Mulberries and Turtles Take a Back Seat to Math

Oy! (In the voice of Sarah from Orphan Black.) I had this blog post sort of set in my head, figuring that I'd pull some photos off the web to illustrate the toasty 80-mile ride that I took today, but that I neglected to photograph.

For example, I'd tell you about weaving my way through Eagan, stopping to eat many handfuls of mulberries, which are about 3 weeks behind normal years, due to our long winter. I had to wash my hands 5 times to get all the blue juice off of my fingers.

Courtesy of someone's Pinterest site.

I'd tell you about seeing varying heights of corn in the fields near Rosemount, much of which will not be knee-high by the 4th of July.

I'd describe riding through Spring Lake Park, which I find so pretty and have not yet stopped to take any pictures.

When I searched Google images,
my friend Deb's photo from her blog
showed up in my search results!
Yay, Deb!

I'd relate how I found a baby snapping turtle by the lock and dam by Hastings, no longer than my index finger from nose to tail tip, that writhed when I picked it up to move it off the trail. It wiggled as much as Piper does when I try to pick her up.

Courtesy of the Southwest Journal (not sure
which SW Journal, but...)

I'd relate the tale of finding a different (and much less good!) route back to Minneapolis.

But, then, for the heck of it, before typing, I thought I'd check the ratio of altitude per distance on my bike rides this week and see how I'm doing with my hill training for the Waves to Wine Bike MS Ride, from South San Francisco up into wine country in September.

Uhm, well, the only ride that I did this week that meets the ratio of miles/altitude as the CA ride is the hill training route that the Minnesota Molly (versus my sister Molly) shared with me, which she fondly calls "Prescription for Pain." Oy! I'm going to have to ride that route - in full - twice - to replicate the distance and climbing of the CA ride. Uhm. Ouch!

On the bright side, the organizers of the Waves to Wine Ride have emailed me a few different times to make sure that I have the info I need and to see if I want to join a team for the event. That sure is nice and welcoming. But yikes. I'm going to need to really focus on hills, in this flat place.

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/GoMaggieGo