8.5mi

This weekend hasn’t afforded much in the way of riding opportunities. Friday, Beck and I had a social engagement, and the best part of Saturday — the early morning — was used in the Komen walk. After the big storms last night, the Katy Trail was, I’m sure, a mess.

That left hitting the stationary cycle today.

And after finishing that, it hit me. I needed a CamelBak bladder hanger for drying. I knew West County Cycles had ’em, so I figured I’d just ride up there. I jumped on Google Earth, found a path that carried me down Wren Trail that didn’t put me on the big streets, and rode up there. As I discovered, it’s only a mile away via the trail.

That’s dangerous. I mean, having a potential black hole for my wallet at that distance, and accessible easily….. Well, let’s just say that my self control might not be enough to keep me away! 🙂

4.0mi

Beck and I signed up a few weeks ago to walk in the Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure. The company pays our entry fees, and we felt like it was a good cause, and worth getting up early for.

Traffic was a little ugly, but parking was simple, and we headed toward our company’s meeting point for our team photo before beginning the walk. We could’ve been a bit more organized, and it would’ve been nice to have some kind of distinctive shirts so we could find each other. Maybe next year.

We watched the runners start, and then all us turtles filed in behind them. After about a mile of walking down Olive Street, we looked behind us, and couldn’t see the end of the mass of humanity. Looking ahead of us, all we could see was people. What an amazing sight!

As we walked, we learned that we were taking part in the largest Komen walk held yet — over 64,000 folks were on the street with us. It was truly awe-inspiring to see so many folks out there supporting such a great cause. When we got home, we heard that over $2M was raised by the event today.

And it was moving. There were so many tributes to folks who were survivors, and so many who had lost the fight. Everywhere there was pink this and pink that. There was even a guy who’d shaved his head, with the exception of a pink-dyed, ribbon shaped band of hair on his head.

Yes, this was a very cool, very moving event. I feel certain we’ll back again next year, putting our feet on the street for this worthy cause.

14.6mi

Every Wednesday, a group from work gets together to cycle the Katy Trail, and tonight was no exception. We almost always start at the Weldon Spring trailhead [MM 56], but tonight, to mix things up, we started at the Greens Bottom trailhead [MM 45.7]. The Weldon Spring trailhead is about five miles from work; the one at Greens Bottom is quite a bit farther, and is situated out in the middle of low-lying farmlands nestled up against the river.

I thought our ride would just be up to the Page Avenue bridge — about three miles up the trail — along with crossing the bridge and returning. As it ends up, the ride was longer, and was probably the most challenging and enjoyable I’ve taken to date.

The ride to the bridge itself wasn’t bad at all, and came in right at about three miles, as advertised. And when you arrive at the west end of the bridge, you look above you and realize the bridge is fifty feet above your head. The means climbing, and I haven’t been practicing that! So, I rode up the switchbacks, in granny-gear but without stopping, and enjoyed the view from the parking lot [MM 42.8] at the top of the climb. After some rest, we continued across the Page Avenue bridge on the Katy Trail Connector.

The bike lane across the bridge is really nice, with a paved, wide dual-lane, and a concrete and chain-link wall protecting you from the road traffic. That was nice! I was able to get to about 23mph going across the bridge (it has a slight downward grade as you head east across it), and emptied into St. Louis County. This is the only place I can think of that you can cross from St. Charles County into St. Louis County legally on a bike, and it’s safe to boot! There may be other ways across that are bike friendly, but I can’t think what they might be.

We continued on toward Creve Couer Park, which was to be another four miles or so. This part of the ride was all paved, and rambled across small hills and dales, making for an enjoyable ride. Once I got close to the park, it was obvious that there was another climb in my future: the park lies about forty feet below the trail. I sped down the hill (no switchbacks) and met up with my group again for a little rest just beyond the roundabout at the entrance to the park. My odometer said we were at 7.25 miles, and after Monday’s ride, I knew I needed to take it easy, so we all decided to turn around and head back.

