Gotta Get Movin'

Here it is the middle of July, I have a 100 mile ride coming up in a couple of weeks and I haven't ridden more than 40 miles in one day! I'd like to blame it on the rain but I can only use that excuse for MT biking, can't ride the trails when they're wet. I can always ride on the road. I have been commuting to and from work so that has to count for something. And I've been using my bike for transportation whenever possible. OK, now I feel a little better :)

Today I'm off to get in a conditioning ride, I was hoping to leave the house by 0700 but I started the laundry and now I want to get it hanging on the line before I take off.

WTF I just went to fill my coffee cup and glanced out the window, it's raining! I guess that means my laundry gets an extra rinse cycle. ARRHHH! I'm still going for a ride.

I'm thinking of a combination hills and flats today, going to head West and catch the Bruce Vento trail and ride that into town then up to Mounds Park and over to Battle Creek, that should give me a little climbing. Then cruise on back and catch the Gateway Trail by Phalen Lake. I can take the Gateway out to Pine Point and back, all total I should get in about 50 miles. There's so much road construction this summer that even the bike trails are adveresly affected by it. I think I can avoid any construction by taking this route.

I have one more load of laundry to get on the line then I'm outta here!

Happy Trails!

Flag Day Ride

I'm thinking I'd like to start a tradition celebrating Flag Day.

Ride 50 miles for every star on the flag.

Ride 13 miles for each stripe on the flag.

A total of 63 miles. I've computed a route from my house and back taking in various sights around the Twin Cities.

Flag Day Ride 

Now I just need to figure out how I can ride 63 miles on a work day. Flag Day falls on a Monday this year. hmm...I could take the day off...or I could ride 63 miles after work and make sure I bring my lights. I'm thinking it will take me about 5 hours with minimal stops. Better give myself 6 hours. Let's see I get off work at 1430, home by 1500 and back out the door by 1530, 6 hours and I'd be home by 2130, that's doable. I like the idea of taking the day off or maybe leaking out two hours early. Yeah, that's more like it, I could get out of work at noon and be on the road by 1300. Whew, 63 miles that's a lot of pedaling. Wonder if I can get anyone to join me???

Stuff

Yesterday evening I did some mountain bike riding with a friend at Harmon Park; it was a fun time. I'm going to try to ride there at least once a week, to improve my MT biking skills. It's easy to get to and I know the trails well enough that I'm confident that I wont get lost. Plus it's big enough if I ride both the short trail and long trail twice I'll get in about 10 miles of riding.

Ticks! Yikes! I do NOT like bugs and I seriously do NOT like ticks! I pulled 5 ticks off last night after riding at Harmon Park. So I spent some time today reading about how to repel ticks. Check out this site for more information: How to repel ticks on humans
I'm going with the DEET to spray on my shoes, sox, helmet, gloves, clothes etc. and I'm going to try the mixture of eucalyptus oil and sunscreen on my skin.

I went on a 24 mile casual ride with friends this morning, it was a fantastic day for a ride. I had only planned on a 20 mile ride but when the group split up and I was heading home a fellow cyclist caught up with me and we rode together for a spell. He noticed my MS Veterans jersey and wanted to know if I was riding the MS tram this year. We chatted for a bit and I missed my turn off so I had to go to plan B to get home. It was fun chatting with him and it gave me a few extra miles.

I spent some wonderful time in the lawn chair this evening reading an Adventure cycling magazine, now I'm dreaming about my first tour. I'm planning a short tour to a local State Park. Last Wednesday I went to William O'Brien State Park to visit with some friends who were staying there. As we drove up from Stillwater to the park I kept thinking about what a great ride it would be. I have a few more items I need to get before I can tour but I'm hoping by the end of June I'll have it all together and can try my first overnight camping tour!

That's all for now, happy trails...

Holiday riding.

My pal Kathy was in town from San Diego for the week and we were able to get in some fun riding.

First ride was an in town cruise around Lake Phalen, Round Lake and along the Gateway trail...

Wednesday evening we spent some time around the campfire


stacking stones

Thursday morning we got together with the rest of the Hill clan and did some mountain biking at Battle Creek

I had a fantastic week of friends and riding :)

Oops! our first ride was not around Phalen Lake, Round Lake and along the Gateway trail. Our first ride was on Sunday in Hugo. We had a nice ride from Hugo to Forest Lake on the Hardwood Creek Trail. That's the day we ran into swarms of Dragonflies.

Tomorrow I'm off to explore Salem Hills or Harmon Park whatever you want to call it.

I'm really looking forward to more mountain biking this year. That pulled hamstring really messed up my riding last summer. This morning I felt like I had never ridden in the dirt before.

pedal pedal pedal...

Rush Hour in the Netherlands...

What a great day for a bike ride. I'm thinking because it was the fishing opener this weekend it really helped with low traffic. I left the house about 0825 and cruise to downtown St. Paul. It's been a long time since I've pedaled through downtown, I ride there every morning to go to work but I don't see much at 0530 so it was fun to pedal through the heart of downtown. I caught West 7th street and rode it to Smith St. where I caught the High Bridge over the mighty Mississippi. I followed Smith until It turned onto Dodd Road then it was smooth sailing into Eagan. The ride took me 1:06 hours and was 14.73 miles. My average speed was 13.3 MPH. Not bad considering the climbing on Smith St. The High Bridge wasn't bad and you think once you get to the top it's all over but NO, you still have a couple more miles of climbing.

My route home was the best! I went north on Lexington to Lone Oak then turned West, I stopped at a coffee shop for a panini and some vitamin water. Then I headed North on Pilot Knob until I was able to catch the bike trail just before Interstate 494. Once on the bike trail it was a piece of cake. There were quite a few people on the trail and as I got into Mendota I found myself crossing a finish line and a whole lot of people were walking with numbers on their backs so there was something going on. After Mendota the pedestrian traffic went down but there were still quite a lot of people out on bikes. I followed the trail until I reached Harriet Island in St. Paul then I jumped onto Water street and took that to Robert St. I encountered a lot of road construction on 4th St. I was surprised by this I didn't expect them to be working on a Saturday. Add the Farmers Market to the road construction and my ride through downtown was really slow. Once I got out of that area I caught the Bruce Vento trail and followed that back home. My ride home took 1:19 hours and was 16.49 miles, I averaged 12.3 mph. I think the ride home was slower because of the traffic on the trail and the congestion downtown. Plus I tend to ride slower on a bike trail. It sure was a lot easier and much more scenic than the ride to Eagan.

We're Moving!

My job is moving to Eagan this Fall and I've been trying to find a route to the new building. This is going to suck, as it is now I pedal about 5 miles to get to work and my ride home can be up to 10 miles when I feel like taking the scenic route. Anyway, the new building is going to be anywhere from 14.5 to 16 miles one way!

The weather is supposed to be gorgeous today so I've decided this is the day to do a test ride to the new building. Here's the route I'm taking to get there and I'm going to try a different route home in order to compare the two. I haven't decided on the home route, I'll do that when I ride.

Home to Eagan: