. Good luck those of you that are setting out Sunday, crossing the state the west to east, I’ll be thinking of you and hoping you have a good ride.
