Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Under A Blazing Sun

60 oz. water
32 oz. Glacier Freeze Gatorade
6-inch sub sandwich
4-pack Soft Batch chocolate chip cookies (minus 1 cookie)
snack-size bag of salted peanuts

and a 32 oz. Diet Coke while driving home

This is apparently what it takes to complete a 41.19 mile bike ride at 14.1 mph. In the blazing-hot sun. Riding for just under 3 hours.

I rode with Steve and some of his buddies from UPS and Irwin's Bike Shop. It was a pretty fantastic day - except for the heat - for a bike ride. If we had started at 5 or 6 in the morning we might have missed some of the heat, but that's fine. It's good practice for RAGBRAI - even though we will be starting early, we'll still catch some of that July heat.

We rode the Chichaqua Bike Trail from Bondurant to Baxter. I took it easy riding the first 10 miles, and then after a short rest, Steve and I kicked it up a notch. After lunch in Baxter at the Kountry Korner gas station, I rode another quick, quick 10 miles. The last 10 I cruised slowly in the back of the back.

This was a great ride for me. I didn't feel too out of shape - I hadn't ridden since June 20th - and I was able to still walk afterwards. This puts me at about 554 miles for the year. I'm too far away from my goal of 1,000 by RAGBRAI, but I might get 750. It's all gravy training after 500 miles.

2 comments:

Ryan said...

I'm glad I didn't go with you guys for the ride today. Since I don't have to train for RAGBRAI this year I choose not to ride when it's this hot/sunny. I'll stick to my morning or evening rides.

I know you've gotten your 500 in before the ride, but keep the training up so you don't kill yourself this year. (plus I need you able to run for our race...whenever that is...)

Escape Pirate said...

I'll be fine this year, and I'll keep riding up until - and after- RAGBRAI.

Our half-marathon is in October.