Over Easy

Beautiful morning for a bike ride. Gabrielle stopped by at 9am and we headed over to Baker and Maple Plain for some easy Sunday riding. 47/17.2

Cycling All Day

Actually felt good on the bike today...first time in, what seems like, a long time.
Bunch of people showed up, which is great. We rode Amy's favorite route, it is her birthday weekend after all. She wound up kicking some very young butt today. I think that was a nice birthday present for her.
Clouds cleared up pretty quick. The roads were a little wet when we left, but were dry in very little time. Turned into a windy, but pretty day. Got some TDF watching in with Penny tonight. The day was all about biking. Nice!
I've been complaining about my diminishing riding abilities. Here are a few of the ways I've been changing my riding to accommodate the limits of my aging body:
Slower ramp up to cruising speed.
Quick bursts have been significantly reduced.
Hills are taken at 65-70% effort instead of 80-85% and I take more of the hill in the saddle, especially just before the crest.
I rarely exert above 85% effort.
Small chain ring is used more often into the wind and on steep ascents.
I've simply cut back on the miles I ride.
I ride much slower during the week.
I put in one hard effort a week.80/20.1

At about the 75 mile mark. Just finishing up the ride along the greenway.

New White Shoes For The Old Hairy Feet

Friday Off

Pizza Luce on the patio in the rain and an evening walk with Miss Penny Leporte. Nice!

End of Week

Another summery 20 in. Also, got to spend a couple of hours with the birthday girl and her friends. Very Nice!
20/16.2

The Long Days of Summer

Summer time and the ridin' is easy. Long days and warm temps, the way paradise is suppose to be. 20/16.4
Minnehaha Creek Is Full

Colorful Reflections

Lake Harriet

More Time To Pic

Not a lot of giddy-up so far this week. 20/16.0

Along The Creek Tonight (ride pic point & shoot)

Learning The Ins and Outs of a New SLR at Isles (Nikon 600D)

Monday

Ahhhh, back in the rut. 20/15.8

Getting Back To More Normal

Storms rattled through again last night. I was lucky to be able to weather it all with electricity and air conditioning. Many of my friends and fellow twin citians are still without power.
Gabrielle and I rode to the northwest this morning and must have followed the path the storm took as it approached the cities on Friday. Generators and pumps were working along with roaring chainsaws. So many trees down, across roads, and on to houses. We were on a constant vigil for road debris. Long Lake had swollen well past its banks and at one point we were riding through lake water that had submerged the road we were on by a foot. Water was over our hubs and to our bottom brackets. It's not easy riding a bike in a lake.
Needless to say, it was wonderful to spend a Sunday morning riding with my daughter. 47/16.5

Getting Back to Normal

Power didn't come on all night...hard to sleep. Milk for morning cereal was cool, not cold.
Amy, Steven, Taylor, Heather and Doug showed. To get out of town we had to dismount a couple of times to get around downed trees. Last night's storms left quite the mess.
A really nice ride. Just great cyclists, and people, to ride with. We took an easier route to Belle Plaine, and just had a "let's ride" attitude, which I'm a big fan of lately. There was the threat of rain, but Amy had her rear fender on to protect us from that chance materializing.
Still no power when I got home, but it came back on around 9pm tonight. Any romantic ideas I've ever had of roughin' it in a backwoods cabin were effectively squashed over the last 24 hours. 85/19.7

Stormy Night Off

Spent the evening with my daughter, Brit. We get together just about every Friday night, which is an absolute joy. Man I've got it good.
High winds, 40-50 mph came through, couldn't see it was raining so hard, lots of branches down and a few trees. Power's out now, more lightning and thunder off in the distance to the southwest, heading this way. Now that dark is setting in, it's quite beautiful to  watch.

Hydrate

Been tired this week so just kept the rides easy, although, keeping the rides easy during the week has been a trend for a couple of years now. 20/16.6
Summer's here. Temps in the low 90's and humid, not mr.bill humid, but it will still make you sweat.

Nothing Unusual

Usual city trails, just turning the cranks. 20/15.8

Simple

Some mighty nice weather lately. I like a simple ride. 20/16.5

I Am One Lucky Guy

Lots of miles the last couple of days along with a weekend full of bike race spectating and family = tired and happy.
Rode out with some of the team to Stillwater to watch the NVGP final stage - a 20 mile crit with 2000 feet of climbing, for the women. Ouch! 70/17.2

For Fathers Day the Kids, Grandlumps and Penny came over tonight and gave me what I love most...time with them.

