A full fall

Well, the days are definitely getting shorter and it is getting colder. After an amazingly nice day on Saturday and a "great for November" Sunday, I see some snow in the forecast. Which means that I hopefully will be ramping up my visits to the fancy new bike I bought and put in the decidedly not-fancy, nearly 100-year old basement. It (the bike, not the basement) has a screen and whatnot, and a variety of biking and non-biking classes, nearly all of which are really quite good. I should have visited the bike today after a long day at work, but instead decided to do some bona fide cooking for dinner, which was restorative in its own way.

What follows isn't a full report of what I have been doing since I last posted, but here are some highlights.

In early October, we went to NYC with our friends Kristin and Steve, while Haley had her first-ever (and successful!) slumber party over at Pierre's house. It really is noteworthy because we've worked really hard to make her less reactive around other dogs and, while she'll never be a dog park kind of dog, she can apparently stay in at least one house with another dog when we're out of town and peacefully co-exist. Many thanks to Susan and Eric for being amenable to that. Oh, NYC! It was a great trip, with really effective COVID precautions. The weather was great and we did a full-day bike tour of Brooklyn. Riding in NYC is pretty different than riding in MSP.

Little dog on the big bed,
big dog on the little bed. It never fails.

I did several rides with my friend Matt, did a western suburb ride with a guy I met through the Twin Cities Bicycling Club (TCBC) named Adams, sadly stopped doing weeknight rides with TCBC and the Major Taylor Bicycling Club, started taking Irish dance classes again, and had a fun trip with my friend Marcy (we don't get to see each other enough) to see Beth (my stepmom) and got to do a big nature hike and watch lots of Ted Lasso. That was a big sentence. I also took Haley for lots of walks at the state park after work.

For Halloween, I pulled out the lederhosen sweatsuit that I ordered during the fall of 2020 to make me laugh on dark COVID days, and ordered a hat. I got to wear my costume to Irish dance, on the TCBC Halloween bike ride that Matt and I did (he won third prize for his costume!), and when I handed out candy to trick-or-treaters. It was pretty chilly on Halloween, so I pulled the fire ring thing out front, sat by the fire with lots of clothes on under my lederhosen, and pointed kids toward a big bowl and said, "take 3 pieces." It was so fun to have a costume, and a decent one at that!

Matt's costume garnered lots of comments on the bike trails
from people coming from the other direction.

I am still laughing.

Jess is a TCBC rider and was the
most welcoming person when I first
started riding with the club in the spring.

Stacy always has her feet
lined up better than I do. 

Last week and this past weekend, I spent a lot of time consulting with Stephen from the Angry Catfish about new biking shoes and the bizarre placement of my old cleats. I rode about 60 miles with Matt on Saturday (beautiful weather!) on a really fun route he put together with lots of zigzagging and backtracking throughout the city. And then, on Sunday, I rode about 55 miles with Adams to show him the route to Grey Cloud Island. It was a colder day, which always makes my muscles more sore. It was also the first day I wore my new biking shoes, and with cleats in more normal spots. My back hardly hurt. I am wondering if half of my back pain was self-induced by not noticing that my left cleat was really far forward in my shoe. In a way, I hope so (even though that is annoying), because maybe that means my back will feel better down the road - provided I do all the core stuff I'm supposed to be doing. 

Matt's Saturday route. I made myself a cue sheet.
Thankfully, there was nothing resembling snow.
It was sunny and perfect. 

Grey Cloud Island on Sunday. It was chilly,
but still nice for November. Lots of birds.

Generally cleats (especially for a shorter person)
should be toward the heel of the foot (like on the right).
Regardless, they generally should be in the same place
on each foot. For some reason, I feel like this
was purposeful placement four years ago,
but Stephen says that seems pretty unlikely and
likely was something that was loose, shifted,
and undetected by me. Who knows?

And so we'll see what the conditions are like for the remainder of the year. Last year I rode pretty solidly into mid-December, but I'm glad to have an indoor option this year to supplement whatever I might do outside. October was a full month. I was packing it in, in anticipation of the change of seasons, and am grateful that I was so lucky to do so much.

