3rd is a 100
On Sunday I finally got out for my 3rd ride this season. Schedule and weather have limited my outdoor riding time so far this season. Besides the wind, the weather Sunday was very nice. This was a big relief, again except for the wind, when you are about to spend several hours on a bike. Why several hours? Well Sunday was the annual MN Ironman Bicycle ride. So for me, my third ride of the season was going to be my first century ride. Not exactly how I would prefer things to go, but in the end it worked out.
SafetyBob and I set out about 7:30 to start the long ride. The first few stages went really well. We found some good groups to ride with. This helped out a ton with the wind factor. The wind was 15-20 mph most of the day with gusts up to 30 mph in some spots. Which was not rider friendly by any means, but you couldn’t argue too much with it being in the low 80’s and mostly sunny. Back to the ride…The first 50 miles ticked off pretty smoothly despite the wind and hills. The stops were great with a lot of food and fluids for the riders. The next 30 miles or so were pretty challenging with a lot more rolling hills and the wind to boot. By the time we reached the final rest stop we were more then ready for a break. Finally we arrived at the last stop where people like Ms. R and Kimmi were waiting. The two of them, along with other from the team were doing the 62 miles route and it was nice to see another familiar face. It was short lived as they had to leave shortly after we arrived. (Since there were nice enough to wait for us in the first place) We took a few extra minutes to rest before tackling the final stage. Even though we were tired and sore the first 80+ miles had gone pretty well. The last stage proved to be the hardest, which I guess it should. The wind had picked up even more and there were more hills. You would have thought that we were use to them by now, but at that point we just wanted to be done. The last leg was our slowest, but we finally managed to make our way to the end. After 6:05 of ride time we coasted down the little hill into the high school parking lot were the event was being staged. Boy was I glad to be done.
After a quick shower, to rinse off the 100 miles of grime, we all headed to Old Chicago to fill up our empty stomachs with food and fluids. There may or may not have been a few alcoholic beverages consumed. All I can say is that my initial order amounted to three different beverages being placed in front of me. Which totally rocked!
In the end it was a great day even though I’m quite sore and tired today. You couldn’t have asked for a much better day, except for the stupid wind. We had a lot of fun, got in a huge workout, and made some great strides towards September. It just would have been nicer to get a couple more rides in beforehand. I’ll have to work on that next year.
Hope you all had a great weekend…
SafetyBob and I set out about 7:30 to start the long ride. The first few stages went really well. We found some good groups to ride with. This helped out a ton with the wind factor. The wind was 15-20 mph most of the day with gusts up to 30 mph in some spots. Which was not rider friendly by any means, but you couldn’t argue too much with it being in the low 80’s and mostly sunny. Back to the ride…The first 50 miles ticked off pretty smoothly despite the wind and hills. The stops were great with a lot of food and fluids for the riders. The next 30 miles or so were pretty challenging with a lot more rolling hills and the wind to boot. By the time we reached the final rest stop we were more then ready for a break. Finally we arrived at the last stop where people like Ms. R and Kimmi were waiting. The two of them, along with other from the team were doing the 62 miles route and it was nice to see another familiar face. It was short lived as they had to leave shortly after we arrived. (Since there were nice enough to wait for us in the first place) We took a few extra minutes to rest before tackling the final stage. Even though we were tired and sore the first 80+ miles had gone pretty well. The last stage proved to be the hardest, which I guess it should. The wind had picked up even more and there were more hills. You would have thought that we were use to them by now, but at that point we just wanted to be done. The last leg was our slowest, but we finally managed to make our way to the end. After 6:05 of ride time we coasted down the little hill into the high school parking lot were the event was being staged. Boy was I glad to be done.
After a quick shower, to rinse off the 100 miles of grime, we all headed to Old Chicago to fill up our empty stomachs with food and fluids. There may or may not have been a few alcoholic beverages consumed. All I can say is that my initial order amounted to three different beverages being placed in front of me. Which totally rocked!
In the end it was a great day even though I’m quite sore and tired today. You couldn’t have asked for a much better day, except for the stupid wind. We had a lot of fun, got in a huge workout, and made some great strides towards September. It just would have been nicer to get a couple more rides in beforehand. I’ll have to work on that next year.
Hope you all had a great weekend…
posted by walchka at 11:30 AM
1 Comments:
Nice 3rd ride!! Old chicago is where the gearwesties go to after a good ride.
hey my IMMoo brother..wish me luck on my first 1/2 iron this weekend....Yikes.
Post a Comment
<< Home