Route
A quarter-century ride! Although gmaps says I biked under 25 miles, the cycle computer says 25.21, and it’s been pretty reliable so for.
I started the ride with no destination in mind, but as I passed 12th Avenue, I decided to check out part of the route for my upcoming bike tour. And once I checked that out, I figured that I might as well check out a different part of the route. By that point, it was easier to just ride the whole tour route instead of turning back for home.
As I got close to my house, my mileage was just over 24 miles. Obviously that would be unsatisfactory, so I detoured a few blocks out of my way to break the 25-mile mark.
I certainly feel better than I thought I would after biking 25 miles, while keeping up a decent average speed of 12 mph. I’m definitely glad I bought padded shorts at REI yesterday, otherwise I’d be much more sore.
Overall, the route for the upcoming tour looks pretty good. The ride between Richfield and Linden Hills has some steep hills, but I expected that. And none of them were bad enough to make me think about rerouting the ride.
July 27th, 2008
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Route
Just a few blocks from my house is the Mississippi River, across which lie all sorts of treasures. Izzy’s Ice Cream, Trotter’s Cafe, some great coffee shops, etc. All places that I want to bike to. Only there’s one problem – a gigantic hill. I’ve avoided biking across the river for weeks, just so that I don’t have to slowly wheeze my way up the hill while jeering cars speed by.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to get better at riding hills other than by riding hills, so yesterday I finally decided to give the climb a try, although I planned to take side roads instead of biking on the main road.
For this first ride I kind of zig-zagged my way up; I’d zig a block up the hill and then zag for a block off the hill. This worked pretty well, although I noticed that if I could manage two uphill blocks in a row, I’d actually be over the worst of it. Maybe next time.
July 27th, 2008
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7/24
I was exhausted. Even this short ride was nearly too much. Despite my physical lameness I got to the Hub and bought a bunch of crap, including a cycle computer. Afterwards I swapped my old stem out for one with an adjustable rise (meaning I can control the height of the handlebars). So now I don’t have to hunch over so much. That will make my back happy.
7/25
My first ride with the cycle computer and the new stem. Other than a mysterious creak, the bike felt great. Investing in the new stem was a good call. It wasn’t cheap, but it was cheaper and easier than buying a new fork, which is the only other way that I could have raised the handlebars.
I’d resisted buying the cycle computer because it just seemed so lame. Why do I need to know how fast I’m going when I’m just biking up to get some groceries? But my inner nerd finally won the battle, so now I can tell you that I biked 5.29 miles over 27 minutes and 12 seconds, giving me an average speed of 11.67 mph. My top speed was about 17.5 mph. And my Sigma was 5! What is my Sigma? I have no idea. Time to dig out the manual.
July 25th, 2008
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7/22’s Route
What was meant to be a long ride was cut short by my forgetting my helmet. So I just stopped at clicquot and got a muffin & some iced coffee. Yum. I should forget my helmet more often.
7/23’s Route
I’m planning a fun little tour of Minneapolis and this route is most of the tour’s first stage. I wanted to give it a quick ride to see if the rout was as I remembered it. It was. Hooray.
July 23rd, 2008
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Monday’s Route
I didn’t keep track of the route on Sunday, but it was similar to Monday’s, just longer and more meandering.
Weekends mean long rides! Or they would, if my bike and the weather would cooperate. Saturday was largely rained out, and my second ride on Sunday was cut short by a flat. I have now bought a travel-sized pump and a patch kit, so the mid-ride flat shouldn’t be a show-stopper in the future.
Also on Sunday my wife and I rode around Longfellow and Seward on our way to Birchwood, where we watched Cadel Evans lose the yellow jersey. Quite the crowd taking advantage of Birchwood’s great food and giant tv, with many folks in Birchwood Race Team jerseys.
Monday’s ride was just a quick chore run. Hit the library, hit The Hub, get some lunch, head home. Nothing fancy, but at least neither of my tires exploded.
The new issue of Momentum is out. Give it a look. Momentum is a bike magazine that I really love. They aren’t gear fetishists, aesthete snobs or X-treme mountain riders. They just love bikes and the people that ride them.
Monday’s Second Route (5.3)
I threw an afternoon ride in there as well. In the 15 years I’ve lived in this state, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Minnehaha Falls. Weird.
July 21st, 2008
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