Metric Century

I told myself after the Cream City century I would be done with long organized rides until next summer. Well I have created a monster that isn't satisfied. After my last century I found myself looking at the calendar and I figured I can get a few more long rides in this season The Bicycle federation of Wisconsin is hosting a fundraising ride out in Cedarberg on September 17th. They aren't offering a 100 miler but they do offer a 62 mile or metric century option. I jumped on the opportunity to ride one more long one this season. Then I'll be done... For the year anyway.

Century # 2

I completed my second century. I love to say that. This one was definitely harder that my first. The terrain for the entire route was rolling hills. Just when you had enough there was more on the horizon.

I started my ride at 7am, eager to get off to another good start. The air and earth was damp, the roads wet from condensation and the sky filled with clouds and light fog. The route was headed Southwest towards the Burlington area. 15 Miles in, the first pit stop was in the town of Lyons. I was feeling good, had plenty of water so I skipped it. As the ride continued we headed west toward Elkorn. The next rest stop was at the Elkorn Armory at the 31 mile mark. I took a quick potty break, filled up the water bottles and munched on some almonds. Our route then headed Northwest towards Turtle lake. The next rest stop was at Lake Loraine at the 50 mile mark. Lake Loraine rest stop was my favorite because there were 8 old 1930's looking cars. Some car club has group rides and they ended up having a pit stop at the lake also. The view from the rest area was also pretty cool, Lake Loraine is pretty big. Then our route headed North towards Whitewater. It was after the half way point were I really started to dislike rolling hills. Just as I was getting tired of climbing we hit the roughest part of the route. The Kettle Moriane State Forest. The hills would only get bigger and longer. This is when you question why you got yourself in this mess, but the only reasonable reply is you got yourself in this, now get yourself out of it. I kept plugging away trying to remain in a positive state of mind. These were by far the hardest miles I have logged so far. As I struggled to climb up hills, I was passed by a few guys that were 20 years older than me. Granted these guys looked to be experienced bike riders and it didn't look like they weighed more than 150 pounds each. I'm such a competitor, that even though there was now way I could catch up those guys, I kicked it into overdrive to save a little face. I did catch up with those guys, too bad it was at the next pit stop. At the 65 mile mark was LaGrange, the 4th pit stop. I was extremely gassed from the blasted Kettle Moriane. I knew now the worst was over. The hills could only get smaller from here on out. Well that was partly true, yes the hills weren't as bad but there were just so many of them. Our route was headed East towards East Troy. Right outside of East Troy I came upon an awesome farm with 4 huge solar panels and 2 wind turbines. Seeing that brought a smile to my face. I love to see progress and Solar panels and wind turbines are a huge upgrade from the 19th century coal power plants. Wouldn't you agree, Moon? Anyways, East Troy was the last pit stop at the 83 mile mark. I was so focused on finishing I again decided to skip the pit stop. At the 92 mile mark a heard a loud snap and I immediately knew I just snapped a spoke. I wasn't in the mood to sit and wait for the SAG wagon to come help, so I partially disabled my rear brake so the wobbly tire could rotate unimpeded and I jumped back in the saddle. With my rear tire wobbling so much it was hard to keep a good pace. I was struggling to keep my pace at 15 MPH. The majority of my ride my AVG pace was 17.6 MPH. At this point I was ready to be done and thankfully the finish was within reach. I needed every muscle fiber in my legs to get through the last few hills and on the last climb near the finish I saw 3 familiar faces waiting for me. Nikki and my parents made it out to see me finish. I finished completely drained. Thanks for coming out to support me, its' always nice to have someone there for you. I finished with a average pace of 17MPH and my total time was 6 hours and 14 minutes. 2 minutes better than my last century. That's progress.

Up North

This post is a couple of weeks late but better late then never. Nikki and I had a terrific time up North with Phil and Aralee, Rita, Sam and Sara, Dean and Amber, Moon and Laura - we missed you John!

I wanted to get my 65 mile training ride out of the way so I had Nikki drop me off in Antigo and I rode to the cabin from there. It was pretty cool. My route was highway 45/47 to Monico, at Monico I took a left onto Hwy 8/47, that took me into Rhinelander were I continued on Hwy 47 to McNaughton. The majority of the ride was on busy highways, but I still very much enjoyed the scenery. Once I got into McNaughton the only traffic I had to worry about was deer. I only ended up with 60 miles when I was close to the cabin so I went along the old logging roads to get my needed mileage. When I pulled into the driveway everyone was there to greet me and congratulate me on the ride. All I wanted to do is jump in the lake to cool off. After a swim and some much needed food, I was in relax mode for the rest of the day. That night we all went out to veiw the meteor shower. It was fantastic, I saw several meteors with long vapor trails streaking across the star lit sky. What a sight.

Another high-light of the trip was SCUBA diving. Moon brought all of his gear. He has an extra regulator so two people could dive on the same tank of air. Moon and I went off to look at the fish crib, that's right off the pier in 10-15 feet of water. On our first dive we missed the crib completely, visability wasn't very good. On our second attempt we hit the jackpot, the crib was massive, there were several fish hanging out. We saw some tiny fish that looked to be transparent. I had a good time, that dive made me want to get back out in the ocean again.

Grandpa Phil and Moon built a ski board thing, to help Sam and Sara learn how to ski. Both of then did a good job. I did a little skiing myself. My legs were screaming at me to stop, I was sore from my ride, but I wanted to get a few laps in. I got a little too confident in my ablilities and I crashed hard. I was moving across the wake and lost my balance. I fell and skipped across the water like a rock. I thought the water would be forgiving but I was wrong, I got the wind knocked out of me and I lost a contact. Needless to say I had enough water skiing after that.

One night Dean and Amber and Nikki and I went to see Pirates 2. It was flippin' hilarious; Johnny Depp is such a great actor. We had a good time hanging out with Dino and Amber. We should do that more often.

On our way home bad luck hit us twice. Nikki got a speeding ticket in Fond du Lac and 10 miles down the road after that a rock hit my windsheild and put a crack in it. A bad end to a great getaway.