Time Flies

One week ago was the start of the 3 days of intense, long hours in the morning before putting in a full days worth of work. My goal was to ride for 6-7 hours each day Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I pretty much achieved this in my little world, but the days proved to be a challenge set forth from Mother Nature.
Wednesday started out a little chilly in the morning and it felt cooler from the winds gusting to 30 mph. With the winds that fierce I planned a route to take me SW to Paynesville, MN. With hitting the wind directly for 4 hours in the face any chance to take cover or get a cross wind was well liked. Making my way around Lake Kronus I found a little shelter on the lake road. As I found my way into Paynesville the skies started to spit on my a little bit. No big deal I thought. When I rolled into the Casey's gas station for the scheduled refueling, the skies started to open up. I kept the break very short and headed North out of Paynesville. This part of the ride was the toughest. With the cross winds and the rain feeling like needles, the trip about 15 miles to the North felt like it took forever. Once I turned back to the East I was moving very fast. Too fast! By this time and where I was in the route, I was headed home. Luckly the trip home went well and I rolled in very close to 7 hours that day.

Thursday morning Ben and I headed out again at 6 a.m. The route planned for the day was to go North on the East side of the river to gain a little coverage from the wind. Destination was Little Falls and by going up the East side we were able to enjoy the views as we were doing a usual route backwards. Once we arrived in Little Falls we started to roll back to the South, then to the West, then further West, then South, and then back to the East. This brought us home in just 6.25 hours of riding. We had a couple stops, with one top fix a flat. Thanks for joining my Ben.

Friday morning when I woke up it was raining. Not to mention it was cold also. I had to do everything I could to convince myself to swing my leg over the bike outside. I did and it was brutual. I have to admit that I could only make it 4 hours though. I was extremely cold, wet and tired after 13 hours of riding in the last two days. I planned a route to keep me on the outskirts of the town just incase I needed to pull the plug. Honestly I made it longer than I thought considering that I was soaked all the way through in the first 45 min. All in all I was glad that I toughed it out that day. I looked as if that morning had been a race, I would have done it. By doing what I did over the last three days, I hope the training will pay off come 20 hours into a 24 hour race.

On Satudarday Angela graduated with a double master's degree. An outstanding achievement for you! I am very proud of you.