Three is a Magic Number

"Yes it is, it's a magic number
Somewhere in that ancient mystic trinity
You get three as a magic number
The past and the present and the future
Faith and hope and charity
The heart and the brain and the body
Give you three as a magic number

It takes three legs to make a tripod or to make a table stand
It takes three wheels to make a vehicle called a tricycle
And every triangle has three corners
Every triangle has three sides
No more, no less, you don't have to guess
When it's three, you can see
Its a magic number..."

We had plans tonight to meet a group of old friends for dinner on one couple's deck. 

One of the six friends who Dan and I hung out with: Christine!
I hadn't seen her since just before COVID. (p.s. 53 degrees)

Since I had that preexisting plan, I couldn't attend the Major Taylor Cycling Club end-of-season BBQ. And since I couldn't go to that, and the days are getting shorter and colder, I figured today would be a good day to meet my goal of doing 3, 100-mile rides this season. And I did! 

But it was hard. I haven't been riding much. Also, when I left my house just before 7:30 this morning, it was 43 with a wind chill of 39. Oy! 

~ 8:30 am: Hat, headband over the ears,
arm warmers, wool shirt, yellow pullover,
yellow vest, and a wool neck buff.

Biking shorts, street capris,
knee high wool socks, shoe covers,
two pairs of thin full-fingered gloves.

And I didn't drink as much water as I should have. And there was a tail wind for the last 10 miles or so. I couldn't quite figure out how to work the Club ride in to my longer ride for today, and I really wanted to catch up with my cycling friend Matt, so I did a 30-mile, not-direct ride to his house, we rode 44 miles to Hastings and back, and then I rode 26 back home.

I forgot how pretty it is around Hastings, Spring Lake Park, and the Mississippi and Vermillion Rivers. We got chased by some fat dogs, saw a lot of chickens and turkeys, and had to dodge people as they did a Beer Run. About 14 miles from home, when riding into the wind, thinking of my sore back, calculating how to make sure to hit 100 miles, and likely dehydrated, a very good looking man came up beside me on his bike - like a mirage. He slowed down to say to me, "I thought this would be a less windy road!" and then he very politely picked up his pace and left me in his dust. That little interaction put a little spring in my... pedals, and I'm grateful to him. 

So yeah, when I realized I couldn't do a 300-mile week of riding, I told my BikeMS donors (thanks, guys!) that I decided to do 3, 100-mile rides. I tried four, but had to bail on the first due to a thunderstorm. I'm tired and my back is sore, but I'm very glad that I was able to get that in before October. (Last October, we had a huge snow storm, so who knows what is on deck for this year?)

Livin' La Vida Loca

Well, not exactly. But I sure have done a lot of biking this week, in addition to other things to keep me out of trouble. From Tuesday through today, I've ridden 223 miles. And, if you add in last weekend's rides, that's another 91 miles. I have about 2,300 miles in for 2021 so far, which is pretty much on par with last year when I rode shorter distances but much more regularly to stay sane during an unvaccinated COVID summer.

So, what's been keeping me busy since I last posted something here?

Well, I went to St. Louis for a memorial service and to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousins. Then, I went to Wisconsin with my sister and niece to visit Beth (my stepmom).

I took my fat tire bike, rode with Beth,
and then rode to the state park.

We then caravanned (that looks weird, but I think it might actually be correct?!?) to northern Wisconsin and visited my mom and Terry. Terry took this photo of the ladies, but I didn't have their permission to post their photos and my niece had not yet put on her makeup for the day, so I redacted them from this photo. It makes me laugh. What is that face? Ha.

Well, hello.

I ate so many desserts on that trip that my clothes are still a little snug. Success! 

I did some bike rides with a couple of friends, went and saw the dancers at Irish Fair, met friends from the east coast for dinner on a patio, went to an outdoor concert with my brother and sister-in-law (compliments of my other brother who was unloading tickets for free), took a meal to a friend who is not well and had a nice talk with her, and took the dog for some walks and had a private backyard training session with the dog trainer (and the dog, of course).