The hill out of Creve Couer Park was a killer, but with no switchbacks, I could just focus on getting up it, keeping both my head down and feet pedalling. The ride back to the Page Avenue bridge was ugly though. I fought a headwind the whole way, and was barely able to keep a decent speed as I ambled toward the big bridge. The switchbacks at the east end of the bridge were much easier to climb than the ones at the west end, and that got me on the bridge with some legs still left. I crossed the bridge at a slow pace — stupid headwind! — and met back up with my crew at the parking lot again.

Going down the switchback on the west end of the bridge was FUN! I really had to stay on my brakes though, as I know my tires aren’t exactly made for cornering those turns at speed. still, it was a fun start to the three mile sprint back to the trailhead at Greens Bottom.

It’s funny, these three-to-five mile legs are really working well for me. They are short enough to keep ’em from being overly painful, and yet still challenging enough to keep things interesting. Of course, tonight’s path had a lot of hill action, which I am absolutely not used to, but it still wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. In fact, tonight’s ride flew by, despite the kinda long distance and (to me) challenging hills.

And it put me over 175mi since I started this crazy stunt on May 3rd — I still look at that number with awe and pride. I know it’s not a big number for “real” cyclists, but for me, it’s huge. Maybe I am getting a little more used to this cycling stuff! 🙂

22.3mi

I was geared up for a ride again today, and by the time I was done at work, I could hardly keep my eyes open. It was a busy, busy day, but one with some successes. I’d no idea how far I’d be able to cycle tonight, but I figured I could at least get to Matson and turn around — about ten miles.

Once I got to the trailhead at Weldon Spring, I heard someone call my name. It was a guy who worked for me about five years ago. He and I got to talking, and I learned he is training to do the Katy Trail Ride in a couple of weeks. He’d ridden it a couple of years ago, and was raving about the experience. He’s been riding a lot, but leading up to the ride, he’s doing 15mi rides daily to get ready. Seems like a good training regimen, and I’m sure he’ll do fine with the event.

I got aboard my cycle and got on the trail, and noticed that I wasn’t quite as tired as was when I started out, and started getting that same kind of rhythmic pace that I experienced Friday night. Sure enough, Defiance rolled by, as did Matson, and I continued westward on the trail. In short order, I was at Klondike — my farthest stab on the trail. That’s about seven miles west of Weldon, and I knew Augusta was only another five miles or so ahead. The legs still had spring in them, and I decided to go for it, knowing that it would take my ride to more than 20 miles, and would gobble up the evening.

I pulled into Augusta after what felt like an eternity. I was thrilled with what I’d accomplished, and stopped for a couple of minutes to relish my feat. I was thinking about stopping someplace there, getting a snack and resting before heading back, but I noticed that it seemed everything was closed. I figured I could stop in Defiance — I’d seen some signs of life at the bike shop there on the way out — so I headed back toward Weldon as the sun was quickly dropping through the western sky. Once I got to Defiance though (around 6.30pm), the bike shop was closed, and aside from one the bars, everything was closed. So much for my plans!

Fortunately, the weather was nice, starting out at about 80 degrees, and dropping to about 70 during the two-and-a-half hour ride. I couldn’t have asked for better conditions. By the time I got back to the truck around 7pm though, I was really done. I stowed my gear, and headed home, satisfied that I’d challenged myself, met the challenge, and survived. Frankly, had I not gotten off the bike at Weldon, or had to think about the coming nightfall, I probably could’ve put another five miles on the ride. It was that nice tonight.

I finally drank my fill from my CamelBak on this ride. The last few rides I’ve taken, I haven’t hydrated enough, and I could tell because the bladder in the pack would only be down a quarter or so. That’s not nearly enough. Tonight, I drained about three-quarters of it, and that’s a little better. The card that came with the pack indicated that it was enough water for about three hours — tonight, that was just about dead-on.

I noticed was some slight cramping in my calves once I got to about 18 miles. I stopped, stretched and rubbed my muscles, which helped. I’m gonna need to figure something out to help prevent that though. I couldn’t have afforded to stop for 30 minutes last night, as nightfall would’ve trapped me on the trail with no flashlight to guide me. I’ve always been told that bananas help with preventing muscle cramps. Maybe I should keep one or two in the pack for the longer rides like last night.

And finally, I need to remember on these long rides is to include some snacks, stuff with some energy to them. When I got to Augusta, I was starving, and not being able to find grub on the trail was a killer. Had this been a weekend, there wouldn’t have been a problem — everyone’s open on the weekend because the traffic is so high from the trail. I guess there’s just not enough traffic during the week to stay open too late, or at all. By the time I was back at the truck, I had visions of spaghetti from Pasta House dancing in my head. As it ends up, I came home, grabbed a PB&J, a fig bar, and a little chips and salsa. A simple meal in celebration of my longest ride in close to 30 years.

6.6mi

After yesterday’s terrific ride, I figured I’d sleep a little late this morning, have breakfast with Darla, and head out for a quick ride before running some errands.

I ended up doing my errands first, and stopped at West County Cycles to pick up a chain-lock so I can park my bike, and a real speedometer. The Garmin works great overall on the trail, but there are sections where the cliffs will block the satellite reception, and that causes my distance and speed to be unrecorded until they’re visible again.

I’m really impressed with them. The father helped me today, and remembered me and Beck visiting them Tuesday, and Beck looking at bikes. He assured me that they could find a bike for her that was comfortable for her, and more importantly, would make her feel comfortable cycling. I’m more and more impressed with those guys.

New toys in hand, I headed to the Weldon Spring trailhead. On on Highway 94, it happened: I hit a deer with the TrailBlazer.

This deer was flying across a field and into the opposite lane where another truck hit it pretty square on, and I think flopped the carcass into my lane where I ran it over pretty good. No damage to me — other than my wits! — but the truck has an “ow-ee”. The drivers side front quarter panel took the brunt of a head or haunches, pushing it back under the front edge of the drivers door. The running board has been bent down too.

In fact, there’s deer fur on the outside of the front tire, all the way down the top of the running board, and a big tuft at the front of the rear wheelwell. Bleccch!

Truthfully, it could’ve been a lot worse. If I’d been driving Beck’s Intrepid, the carcass would’ve been in the windshield, flipped up by the low nose of the car. I was really fortunate to have the ground clearance and flat front end to help make this an inconvenience, rather than a horrible event.

I continued on to the trailhead, and discovered the damage first hand when I couldn’t hardly get the driver’s door open. The metal from the quarter panel had been shoved back, and door couldn’t swing to it’s full opening. It opened enough though, and I surveyed the damage, decided it wasn’t bad enough to cancel my ride, and plugged along.

I got the speedometer installed in the parking lot. Those have changed dramatically since my last one. I remember the one on my Schwinn twenty-five years ago having some kind of device that attached to the axle to measure when it was spinning. Now, it’s all sensors and magnets. I attached a sensor to the fork, and then attached this tiny magnet to one of my spokes, and with that, I was in business, and off to the trail.

Today’s ride was really nowhere as good as last night’s. It was humid, hot, and there were no cool spots. I’d really waited too long I think, having hit the trail right around 10:30am. As a result, it was a tough ride, and I only went as far as Defiance before circling back to Weldon. I’m sure my mind was preoccupied with the truck damage, and that probably didn’t help me too much.

I think I’ve learned that I need to really watch the weather for optimum ride times. I suspect earlier in the morning — 7am or so — would be the best, with cool evenings just before sunset being a close second. The rest of the trailriders can have the middle of the day — I’m just not quite up for that yet!

13.9mi

What a bear of a day at work! Starting early, rushing all day, and then having to stay late an extra hour and a quarter. And I was supposed to ride at 4pm!!!

Well, my reward for a day too long, and I landed at the Weldon Spring trailhead right around 5:30pm. I assembled my gear — getting the headphones wired through the CamelBak, getting the CamelBak drinking tube oriented, helmet on — and started on the trail toward Matson.

