The Asphalt Was Good To Us Today

Last Saturday Amy proved how tough she was by riding 100 miles with a broken clavicle. She upped the ante again today, riding one more time with her broken clavicle, but adding to the ailment list, hacking up a lung.
Our favorite route, on a beautiful, windless day. Very nice. But had to feel sorry for Amy. It was more of a sufferfest for her. 87/19.0

Day Of Rest

Dr. visit this morning. He asked, "you still exercising?" My answer, "six days a week".

I've made it six months , six days a week not missing an outside ride.  Friday's my day off.
Plan on the streak continuing.

Found The Noise

Lots of water coming over St. Anthony Falls. The deluge, from a few days ago, up near Duluth is making its way into the Mississippi now. I could feel the rumble of the river as I stood on the Stone Arch Bridge.

Tackled the task of figuring out the cause of the noise, that I thought was coming from my pedals.
Took the bb apart and found that it was dirty, but also found a crack and tear in the plastic casing. Never seen that before. It must not have seated correctly when I screwed on the other cup and caused it to crack and rip. A $19.00 part instead of $150.00 for pedals. Works for me.

Nice ride. Heat wasn't as hot tonight. 26/17.2

"The Heat Was Hot"

This was no dry heat. I could see the humidity, the sky had a grey hazy look. 91 degrees and 71 for a dew point all added up to good excuses to shorten my regular Wednesday ride. 25/16.8

Lingering Suspicions

"B" bike is having issues. Thought it was pedals, so switched out with "A" pedals, nope not a pedal issue. It's something in the drive train. My suspicion now is crank / bb.
Saturday still lingers. 27/16.0

Monday

Felt the need to do that recovery thing. 24/16.0

A Good Tired

It's pretty cool. I go to ride with my team, and, without any prior plans, I see my daughter there. I like that.
A very nice ride with the team, there were probably about 20 of us. Friends, bike, family....not only did I ride with my daughter, but I saw my other daughter too and hung out with Elijah this evening.
Plenty of tired. I'm exhausted. Lots of miles this weekend. It's all good. Today 56/16.6

Clouds On Fire Over Isles Tonight

Long Saturday

Tried out a new route today. Trying out a new route was Amy's idea. I don't know. Kids these days just can't stay focused, they've got to have change, and something new all the time. Wound up being a really nice route. Also wound up being long. 105 miles for me down to Northfield and back. 
Amy broke her clavicle less than two weeks ago. A hundred miles with a broken clavicle. One day I'll be that tough. 104/19.4
Steve and Amy Close To Home As We Finished Up A Century

Visited the Rose Garden this evening with Penny.

Day Off The Bike

Introvert attack.
Way too much going on for this guy. I've been vegging since about 6:30. Finally ventured out of the apartment at 8 and got these pictures. Stimuli are not my friend.

Drying Out

It was nice not having to gear up with all sorts of rain paraphernalia tonight. Beautiful evening ride. 26/17.0

Solstice

Rain when I started and just kept on raining for the entire ride. You know, when it's warm like this, the rain just isn't a big deal...it's kind of fun. I had on a cap to keep the rain off my glasses, a rain cape, and some booties to keep the toes a little dryer. It all worked good. 25/15.6

The rain did finally end and the sun came out just as it was setting.

Tuesday Night

Way to busy. (I guess I'm out of retirement mode for awhile. The last couple of years have been real bad, so it's nice to be replenishing the old hairy bank accounts) So busy I forgot to blog, but not to busy to ride. That will never happen. Took off about 6pm with my daughter, Gabrielle. Very delightful. 32/15.1

Recovery

Lots of miles over the weekend. They were slow but still took it out of me. Or maybe it was all the race spectating, food eating and Fathers Day celebrating. Point is I'm tired and just in total heaven from such a wonderful weekend. Plenty of hot and humid out there today. 21/16.3

Fathers Day

Rode out to Stillwater with about 15 from the team, my daughter, Gabrielle, among the cohorts. Just a beautiful ride and delightful people (I am very fortunate to have so many wonderful friends). We watched the women race up Chilkoot Hill, which has a 20% grade.

