In Which We Face RAGBRAI

Boyson Road, Cedar Rapids. Morning skies have been a bit dramatic this week, what with overnight thunderstorms.

How do I feel going into RAGBRAI 2016?

A little tired—I woke up at 5 a.m. for no particular reason, on this, the day before the biking starts. I looked at my pile of luggage and realized the goal of “packing light” was a bit elusive (a twin-sized air mattress and pump take a lot of space).

Excited—I woke up at 5 a.m. for no particular reason, on the morning of a car ride across Iowa. It’s a state that is pretty exciting to bicycle across in a week, but not so fun to ride across in a day. Still, I woke up early today, as I think I do every Christmas. I could use a stocking full of candy right about now …

Ready—I think. My weight this morning was 252.3 pounds—my goal was to be in the 240s by RAGBRAI, but since I have in the past flirted with the 260s, I guess I’ll say 252 is OK. We’ll see what a week of pie does. I’ve not put in as many training miles as I wanted—no training century ride, for example—but I have trained. We’ll see if it was enough. But I’m physically feeling fairly ready.

This ride starts in Glenwood, where my first RAGBRAI began, and ends in Muscatine, where 40 years ago I graduated from high school. I didn’t make it to the reunion—honestly, I didn’t really try. High school was not a highlight of my life. Still, it will feel a little like coming home when I cycle into Muscatine.

The images are from Wednesday morning, my final practice rides up the Brentwood Hill. It took a bike bag exchange for me to get the “stuff” for the ride—and I found spare bike gloves just the day before RAGBRAI. So it feels as if my final prep was a bit haphazard, but I guess “a bit haphazard” is a description of my life’s journey so far.

We’ll see how RAGBRAI goes. I am taking a computer (packing light-ha!) so I will try to blog during the ride, although WIFI access isn’t always the best in tiny towns swelled to 10 times normal size by an invading horde of cell-phone toting party animals. Still, stay tuned, America! Or at least the handful of you that are readers of CR biker …

Two more sky views on my next circuit over the Brentwood Drive hill. On Brentwood near Boyson, looking to the east.

Soggy Day Blues

Biked to the gym this morning, figuring that the rain had ended, but the counterclockwise swing of rain behind a low caught me.

I had a very wet ride home. But, to be optimistic, when Audrey gave me a ride to campus, we brought my poor soggy bike along. Only 3 miles so far today--hope for some dryer and warmer weather his afternoon!

Hot Time on the Old Trail Today!

I made a little headway today on my "deficit." After the 55 mile ride Wednesday, it rained Thursday and I didn't bike. Today is very hot and humid, but I did two short rides--once to the gym in the morning, the second time to get a haircut and then up and down the Boyson Road trail.

That gave me about 10 miles today, for 115 this week--5 miles over the official RAGBRAI goal. I am still in the hole, but only by 93 miles, and may be caught up by the end of next week if I keep on pace. May not ride tomorrow due to family plans, but will probably ride Sunday, further adding to this week's extra miles.

MMU plans to have a group ride one day of RAGBRAI. I hope to see them, but am not sure if I will be "in the pack." For one thing, I didn't buy the team jersey (it cost $40 and I don't care for biking jersey's anyway), for another, they plan to start the ride at 8 a.m. I'm usually an early riser anyway, and my strategy for RAGBRAI is to get an early start, so I'm always done by the hot part of the day--my starting time on the 75-mile day may be closer to 6 a.m., or so I hope.

Anyway, my MMU colleague Jenifer describes her training experience. Like me, she rode the Hoover trail, but apparently suffered a little more. Well, hope she keeps at it and I hope to see her July 29!

30 Miles in 3 Different Shifts

Sitting in my dining room, with a sweatshirt on, it's almost hard to recall how warm it was yesterday.

But it was sunshine and 80 yesterday, and I put the day to good use. When I got up, I decided to ride my bike to the gym. After my workout, I went to the Boyson Road trail in Marion and rode the length of it, before returning home (and riding to the top of Brentwood Hill).

Later in the morning, I went to MMU, via bicycle, and after a couple of hours of work, headed home. But, when I took J Avenue to the trail, I headed south, rather than north. Rode past the new federal courthouse, took a detour to reconnect with the trail, but ended up turning back just before crossing the Cedar River (the grandkids are staying overnight when their mother gives birth to another grand child, and I wanted to be home well before the little guests showed up).