I knew I’d make Matson — that’s a ten mile roundtrip ride, and about an hour — but I felt good, and my legs were strong tonight. I blew through Defiance and Matson, and just kept going west. I’d not pedaled beyond Matson before, so this was new territory in a lot of ways. And the ground just kept rolling beneath the tires….

I wound up at Klondike Park, about seven miles from Weldon, and still felt like I had legs to go further, but I was concerned about running out of daylight. The late start because of the late night at work cost me going farther. I turned around, and headed back to the east.

I’m amazed at how easy the ride was tonight. I kept the bike in 3-6 gear, and that was oh-so-nice, and likely the reason that the ride went well. It was so reminiscent of my days riding two decades ago. Back then, I’d just ride and ride, and tonight I felt like I could’ve done just that.

I know I’ve talked about my trail riding before, but I’ve never mentioned the birds. As I ride, I spook cardinals, blue jays and little bluebirds. There’s no way I could photograph those little guys as they wing off, but they’re embedded in my memory.

I’ve also never mentioned the smells. On some parts of the trail, the air is thick with the scent of honeysuckle. Other parts are more odiferous as I pass the freshly fertilized farmers’ fields.

And tonight, the temperature was wonderful.  It was about 80 when I left the Weldon trailhead, and I know that in the shade it was easily 75 with some places where the change in temperature was amazingly evident.  It was like riding into a fog, with the temperature instantly feeling like it dropped five or ten degrees.

Yeah, tonight was special, well-deserved, and abbreviated, but it’s the best ride I’ve had yet, and I hope a portent of things to come!

I had intended to go riding tonight, but after talking with Casey, I wanted to check a few things out.  I’d talked with Casey about tires for the bike, and what kind of tires might be better suited for riding the Katy Trail.  I was convinced that my tires were too soft, and were making my riding tougher.  He had some good suggestions (knobby on the edges, slicker in the middle, and ones with much higher air pressure than what I currently have), but one of his suggestions was to make sure that my brakes weren’t dragging on the rims.

I decided I would go home and see if that was case.  Sure enough, the front and back brakes were both dragging the rims through part of the revolution.  I decided to try to fix it.

That was a bad move.

So, I wound up at West County Cycles, and John took care of my “handiwork”, as well as truing the rims.  His belief is that this will make a huge difference in the feel of my bike.  My rides have felt like I was riding through mud, so I’m hopeful of a dramatic improvement between these two repairs.  Tomorrow is our weekly group ride, so it’ll be a good time to see if the changes have helped.

Beck and I also talked with John a little bit about new bikes.  Beck doesn’t own a bike, so she has some interest in getting one so she and I can ride together.  And, frankly, my bike is an el cheapo from a sporting goods store.  Nice enough for what it is, but it could stand some upgrading.  I figure if I keep doing this level of riding (30-50 miles a week) for another month or two, then I might consider a new bike.  ‘Til then, I’ll keep the Huffy on the trail, and see where it takes me.

9.4mi

And today is the day we celebrate Memorial Day.  While I have thought about my fellow vets, and been reminded of them with all the flags around at half-staff, I did follow recent American doctrine, and shopped a bit.

I finally got a CamelBak, a closeout Cloud Walker at Sports Authority.  They had most of their CamelBaks on sale today, so it seemed a good time to run off and get one.

We also stopped at West County Cycles, where Beck bought me a helmet.  It’s a nice helmet, with plenty of ventilation on top, and plenty of clearance for my iPod headphones.  Pretty cool.

I just had to try the new gear out, so I set up the CamelBak, loaded it with water, and took everything to the trail today for a little ride.  I had designs on riding from Weldon to Augusta (10mi each way), but the heat was a little much, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to hang around in that for that long, so it was just to Matson and back — about 4.7mi.

So how did the gear do?  Well, the CamelBak is awesome, with enough storage for keys, iPod, cell phone and other goodies.  And, I only emptied half of the 70oz reservoir across my hour ride — about the right amount.

As for the helmet, I didn’t actually try it out — I kept the helmet on my head, and my head above the ground.  However, I feel pretty comfortable that it’ll protect me if I do end up feet-over-head.