A heavenly little ride...
My ass! It was a ride of hills, wind and whining.
Ok, let me back up a bit; you need to know my frame of mind before starting the ride. I have been looking forward to this ride knowing it had a lot of hills. My plan for riding this year is to master climbing hills so I thought this would be great. I've been working on climbing all summer and last week I made it up Ramsey Hill, for those who don't know Ramsey Hill it is located in St. Paul, starts at around Grand Ave and 35 E climbing out of downtown. I went on a Tuesday evening training ride with Gordy, well actually I started my ride with Ann Marie and Jody. So here's my story...
Tuesday morning I ride to work, I've converted my old hybrid bike into a commuter and ride to work every day. On my way home from work my right knee starts to bother me and I think it's only because I sit differently on this bike, it'll be fine. I get home, chat with my friend Jody and arrange to meet her and Ann Marie at Summit Ave and Mississippi Blvd for a ride at 4:15 PM. I also had plans to meet Gordy, same location at 6:30 for a training ride. I think great I can get in about 40 miles combined. I meet Jody and Ann Marie, Jody has mapped out a ride, we take off and I am still experiencing pain in my right knee but I figure it will be fine, you know how that is. If you don't mind, it don't matter. We have a really nice ride, we discovered a new trail, actually I'm sure it was discovered long before we rode it but it was my first time on this trail, it runs along the Mississippi river on the West side below Fort Snelling then climbs out at M'haha Falls in Minneapolis. Very nice, scenic and flat. We take a break at M'haha Falls Park for water and such then continue on the Minneapolis side of the river. We encounter headwinds heading North and struggle to ride in the double digits. We cross back over the river at Franklin and cruise with the tailwind back to Summit and Mississippi River Blvd. By this time my knee is really bothering me but I push it to the back of my mind, do some stretching and have a recovery drink and some munchies. We wait for Gordy and his training ride people.
The group arrives and we start riding about 7 PM, Gordy takes us on trail, again one I have never ridden before so I am lovin' it, we head south along the river and drop down to Hidden Falls or some such thing. We ride along the East side of the river on into Crosby State Park, fantastic, a nice flat route, my knee is a bit sore but doing OK. Once through Crosby we have to climb out, then we travel along Shepard Rd to downtown St. Paul. We turn left at the Science Museum (Chestnut?) and climb out of downtown. We top out at 7th and Kellogg right across from the Xcell Center. At this point we all take a moment to catch our breath and talk about climbing Ramsey Hill, me and my big mouth says "if we have a green light when we get there I say take the hill, if it's red then turn and climb up Grand Ave." Ramsey Hill is much steeper but the Grand Ave climb is longer. As luck would have it we get a green light and 5 of the 6 of us decide to "take the hill!" I started off strong, but about 3/4 of the way up I start to lag, the last 1/4 of the climb was hell, my heart feels like it is coming out of my chest. I get to the top turn a quick right to the park and get off my bike, my legs are shaking and my knee is seriously screaming. Gordy and I shout out encouragement to the rest of our group, of the 5 of us who attempted the climb, three of us made it! We also shouted out to some strangers as they took to the hill, it always gives you a bit of a rush to have people shouting out encouragement while riding. Gordy is awesome on the hills! At this point we all take a few minutes to chill and get our lungs back to working condition. We then traveled Summit and met up with the other rider who chose not to do the hill. We rode back to the meeting place and by this time I am really hurting, I think my mph was about 10. I get in my car, drive home, ice my knee, take some Ibuprofen, have another recovery drink, do some yoga (legs up the wall pose) and try to get some sleep. My knee kept me up most of the night, the next day I grab the Ibuprofen right away and hope for the best. Choose not to ride to work to give it a rest. I can a least get a Vanilla Latte on my way to work. Through out the day, I have trouble walking and have to take the elevator several times instead of the stairs, this really sucks! I had plans to mountain bike Wednesday night but no way that's happening. I relax most of Wednesday night, more Ibuprofen which I don't like but it helps, more yoga and a beer. Hoping to ride Thursday, nope, don't even ride to work, Friday same thing no riding. Now I'm starting to worry about the Tour of Saints ride. I think if I stay off my knee it I should be able to ride on Sunday.