All in all, I calculate my total mileage Tuesday at around 30. That's pretty good, except I didn't ride today. Still, I am up to 40 miles this week--and hope to break the century barrier. I'll aim for at least one 50 mile day soon, as long as the weather and my time allows. Finally getting some longer RAGBRAI training rides in!

The Bike Deficit: Miles to Make Up

The numbers:

What the RAGBAI site suggested I should have ridden the past 4 weeks:

60, 80, 90, 105 miles.

What my guestimate of actual miles biked the past 4 weeks is:

40, 40, 60, 55

Rain accounts for the 55, which would be more like 65 or 70. And the deficit doesn't depress me too much because I new I would be "short" until school ends.

But, I've got a lot of riding to catch up on. It's like grading. You get behind one week and next week students turn in a new bath of assignment and voila! The semester is almost over and you feel guilty about taking a 15-minute grade brake to write a quick, whiney training post.

Well. Back to grading.

The Accidental Training Ride

Jon posted on Facebook that anything he cooks tastes great after a 50-mile training ride.

Have not done that distance yet, but I did some extra riding yesterday, partly by accident. The Mount Mercy University "Times" student newspaper staff planned an end-of-year part at Buffalo Wild Wings, which is in my neighborhood.

Not really my kind of place. I don't drink with students, so I couldn't have a beer, and it would taken a fair quantity of beer for me to enjoy this establishment. I don't like "loud," I'm not into sports and I prefer some salad with my meal. But, it was good to sit and shout-chat with the students for a while.

During the party, I got a text from Audrey that she and the grandkids were at a park. They were actually at Bever Park in Cedar Rapids, but for some reason--distracted, no doubt, by 1,000 decibels of background "music," I mis-read the name as Thomas Park, in Marion.

I got the text as I was leaving the Bar/Restaurant/Pit of flashing images and Hellish noise. I hopped on old blackie, headed over to the Boyson Road bike trail which leads to Thomas Park.

It was very crowded, but I didn't see our dull red Chevy minivan, so I texted Audrey and discovered by errors. So I simply rode the rest of the trail, including a new side trail that, so far, ends in the midst of nowhere. I'm not sure if this is the part that eventually might tie into the CENMAR Trail from Cedar Rapids, but right now it leads to a rough dead end.

Still, its was a fun ride. I knew it would be a good day, despite morning grey skies. The afternoon was the perfect, partly-cloudy, post rain, slightly warmish day that makes part of an Iowa spring great.

On the way to and from the trail, I climbed the Bowman Woods hill on my bike--good hill training. The tree in sunset is the "summit ash," luckily not removed yet as the city has taken out some ash trees in the neighborhood--the summit ash, on a side street of off Brentwood Drive is, as far as I can tell, the hightest point in my neck of the woods. I went by it on the way back home form the trail. The other photo I shot earlier Thursday, on Eastern Avenue, not far from MMU, just to show how pretty a day it was even on just a plain old street.

As I said, a nice day for a ride. Not time yet for a 50-mile one, but soon, Jon, soon.

Sticky, Warm, Summer Ride

Wow.

It is HOT today, for a big middle-aged biker.

I decided to devote more than an hour to biking on my way to work this morning--I was leaving home before 8 and figured I could afford to get in at 9. So I went to the Cedar Valley Nature Trail and headed north for 3 1/2 miles to where the pavement ends. Photo is idyllic country view at the turnaround point of my ride, looking west from the trail.

I got there in 15 minutes. I was biking about 15 mph. Folks, for me, that's lightning. I was feeling pretty smug.

Until I started biking back. Oh. That wind, that steady strong breeze that's attempting to move me to Waterloo, that moving air was what pushed me to the that speed, and I have to fight it all the way to MMU.

I arrived, somewhat after 9 a.m., and I calculate that with the ride to the trail, 7 miles headed north and back, that I can credit myself with 15 miles from just this morning's ride. That means, a minimum, this will be a 20-mile day, and if I bike a second time to campus later today (I plan to for bell practice), that means I'll put in 30 miles. I won't have time for many 30 mile days before graduation, but if I can squeeze in one a week, well, that's helpful!

And on this muggy, July-like day, doing half of those miles before 9:15 a.m. was a very good idea.

Lucky 13 Photos From 20 Mile Ride Today

Today, I rode my bike out to the 7 mile marker on the Cedar Valley Nature Trail and back again.

From my house, it took me 25 minutes to get to the Boyson Road trail head, about the same time it takes me to ride 5 miles to Mount Mercy. So, let’s conservatively say that I rode 3 miles to get to the trail, 7 miles out and back and another 3 home. Voila! 20 miles!