After the women finished we decided to head home and found that the weather had turned. Dark clouds, wet roads and two flats were the tale of this ride. Fortunately the thunder and lightning waited until we were all safe at home. 66/16.1
Quickly showered because there was still the best part of the day ahead. Kids and grandlumps were all gathering at Brit and Nate's to celebrate dads. Really good food was provided by the kids. Ethan maned the grill.

Lots of jumping, rolling and playing, with a little fussiness now and then from the babies in the group of grandlumps. But really it was all pure joy. Plenty of hugs, appreciation and love to go around.
I am one very lucky dad.

Nice and Simple

Took it very easy today. Amy, with her broken clavicle, joined us for a few miles, Barb rode with us all the way to St Boni. Steve, Randy and I took the Dakota Trail to its end in Mayer, then turned around and rode home. The three of us were just rolling along chattin' away like a bunch of old ladies.
It was raining when we all started, but it was a warm rain. We would have been just as wet with temps in the 90's and no rain. Only issue is we have to clean our bikes now.
I'm not sure when the rain stopped. We really weren't paying that much attention to it. The sun did come out, I'm guessing about 20 miles into the ride.
Real, good ride, with some real, good friends. I've been riding and racing with Randy for about 15 years. 75/16.6

Rode over to the Stone Arch Bridge Art Festival on my single speed Schwinn Traveler this afternoon. Lots of people, deep fried cheese curds and, oh yeah, some art exhibits. Another 13 miles.

NVGP With Gabrielle

Watched the NVGP Uptown Crit with Gabrielle. Saw a ton of friends. Here's a video from a corner view.

Ark Weather

Rain all over the place, with lots of thunder and lightning. By the time I got to ride the rain had stopped, but it was still plenty wet. Took out Evil. I wanted all the fenders I could get. 20/15.5

Lots Of Water Coming Over Minnehaha Falls

Spectating

Got my ride (32/17.6) in a little early today so Amy and I could get over to St Paul and watch the women's NVGP crit.

Diversion

Very busy with my abstracting business. With the incredibly low home mortgage interest rates, everybody is refinancing. I'm grateful to be able to get some diversion time in on the bike. 27/17.0
Took another 45 minutes and enjoyed the sunset at Isles.

Monday Tired

A serious lack of umpf from me, and the 30mph wind gusts didn't add any significant desire to light up the roads.
It was a really pretty evening though, so it wound up being an enjoy-the-scenery ride. 21/15.9

Solo Sunday Morning

Yesterday's heat, wind and humidity were still in the old hairy legs this morning. Plenty of tired all over the place, but it was very beautiful. 48/17.0

Summer Riding

90 degree heat, 85 miles, 7 cyclists, 5 bottles of water, 32 oz of Gatorade, and 24 oz of chocolate milk within 2 minutes of me walking in the door (I had to turn on the air conditioning first). I'm pretty sure five bottles of water is a personal best for me. 87/19.7
Good ride. Amy made sure things didn't get out of control.

Day Off Pics

It's hot!

It Sure Is Good

It's summer in Minnesota. Another beautiful day here in Minneapolis. 21/17.4
It's Penny's 50th birthday today, so we celebrated at Al Vento tonight.

Kind Of Pretty

Another beauty out there. Got chased home by rain drops and rainbows. 32/17.2

Very Nice

Perfect weather! 27/17.1

Rose Garden

Lake Of The Isles

Need More of Less

Perfect weather and finally a successful effort at fixing all the noise coming from the fast good lookin' bike, made this a good ride day, and man was it needed. I've been mighty busy with work, and need the down time that a bike ride can bring. This weekend, that just passed, was nowhere near long enough. 25/17.3

The Sabo Bridge Finally Reopened.

A Little Time At Isles Helped Too