Dad & Daughter

Just two of us. Everybody was out racing NVGP, watching NVGP, or riding Hillfest. Gabrielle probably would've done Hillfest if she'd known about it. Fortunately for me she found out about it too late.
Nice time...not playing too hard, but we moved along. I think she went easy on her old Dad. She likes to move...chompin' at the bit.
Lot's of fun talkin', seeing some beautiful countryside, it is so green, and riding.
Pretty humid. I went through 3 bottle of water, which is a lot for me.

Sure is nice riding with my daughter. 87/19.1

Off But Watching

'Nother night of spectating. Watched the second crit of the Nature Valley Grand Prix with Penny, Gordy, and Jo.

Summer Heaven

Pretty nice ridin' weather. Met a few birchies and Gabrielle for a ride across the mighty Miss. Actually I ride along the Mississippi 4 or 5 times a week, but I digress. Met the birchies and rode with them for a little bit into St. Paul.
Daylight lasts until a little after 9 now, temps in the 70's, light breeze....let's keep this happening for a long time. 28/16.4

Mighty Cool!

Almost as good as Christmas. Yep, it's that time of year again, the Nature Valley Grand Prix pro bike race is in town. I got a quick ride in this afternoon,  then went over to St. Paul and watched the pros take to the downtown streets. Cobbles, hair pin turns, sprints and crashes right in front of Gabrielle and me. Saw tons of friends and was in cyclist heaven. Gabrielle is hooked and has her eye set on competing in this race in a few years. 20/16.2

Beautiful Evening

Around Isles Tonight 21/16.0

Late Ride

Felt kind of summer-ish out there. Long day, but I got my ride in. 21/16.2

Ooooooh

Quads and hams have memories, and today's memories of yesterday were vivid. Amy, Gabrielle and me rode in the rain. I was never out of my small chain ring, and only climbed one hill. The effort on this hill was only enough to keep me from falling over.
Great to be with Amy. Gabrielle was a little too perky, so I'm a little upset with her, although, my mood did improve as she started to fade at about 20 miles. 41/15.1

I Really Like Riding In The Rain

Old And Happy

One of my strengths has been my ability to recover. After a climb I always felt it, but the old hairy leg muscles would relax and be ready for more in less than 5 minutes. That, along with being ready for more hard miles in a day or two has helped me put in some good, long, hard, miles over the years.
Today, and two weeks ago, (both centuries) my muscles were not interested, at all, in relaxing and getting ready for the next challenge. In the past I could push them and make them do what I wanted...mind over matter. But, the last two centuries I've done the quads just shut down, after a hard climb, and there was nothing I could do to get them to fire back up. This has been very frustrating.
I understand my age is affecting my cycling performance, and even though I do say it's frustrating, I do get it. I know that this happens and is happening to people my age.
At about the 80 mile mark today the quads just said no. High cadence, water, drafting nothing worked. I was screwed and wound up getting dropped with about 10 miles to go. On future centuries I'm going to try taking some Gu at the 70 mile mark and see if that motivates my muscles more.

All this being said, I still came in with a Hammer Hundred today. I along with 7 or 8 others took a hundred hilly miles of rubber off our skinny tires and did it in just under 5 hours of saddle time. I'm actually very pleased with today's effort. But even more pleasing to me was, Gabrielle was with us, and on her first ever century she averaged 20.1 mph. Kind of proud of that.

Great group of riders on an old favorite route. Very Nice! 101/20.1

Rest Up

Was a little tempted to put on a couple of quick miles in the saddle, but large miles tomorrow and lots of work today kept me on two feet instead of two wheels.

Too

Riding east on the greenway I see a Birchie riding west...Hey! that's my daughter. Very cool! Got to ride with her for 20 miles. She was movin' a little faster than I would've liked, but I sure as hell wasn't going to say anything. 21/17.6

Wet

Long-sleeves and a jacket today. It just keeps on raining and I just keep on riding, I mean what else am I gonna do? Evil likes it wet. 20/15.5

Kept It Dry

Finished up before the mist set in, but I was wearing long-sleeves, knickers and a vest. The spring that wasn't is slowly turning into the summer that wasn't. 20/16.2

Monday Monday

Nice and quick, easy recovery ride, but then, really, all my rides are recovery rides, I guess. 20/16.5

Good End To The Weekend

Hard to beat a Sunday morning ride with Amy. Nice and easy out and back to Wayzata, then I went into downtown along the Mississippi. Another beautiful day. Hung out with Elijah this afternoon, and spent the evening with Penny. Very Nice Day! 45/15.8

Redemption

Less wind and hills, along with more sun sure makes a difference, from what we went through last week. Lots of fun out on the roads today and man was it beautiful.
It's always nice when the effort is rewarded with a nice average speed. I still like to think I'm fast.
Not even a threat of rain, just puffy white clouds hung in a blue sky, and green everywhere else.
Great friends, great route, great conversation and great effort = great ride. 80/20.2