It took me 2 ½ hours, which is pretty darn slow, but I timed the first few trail miles carefully, and I was going at 12 miles per hour (5 minute miles). At that pace, why did it take so long? Well, the trail is not paved after about 4 miles, and recent rains left the limestone path a bit mushy, so I’m sure I slowed down. I’m also sure I sped up at the end, because the wind favored me heading south and I rode in 15^th gear, which I had not used headed into the wind, but the slowness of the mushy trail more than made up for the wind-enhanced speed.

I stared on the trail at 5:27 and returned to the zero mile marker at 7:05. Obviously, I fell behind the 12 mph pace. I was hoping to approach 15 mph, because that would mean a 75 mph RAGBRAI day would be a 5-hour ride, but I’m not riding that fast.

Anyway, pace is not as important as endurance. My back is pretty stiff and my butt is not happy with me right now, but I’m thinking my legs, in particular, my knees, may be able to survive RAGBRAI if I keep pushing the distance.

Of course, I don’t know if I’m in RAGBRAI yet, but I’m getting ready just in case! The day was a bit breezy, cloudy and cool when I rode, but I’m sure glad to have this trail handy.

Sadly, lots of trees have been mowed down on the stretch I rode in preparation for paving work. Then again, I have to admit that my ride kind of showed the need for asphalt on that part of the trail!

I hope sometime in early June maybe Cate and I can ride to Urbana. That would be a 13 mile trip there, for 26 miles on the trail or around 32 overall from my house. About half an easy RAGBRAI day.

Notes on photos:

First one is zero miles as I start the trail.

Second is six mile marker, where I first considered turning around.

Third, a robin yelled at me at the six mile marker while I was thinking of turning back, so I felt duty bound to go on for another mile.

Fourth, the seven mile marker where I did turn around.

Fifth, this sign amused me. No matter how fast you ride your bike, I think you could tell that there is a tunnel up ahead in plenty of time.

Sixth, a view of the next tunnel (headed south now). Requires no warning sign other than a generic wildlife one, I guess.

Seven—mushy trail north of five mile marker.

Eight—another reason ride took a bit of time—stopping to take all these photos. For this one I dismounted (yes, it’s my bike). Some of the county equipment that is ripping out trees to get ready for paving a stretch of the trail.

Nine—some removed trees left neat stumps. Others looked like they used dynamite to cut them.

Ten—mushy trail on Otter Creek bridge. Don’t know why, but it surprised me the deck of a bridge would be so mushy.

Eleven, looking west at Otter Creek.

Twelve-one mile marker, almost back to end of trail. Sumac grown here where power lines cross trail, somehow this photo captures both the beauty of nature and the bleakness of this particular day. I’m fond of Sumac, not poison Sumac but the generic, harmless bush commonly found in sunny forest glades in Iowa. It has attractive foliage and interesting fruit.

Thirteen, just for my plant fans, a final look at some Sumac near mile marker one.

Well, I survived the ride. I’m ready for more journeys!

Snow on the daffodils in the a.m., biking in the p.m.

I used this photo in my other blog, which has a gallery of photos from the snow this morning. See it here.

Anyway, despite rain yesterday followed by a brief, but intense, snow this morning, I was able to ride old blackie to the office this afternoon. It was windy, cloudy and cool, and the wind made biking not as pleasurable as it can be.

But it was doable. And I'm glad I did it.

By late in the afternoon, the sky was a mix of clouds and sun. Despite the persistent wind, I took a long way home--partly because I want to increase my weekend riding in preparation for RAGBRAI.

I headed down J Avenue near the MMU campus and wento the Cedar Vally Trail, heading south to downtown Cedar Rapids. I'm not sure why, but I enjoy this ride a lot. You go by a trout stream, which morphs into a concrete culvert, then a lake (with a hissing steam pipe and railroad tracks on your other side) through the Quaker Oaks factory complex and on through downtown.

The contrasts are amazing, and the transit through downtown, while requiring vigilance, pretty easy.

My ride ended at the site of the massive new federal courthouse. The trail simply runs smack into a fence there. I suppose I could have found a way around, but with the wind and the chill, decided it was time to head home.

Heading home meant riding into a stiff headwind, and I was glad I had not ridden further in this, my first training ride.

Well, even with the chill, it was a nice ride. Many more to come, I hope.

And yes, bike shop, it was a little damp. I'll be good and use my chain lube.