Sunday, January 27, 2013
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Looking Back - - - Looking Ahead
The New Years Holiday provides a great chance to look back at the adventures of the year gone past and look forward to the challenges that await.
2012 was a great year of cycling for me. I finished the year with 5615 miles, 3 more than last year. Its kind of funny that I could ride two full seasons and without planning it at all end up with almost exactly the same number of miles. Additionally, I finished 2012 with 6312 kilometers in RUSA sanctioned events. The highlight of my cycling year was a successful completion of the Shenandoah 1200K in June. As I detailed at the time, the ride was a tour of the mountains and beautiful backroads of Virginia. Other highlights of 2012 included the first ever ACP sanctioned brevets held in Black River Falls, Wisconsin and my first serious foray into ride organization as the Director of the Upper Midwest Fleche Get Together held in May.
Looking Back
2012 was a great year of cycling for me. I finished the year with 5615 miles, 3 more than last year. Its kind of funny that I could ride two full seasons and without planning it at all end up with almost exactly the same number of miles. Additionally, I finished 2012 with 6312 kilometers in RUSA sanctioned events. The highlight of my cycling year was a successful completion of the Shenandoah 1200K in June. As I detailed at the time, the ride was a tour of the mountains and beautiful backroads of Virginia. Other highlights of 2012 included the first ever ACP sanctioned brevets held in Black River Falls, Wisconsin and my first serious foray into ride organization as the Director of the Upper Midwest Fleche Get Together held in May.
Looking Ahead
2013 promises to just as interesting. Early on New Years morning, I was among the first to register for the Endless Mountains 1240K ride to be held in Eastern Pennsylvania in August. Apparently, my post-Shenandoah statements about never riding another mountainous 1200K didn't register. It could be that I have a serious case of randonnesia. In any event, Endless Mountains is probably the only US grand randonnee which can legitimately claim to be harder than Shenandoah.
I am also setting a goal of 5500 total miles and at least 5500 kilometers in RUSA sanctioned events. Stay tuned!
Happy New Years!!
Monday, October 22, 2012
6000K's
With this Saturday's ride of the Coulee Challenge Permanent, I reached my 2012 goal of 6,000 RUSA kilometers. Any RUSA organized brevets or permanents count towards the annual total. I reached my total by riding a variety of brevets in Minnesota and Missouri plus the Shenandoah 1200 in the Mid-Atlantic region. I also rode permanents in Wisconsin and Connecticut.
Saturday's ride was a mixed bag. The Coulee Challenge is a beautiful ride. It was even more beautiful than normal this time as the faded colors and bright sunshine of late fall covered the hillsides. On the negative side, I had only ridden three times in the last month and my lack of conditioning was obvious as I struggled to climb A-Hole and Tamarack Hills. I actually rode fairly well for the first 80-ish miles, but then things got lots harder. I did manage to push through and ended up finishing the 125 miles in 8 hours and 56 minutes. Not the fastest time ever, but pretty decent overall.
The season isn't quite over yet. I hope to get in a few more rides and keep enjoying the fall for as long as the weather allows.
Saturday's ride was a mixed bag. The Coulee Challenge is a beautiful ride. It was even more beautiful than normal this time as the faded colors and bright sunshine of late fall covered the hillsides. On the negative side, I had only ridden three times in the last month and my lack of conditioning was obvious as I struggled to climb A-Hole and Tamarack Hills. I actually rode fairly well for the first 80-ish miles, but then things got lots harder. I did manage to push through and ended up finishing the 125 miles in 8 hours and 56 minutes. Not the fastest time ever, but pretty decent overall.
The season isn't quite over yet. I hope to get in a few more rides and keep enjoying the fall for as long as the weather allows.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Rando Road Trip
Last weekend, the Minnesota Randonneurs came to Black River Falls for back-to-back brevets. The idea was that randonneurs would have the chance to ride some new routes and we would all have the chance to get together over some beer and a meal to tell stories from the road. Overall, I had a great weekend and I'm pretty sure the other riders enjoyed their time in West Central Wisconsin.