Look at that tongue. She's so cute. I really like her.

I also, perhaps obviously, did some rides with the clubs I belong to.

There's a cooler shot of this background view
that I posted on Facebook, but I thought
 I should show some proof that I was there.
Someone on the ride had a flat, so we had this nice scenic break.  

The Major Taylor club, including me, eating a
Pearson's Nut Roll, provided support for
the Ride for Reparations. I rode at the back
with a walkie talkie and helped change
flat tires and things like that. It was a ride
to different sites in the city to learn about
the practice of restrictive covenants - a
form of structural racism with impacts
carrying over to today - with funds
raised going to organizations serving Black people.

I'm really trying to get better with the selfies.

I took this photo of the totally dry creek while
on the Ride for Reparations. We've been hit hard
with a drought, although the creek has some water
now - we got just under of 5 inches of rain this week.
That's more than we've had all summer.

This week, I did my third attempt at a 100-mile bike ride this summer and succeeded (for the second time)! I rode up the river to the Coon Rapids Dam, rode over to Elm Creek Park, and to the city of Maple Grove. I met up with some members of the Twin Cities Bicycling Club and rode to places I'd never been. Who knew there was a Rockford, Minnesota? There was a pretty river that we rode by and, unfortunately, there were a lot of dead turtles on the road. I then navigated my way home through Plymouth (I think?) and some other western suburbs and around the lakes and back home. 

The Luce Line trail - - still about 15-18 miles from home.
I almost ran over a snake in this area.

Then, this weekend, I rode with the Major Taylor club and, after that, we met up with another group that was hosting a ride to help a diverse group of inexperienced riders get more familiar with riding. I hung in the back, transporting someone's water bottle that kept falling off her bike and then providing moral support to a guy who was changing his flat tire. 

I never really knew what
I looked like from the rear.
This is the bridge really close to my house.
I rarely ride over it, but I walk over it
nearly every day.

The outreach ride.

Then today my friend Matt and I did kind of a crappy route. The scenery was good (I didn't take any pictures - doh!) but the traffic was not ideal. And there were a lot of dead snakes, in addition to other roadkill. But it still was a great day of riding. 

So, on the fundraising front - - people very generously donated $4,800 ($300 and $4,500) to the MS Society in support of my riding/fundraising, and I am so appreciative. https://mssociety.donordrive.com/participant/GoMaggieGo-2021

Technically, I have met my end of the bargain - I did TRY three 100-mile rides this season. But I only did two. It seems like I really need to still do that third one, so stay tuned! 

35+59+6 = 100!

I had been planning for yesterday to be my second attempt at a century ride. (You may recall that since I can't do a 5-day, 300-mile BikeMS ride this week like in past years, I said I would try to do 3, 100-mile rides this year. I've never done three centuries in once season, so it is a formidable goal. For me, anyhow.)

I got a nice route suggestion from this great woman Jean but ended up scrapping it when I saw a 51-ish-mile ride pop up on the Twin Cities Bicycling Club calendar for yesterday. I thought that I'd do 50 solo and 50 with the club. 

I ended up riding 35 miles to the start of the club ride, leaving my house at 7 a.m. 

[Observations: I never realized that in the Belly song (I was listening to music on my solo stretch), "Super Connected," there's a change at the very last part of the chorus at the end and, instead of Tanya Donnelly (who all the slightly alt-ish frat boys looooved in college) asking whether your heart strings are connected to the wings you've got slapped on your back, she asks whether your heart strings are connected to the poison coming out of your mouth. I like this twist. Also, I can confirm, again, that there are a couple of Cloud Cult songs that I just 100% love and feel are relevant for life.) Where was I? Oh yes, I rode 35 miles to the start! I stopped in one disgusting biffy by Harriet Island Park. Gross.]

Because I wanted to make sure to not be late for the club ride, I planned a route for closer to 27 miles and then rode back and forth on pretty Lilydale Road a couple of times, watching the rowers on the river. The club ride was great. It was generally some of the same areas where I've ridden before in Bloomington (13, Black Dog, etc., which Facebook reminded me was an area where I rode exactly one year ago) but with a twist. And then we rode in one area I've never ridden before: the huge boardwalk 9-Mile Creek Trail out by Edina. I didn't realize it went that far west or was so winding. 

