A good weekend

This weekend was a pretty productive training weekend. Saturday I got up early and met my two RE running partners at 5:30 so that we could get in 2 miles before starting with the rest of the group. I don’t know what it is, but that is such a help mentally. We were scheduled for 14, so since we got 2 in early, we were able to turn around at the 6 mile point with the group. That made it feel so much shorter than having to go out to 7 miles! We lucked out with the weather, it wasn’t hot, but it was pretty darn humid again. I don’t think we’ll ever get out of the humidity.

After that I went home and showered up and waited for my parents to arrive. They came down for the afternoon since it was my birthday, and we went to dinner at Ponaks. Yum! I don’t think I will ever get tired of that place.

Sunday I met Court out at Heritage Park at 7 for a 45 mile ride. Most of the roads in southern Johnson County/Miami County are gravel, so I had messed around on Google Earth to find some that were paved and mapped out a course for us. As soon as we started riding, I remembered that I needed to take my bike into the shop. The rear cog is loose, and it was rattling the whole time and messing up my shifting. The rattling drove me crazy!

The ride turned out to be pretty nice, gentle rollers and not much traffic. Our route took us east on 179th street to Old Metcalf, then south to 223rd street, and west to Gardner Road. We got a few miles down Gardner Road and came to a “road closed” sign. There didn’t appear to be any construction past the sign, and if we backtracked, we’d have to go back quite a ways to find another paved road to take us north, so we kept going. After another mile, we came across yet another road closed sign, and kept going again. We figured that unless there was a bridge out, we’d be able to make it up to Gardner. Well, there was a bridge out. It had been a bridge that went over a dry creek bed, so there wasn’t any water in it, and we decided that we could carry our bikes down the bank, and then back up the other side. It wasn’t too steep or too far across, so it wouldn’t have been a problem…..except that I made the mistake of not taking my shoes off before I walked down the bank. So my cleats got COMPLETELY packed with mud. Great. I spent a few minutes trying to clean them out with a stick once we got across and was able to get them to a point where I could at least clip in, but there was still enough mud in them to make it difficult for me to unclip.

Once we got into Gardner, we turned east on 175th Street to head back to the park, and that portion was pretty packed with cars. It was only for a mile or two though, so not too bad. Then once we got across the interstate, along came some sort of motorcycle ride with police escorts, and they made us pull off on the shoulder while they all rode through. Which was a bit ridiculous, because it wasn’t like they were taking up both lanes. But whatever. So we lost another 5 minutes or so there. We got back to the park and entered through the south entrance so that we could take advantage of the downhill park road that took us back to the marina parking lot. When we got back to the cars and I got off my bike, I discovered that my rear tire was completely flat. It must have happened at the very end, because I hadn’t noticed it at ALL. I didn’t see any visible signs of damage, so I’m hoping that the tire is ok and I just need to change out the tube. I need the practice anyway. I was too beat by the time I got home to mess with it, so it’s still sitting out in the garage flat as a pancake.