On Saturday, we rode the Coulee Challenge route. The Coulee is a 200 kilometer course through the Coulee region south and west of Black River Falls. Nine riders showed up for the challenge. When we left at 8:00, the temperature was around 40 degrees, a sure sign that fall is on the way. The nine of us quickly broke into 3 groups. A lead group of 2 riders, my group of 5, and 2 others sweeping the course. I rode all day with Rob Welsh, Mark Olsen, Kelly Hines, and Glenn Seager. We finished the course in 8:34 minutes. This time was over 40 minutes faster than I have ever covered the Coulee route. Saturday evening everyone came to our house for chile, beer and tall tales.
Sunday morning came way too early. I was feeling less than perfect when I wheeled to the Holiday station for the start of the Dairyland Dandy, another 200km brevet. Seven riders showed up at the start to give it a shot. Without any real plan, we reached a consensus to ride audax style, basically riding together all day. My day was a little odd. Leaving the start area, I had lots of trouble clipping into my pedals. After 2 or 3 miles, I was finally able to clip in, but it would be an all day problem. All told, I rode over 60 miles with only foot clipped in. By the end of the day, we got into a pattern of prying my pedal open at the control, putting my shoe in, putting my foot in and then getting on the bike. Not exactly convenient but it was good enough to get me home. We finished the route in 9:40. Not exactly fast, but it was lots of fun riding with some fun people and sharing good conversation.
All in all, the BRF weekend was a success and plans are already in the works to get this on the Minnesota Randonneurs calendar for 2012.
On Saturday, we rode the Coulee Challenge route. The Coulee is a 200 kilometer course through the Coulee region south and west of Black River Falls. Nine riders showed up for the challenge. When we left at 8:00, the temperature was around 40 degrees, a sure sign that fall is on the way. The nine of us quickly broke into 3 groups. A lead group of 2 riders, my group of 5, and 2 others sweeping the course. I rode all day with Rob Welsh, Mark Olsen, Kelly Hines, and Glenn Seager. We finished the course in 8:34 minutes. This time was over 40 minutes faster than I have ever covered the Coulee route. Saturday evening everyone came to our house for chile, beer and tall tales.
Sunday morning came way too early. I was feeling less than perfect when I wheeled to the Holiday station for the start of the Dairyland Dandy, another 200km brevet. Seven riders showed up at the start to give it a shot. Without any real plan, we reached a consensus to ride audax style, basically riding together all day. My day was a little odd. Leaving the start area, I had lots of trouble clipping into my pedals. After 2 or 3 miles, I was finally able to clip in, but it would be an all day problem. All told, I rode over 60 miles with only foot clipped in. By the end of the day, we got into a pattern of prying my pedal open at the control, putting my shoe in, putting my foot in and then getting on the bike. Not exactly convenient but it was good enough to get me home. We finished the route in 9:40. Not exactly fast, but it was lots of fun riding with some fun people and sharing good conversation.
All in all, the BRF weekend was a success and plans are already in the works to get this on the Minnesota Randonneurs calendar for 2012.
Friday, July 27, 2012
Pedaling New England
I've spent this week hanging out in Stonington, Connecticut with my family. We've been to the beaches, toured some historic sights, visited the Acquarium, done some shopping and made numerous strolls through Stonington Borough. I've also had the chance to enjoy some great cycling along the shaded, winding roads of the area. On Sunday, I rode 40 miles on a route I found on Ridewithgps.com. The route wound through the quiet roads around Stonington and Mystic with a nice mix of forested lanes, river views and seascapes. On Tuesday, I rode the Connecticut Yankee 107 km permanent route owned by Jennifer Wise. Jennifer's route included more country lanes and lots of historical sites. I especially enjoyed riding sections of the Washington-Rochambau route, this was part of the route Washington's armies travelled during the revolutionary war. The area was also flush with homes dating to the 1750's and lots of really old cemetaries.
On Thursday morning, Heather and I realized a long time desire to try out a tandem. We rode 40-ish miles in total. That included a redo of Sunday's route plus a section with the girls and Grandpa Tom along scenic River Road outside of Mystic. The tandem ride was really a lot of fun and we only had a couple of awkward moments. No crashes, no blood, and no "team meetings".
This morning, I got up early and did another 25 miles. All in all, I got in about 180 miles this week on vacation. I wasn't really expecting to find a cycling paradise in Connecticut but I think I just might have.
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