A woman on the ride stopped and took photos
of people as we went over the 35W bridge.
That's me, on the right, in my BikeMS team jersey.

A much-needed water break on a very hot day.
And that's me, stretching in the back.

That's me, in front of the tandem. I assume this
was in Edina, but I thought we were all more 
spread out by that point, so I'm not sure.

The very kind Linda asked me whether I wanted to do the alternate ending (like a choose your own adventure book!), so she, another woman whose name I can't remember, and I tacked on 8 more miles than the rest of the group by swooping up a little further north before heading back to the ending point. This was mostly familiar territory but one cool new trail to connect from Theo Wirth park to downtown Mpls. I'm not sure how I never noticed it before.

[Note to self: This would be a good trail ride for a brewery tour ride (that I always talk about but likely will never do) since it goes by Utepils and La Dona breweries.]

I stopped back at the ride start, met up with some of the other riders on a patio, had a celebratory beer, and then backtracked back the six miles home, for a total of 100.25 miles. My motivation to get home largely stemmed from a mysterious text from my husband: "There's a treat for you in the freezer." I couldn't resist eating half of it before dinner. 

Showered and ready for that treat!

A DQ oreo blizzard that held up in the freezer
pretty well for several hours.

I've lagged in my general updates. First, a funny story. Last weekend, Kim and I planned to ride 50 miles around Prior Lake/New Prague. Thankfully, I forgot my Garmin with the 2018 route on it and had to download a free 30-day trial for Ride with GPS to do a very recent alternate route that had been posted by the Scott County cycling club. If we'd used the old 2018 route it would have stunk because everything was under construction. Nonetheless, due to some operator error, I wasn't sure how the Ride with GPS navigation cues worked at first (causing us to go an extra 5 miles) AND I did something that made every single app on my phone open and tweet a photo of my dog. (It wasn't even a recent photo of her, so I had a slight panic attack wondering what else I had accidentally posted on social media - nothing - - - I think!)

Also, here's a photo someone posted from a Tuesday night club ride from about a month ago. Riding with the bike club has been the best decision I made this year. 

I'm on the right, wearing my vintage (okay, old) PBR jersey
on my old bike while my better one was in the shop.
The guy in the yellow jersey joined us for the first time that night.
He's really nice and we mostly stick together on Tuesdays.
He sent me a list of all the best international restaurants
within 15-miles of my house, along with his family's
top recommendations of what to eat there.

Thank you for your donations of $4,310 for the MS Society for 2021. I'm not exactly sure when I'll try to do a century ride again - - I have some weekend plans in the upcoming weeks to see assorted family members, so it will be one of those "hey, that's a free day and the weather looks decent" decisions. 

https://mssociety.donordrive.com/participant/GoMaggieGo-2021

My Teeny Triathlon

Somehow (not many hours of sleep and most of it being of crummy quality?!?), between going to bed last night thinking, "I need to leave here at 9 to be able to bike to the start of the ride by 10" turned into, "I need to be there by 9." This then turned my thought of, "I'll take Haley for a longer-than-normal walk before the ride" to "I'll need to run with Haley to get in some decent distance." And thus, my friends, the foundation of today's triathlon was established. After running and biking, I thought, "I should swim, too," but I also need to get home soon. So, I waded in Haley's pool. That technically is a water sport, right?!?

Straight off the bike, sunglasses on my forehead.
And no, that is not a gremlin holding my leg.
That's the shadow of a milkweed. Also, my
legs look uneven because the wind was
blowing ("like a smoke machine") to the side
my non-bikey shorts I rode in. In which I rode.

Granted, none of my distances are the types of distances you'd see in an official event. But they are mine, uniquely all mine.

I stopped and started my Garmin
three times on the bike ride.

