Since our last episode, our protagonist has been keeping busy, seeking out area hills to ride up and down repeatedly, visiting family in The Northwoods, spending time on her bike to remind all the relevant body parts that they will be in those positions all of next week, and making various lists of reminders for packing.
Hills
I have posted some photos of my Garmin on Facebook, showing that I've been riding up and down, up and down, up and down. We don't have many big, long climbs close to my house, so I've been trying to fake it. Here's the route map for the California ride in September. I thought it was going to be 6,400 feet of climbing. Instead, it will just be 6,123. Easy peasy. Too bad that most of my local rides end up being about half of the distance yet only one-third of the elevation gain of the California ride.
 |
This is my niece's bike, which lives in California. We'll see how 101.1 miles feels on a mountain bike. But it is under 22 pounds and, thanks to my B-I-L's installation, is sporting new slick tires I ordered for the event. I still have to put my own seat on it. My goal is to finish in whatever amount of time it takes to visit the shower truck at the finish line and catch the shuttle back to the marina. (The Blogger app really wants this paragraph to be centered. It must find it noteworthy in some respect. Does it question my goal?)
The Northwoods
All of my siblings (and their families) on my mom's side met at those parents' house on the lake in NE Wisconsin over the Fourth of July. As is our tradition, we swam from just to the right of the right-hand dot, where our dock is just outside the shot, to the left-hand dot, the sand bar off the island. We looked goofier than normal this year, swimming with a big inflatable alligator to help make us more visible so that my mom's job supervising from her pedal boat is easier.
My B-I-L had shipped his bike to Wisconsin, and I convinced him to go for a ride with me, promising him that we'd ride by a Dairy Queen and get Blizzards. He eats DQ pretty much every day he is in Wisconsin. We rode a new route I devised and, shortly before this shot, needed to carry our bikes down a sheer dirt wall, across a rocky creek, and up the dirt wall on the other side. He only got wet when he had to help me cross the creek.
 |
Body Parts
I was able to sneak in a weeknight ride with Matt when he got back from Korea, and then I made Kim ride around assorted parts of the city with me last weekend before the heat advisory kicked in. I learned that she can go really fast when she's in the left lane on a road with cars. She hates riding on roads. She didn't hold a grudge, though, and was willing to take a picture of me in downtown St. Paul. I cannot resist photo opportunities like this, for some weird reason. I've been making a photo album of my assorted "head in a hole" photos so that they're always easy to find. She and I talked about the Ride Across Minnesota next week, coordinating some of our gear (e.g., I'll bring the stuff to make coffee in the morning). Here's hoping that this week's "don't even think about pulling out your bike because you'll get hit by random lightning, swept away by a flash flood, and/or die from excessive heat" weather leaves the state before next week's ride.
Stay tuned for next week's exciting conclusion to this chapter, "2019 Bike MS Rides Based in Minnesota," and a sneak peak at what's left for the season!
No comments:
Post a Comment