Saturday I sleep in late, then head to a cabin party near Dassel, MN. The Tour of Saints ride is in St. Joseph so my plan was to go to the cabin party Saturday then drive up to St. Joseph and stay overnight at the college of Saint Benedict. The cabin party was fun, stayed a little later than I had planned, drank more beer than I should have. By the time I get to the College to register and get my room key it is almost 11 PM and there is no one around. I call security, a woman comes with my key and tells me to go to the long building with all the lights on, my room is there. I go to the long building with all the lights on, grab my luggage and attempt to find my room. There is no room 220 in the building, I call security back and say "hey I can't find my room" they return and a different woman looks at my packet and says I was misdirected, surprise! I figured that out on my own. They then have me follow them to the correct place. I find my room, haul all of my stuff up to my little dorm room, the closest I've been to college, and then try to put new brakes on my bike. What a pain, I have done this before but I have a sneaking suspicion that I was given the wrong brake pads. At about 12:30 I give up and try to get some sleep.
Sunday morning I wake up at 0511 AM, decide I might as well get up and try to find some coffee then work on my bike again. I find a coffee shop grab a vanilla latte and a croissant then go back to the room. I work again on my brakes say f*ck it and put the old brake pads back on. The game plan was that Margeaux would meet me at the start line at 0700 and we would ride out. At about 0645 I call Margeaux to check in with her, I tell her there is no hurry, we chat about how crappy we both feel, too many beers/drinks the night before, she says she will call me when she is about 15 minutes out and I'll meet her at the check in area to pick up our wristbands. note: we were to meet at 0700, we talked at 0645, hanging up about 0650 and she says she will call when she is about 15 minutes out, no way she was making it by 0700 ;)
I head over to the check-in, fill my water bottle and Margeuax arrived about the same time. We got on the road about 0800, only an hour later than planned. The first couple miles go fine, then about a half hour into the ride we hit the hills, mile after mile of hills and along with that wind, coming from the North/West. It was relentless! I finally understand what Margeaux has been talking about when she refers to the "riff raff" on these rides. I never gave it much thought, slow riders not a big deal, just go around them. Not these people, NO, they don't get out of your way! They ride all over the road, as you approach from behind, give a warning "passing on your left" and they don't move, I can't tell you how many times I was forced to ride into the oncoming traffic lane to get around these people. It was insane. So by the first rest stop Margeaux and I are both bitching, hills, wind, riff raff, my knee hurts, she has old bike shorts on, we both have mild hangovers you name it we're bitching! At least it got us to the first rest stop. At this point we're even questioning whether to ride the 50 miles or only do the 35 mile route.
We eat some donuts, have some flavored water, fill our water bottles, pee and get back on our bikes. Again with the grumbling, bitching and complaining, when I stopped, Margeuax started and when she stopped I took over. After a few miles WOOO WHOOOO finally a tailwind and I am sailing, I am lovin' it now, cruising along feeling good then I hear a shout KAREN! I turn to see Margeaux indicating to me that I have missed the turn, shit! Now I have to travel back into the wind and turn, DAMN! That tailwind was sweet! It took me at least 5 miles before I could catch back up with Margeaux. We make it to the second rest stop. Another long break, my knee is not happy, we are still deciding whether to go for the 50 miles or not. We take a look at the map and decide we could grab the Lake Wobegon Trail to the next rest stop and cut down on the headwind. As we take off from the rest stop we notice Margeaux has a broken spoke on her back wheel, so we turn around and head to the bike repair. We chatter along with the bike guys while the spoke gets fixed, then off we go. By this time the route has flattened out so even tho we still have a lot of wind the hills are pretty much done. We travel about 5 miles then catch the Trail, and head straight into the wind, I will say it was much nicer to ride, no more "riff raff."
We arrive at the final rest stop and take a nice long break. I made some minor adjustments to the clips on my shoes with hopes that it might help my knee. Margeaux ran into some old friends so while she chatted with them I did some stretches and a couple yoga poses. After about 20 minutes we're back on the Trail with the wind at our backs for the most part. The final miles were fairly easy as it was flat and not many people were on the Trail. After arriving in St. Joseph we packed up our things and headed to St. Cloud for food, I was starving! Lots o' pasta for me! The drive home from St. Cloud was not too bad, hit a little traffic just before Rogers and had to stop for gas but pretty smooth ride. I got home just after 1600, tossed all my stuff in the house, grabbed an ice pack and sat on the couch, by this time my left knee was bothering me too, I think I was compensating for the right one. I iced both knees, had a recovery/protein drink, took more Ibuprofen and relaxed for a bit. Then jumped in the shower to get the road grime off, opened a bottle of wine and here we are.
Looking back on this ride, the route was beautiful, the hills were fine and absent the wind and a bad knee it would have been no problem. Will I do this ride again, probably, will I start that late in the morning, NO WAY! No more riff raff for me, those people are whacked!
Note to self: STOP drinking beer the night before a ride, ya big dummy! See that's the difference between real athlete's and me, they train, I drink beer :)