Astute readers may ask, "But wait, so what happened when you got there an hour earlier than intended?" I actually got there 75 minutes earlier than intended because it didn't take me as long as I'd budgeted. The ride start was at Urban Growler Brewery, so I ended up riding around the U of M St. Paul Campus which is so pretty and shady. I sure enjoyed taking classes there as an undergrad. I had to use a bathroom, so then I went to a cute little neighborhood by campus (where there was a 5k run, but the little neighborhood 4th of July parade had not yet started), and got a coffee and a cookie to pass the time and to justify my use of their bathroom.

I picked a chocolate cookie with powdered sugar that ended up landing all over my shorts. 

I then rode to the start of the ride, saw the Urban Growler owners who said, "Too bad we're closed today - this would be a great place to have lunch and a beer at the end your bike ride!" Then another rider rode up and said, "Did you see the ride has been cancelled because the brewery is closed?" What? Anyhow, four of us were there (including the ride leader who had officially cancelled so no one had false hopes of the brewery being open), and we ended up doing the route, but in reverse, so that we could stop at the Como Park Pavilion for some lunch and a beer before heading home.

Nothing played out exactly the way I had planned, but nothing bad happened. And it was a good day. A hot, good day! 

https://mssociety.donordrive.com/participant/GoMaggieGo-2021

The Rain on My Parade

Okay, so I didn't actually have a parade scheduled for today (although I did see a Tilt-a-Whirl in Wisconsin, ready to be assembled for a Fourth of July event). However, you may remember my parting words at the end of my last blog post (and if you don't, seriously?? was it not memorable??): "I'll figure out something to do as a substitute and keep it interesting!"

I was talking about the fact that I can't do the Ride Across MN this year (a two-day ride, rather than the normal 5-day ride). Well, I recently figured out what my plan would be: three, 100-mile bike rides this summer. I don't think I've ever done more than two in one year. I haven't mentioned this plan to anyone, including, until about mile 50 today, the people I was riding with on what was intended to be Maggie's 2021 Century Ride #1.

I recently scheduled today as a day off work so that I could ride. I decided this weekend to ride 20 miles to the start of a Twin Cities Bicycling Club ride that was listed as a 63-mile ride, and then ride home afterwards. I was a little nervous about it because I hurt my hamstring running with the dog this weekend. But I got my bike all fixed up last week (new chain, new hub), and had the foresight to realize last night that Google Maps' idea of how to ride to the ride was not the best way for me to get there. The forecast called for some rain, but not until later in the day and with some not-too-crazy rainfall amounts.

This morning, I checked the weather over breakfast (more rain, more thunder, a bit sooner), and headed out on my bike at 7:10. I got to the Caribou Coffee in White Bear Lake at 8:40 - - 50 minutes before the group ride started and had a cookie, a beverage, and applied my sunscreen very diligently. I knew two of the ten other riders (all of whom are retired and expressed their condolences at the fact that I still work a full-time job). These retirees are no slouches. This was the fastest, hardest 62-mile ride I've ever done. It ended up being a mile shorter than advertised... because of a construction detour?

The 20-mile route from my house to the ride.

We weaved (wove?) our way east through little neighborhoods and farms, crossed into Wisconsin, stopped at the site of an old toll bridge (now causeway) on the St. Croix River, rode up the river to Houlton, and crossed back over to Stillwater, Minnesota on the "new" bridge - the bridge that is just a few years old. It was still hot, humid, and sunny and we were glad to have a shady trail leading out of Stillwater. Then, not too long after, there were ominous clouds to the north, but we were going west! and south! and fast!

Today's winding route from WBL into WI

The causeway is what appears on the left
of this old photo. It once was the base of
a toll bridge into Minnesota, that 
apparently was hard for old-timey cars to navigate.

The new bridge. So pretty. (From the Internet.)

So, against the advice of the other riders, to whom I had revealed my century ride plans by now, I was going to continue to ride home, since I'd be going southwest. Well.... we finished the group ride and it looked like crap everywhere and it started to drizzle. I thought if it just drizzled, I could do the 20 miles home, but there was lightning in the (not too far) distance. So, I accepted the offer of a ride home, in a car, much to my own chagrin and disappointment. Not 2 minutes after we left the parking lot, it POURED. Buckets and buckets of water, so much that you couldn't see more than about 15 feet ahead. I was so grateful to not be riding on the county highway I had planned to take back to Minneapolis, drenched and likely to get hit by a car with no area to seek shelter.

So, I didn't get 100 miles in, but I got in 82 fast and hilly miles. The farthest ride I've done in 2021. And I'll ride 30-45 miles tomorrow, which I think counts more than a 100-mile ride. I'll still aim to do two more this summer. And next time I'll take some photos with my own dang phone. 

https://mssociety.donordrive.com/participant/GoMaggieGo-2021 

A steamy bunch o' days!

For those of you who don't live in Minnesota and think it is perpetually -30 degrees (perhaps because I tell you every day of the winter how cold it is), it can get hot and steamy here. A streak like we've had this month is pretty unusual for June. We've had temps in the mid- to high-90s and high humidity pretty much every day for two weeks, except yesterday, when I think it only hit 87. 

Yesterday was, of course, this year's modified MS150 bike ride - a one-day 75-mile local loop rather than a 2-day 150-mile ride from Duluth to the Twin Cities. My former riding partner for nearly a decade, Matt, flew back from Seattle for the ride. I ended up getting in 150 miles over the three days of riding with him. When you ride with someone roughly 100 to 150 miles per week for nearly a decade, you get to know them. It sure was nice to catch up with my good friend as we pedaled around, stopping frequently to reapply sunscreen.

I skipped work for a bit Thurs morning so we could ride.

Which bottle had more in it,
and would accompany me on the ride?

Me, at the end of the MS150. I realized,
when putting my bike in the car,
that I had no photos of me from the day.

I get weird heat rash sometimes.
Thankfully it feels nothing like a sunburn.

Yesterday's route.
I have never ridden in Blaine before.
It was a nice route,
with some familiar territory on the east side.

Before Matt came to town, I realized that I needed to ride more regularly, find new routes, challenge myself, and meet new people. So, for the last month or so, I've been riding with both the Major Taylor Bicycling Club and the Twin Cities Bicycling Club when I haven't been spending time with our crazy canine, Haley, or running errands by bike.

My last longer solo ride, in May - Grey Cloud Island.
I rode here so much last year, the group rides are
a nice change of pace.

Scenic rest stop at Grey Cloud Island in May. Ha. I was
wearing a buff. It wasn't boiling out then!

On a TCBC ride, I wore my capri rain pants and somehow
rubbed off a little circle of skin on each knee.

I also had a flat tire on that rainy TCBC ride, and
ended up replacing the rear tire a few days later.

The Major Taylor ride where I didn't get caught in
a freak thunderstorm riding to the start of the ride.

In May, I had a good streak going of getting Haley to
Fort Snelling State Park for an early morning or late afternoon hike.

My S-I-L gave Haley a little pool. She's been
taking advantage of it on these hot days,
and isn't as scared of the water since we
went camping and my younger sister and I
tried to teach Haley how to swim.

She did well on her first camping trip, although
she must be tied up/leashed at every moment.

Amusing myself in the pharmacy drive-thru
on my bike, waiting to refill prescriptions
when on a circuit of errands around the city/'burbs.
Hot night!

So, I now have two of the three 2021 BikeMS rides under my imaginary belt. Imaginary because I don't usually wear a belt when biking, except that one year when I was in really good shape. (I currently am... squishy.) I realized on the errand day, when I went to pick up my MS150 registration packet, that I had forgotten to move funds from one bike ride to another to cover the minimum fundraising amount. I ended up just paying the minimum amount for the MS150, so that I could stay close to hitting my goal for the Ride Across Minnesota in July. That strategy paid off - - people kindly donated this weekend and I have hit my July goal (it is a little lower than normal this year because things are still a little weird, so of course donations are still accepted).

Anyhow, it turns out that I sadly can't do the Ride Across Minnesota (which has been cut from a 5-day to a 2-day ride this year) in late July because I need to attend a memorial service out of town. I'll figure out something to do as a substitute and keep it interesting!

https://mssociety.donordrive.com/participant/GoMaggieGo-2021