Bike #1

• 42m 16s
• 11.67 miles
• 16.57 Mi/hr

Niced little noontime ride with Mike and Zach. Nothing too hard, just a nice stress relieving ride around the Cedar Lake Loop

Bike #2

• 1h 17m 33s
• 22.06 miles
• 17.07 Mi/hr

I wasn't sure what this ride would be. I was tired and didn't want to go hard but then I knew I could use a hard effort.

It was decided for me about a mile in when Fred rolled up to me! I hadn't talk to him in ages. Also he could crush me at will :)

I amped it up a bit as we rolled along catching up. Then he needed to get to baseball practice and dropped me like a bad habit!

But that got my legs spinning and I had good pace down to the river into the wind.

I shocked myself on the decent down the river at what speed I was carrying! Normally I am pretty nervous as there are people around but it was pretty quiet and the wind was at my back. 10 mph speed limit - hahahahahahaha!

Then we came to the Hill. I knew at this point I wanted a shot at a PR. I was warmed up and ready to go so I attacked the bottom. About half way up is this little dog leg. I started to cut it when I saw a bike coming my way! I slammed on the brakes and swerved! Mo was lost. I now had to work.

By the time I hit the top I was breathing real hard and my heart felt like it was going to crawl out of my chest. I broke my PR by about6 sec and moved from 85th to 80th overall on Strava. My goal is to be in the top 50 by the end of the summer.

The rest of the ride was pretty much so just grinding it out keep the pace up enjoying the late spring night.

Bike

• 1h 12m 49s
• 17.99 miles
• 14.80 Mi/hr

I figured out what was wrong with the Gitane so I had my gravel bike built. It was time to give it a whirl!

On the asphalt the cyclocross tires make the same whirring noise the mountain bike tires do. Brought back memories of the winter :)

The tires held well on the gravel. They are wide enough (35mm) to not catch ruts but still roll well.

There were plenty of walkers and runners out but I made it by them just fine.

If I would have had a camera with a I would have taken a BEAUTIFUL photo of Purgatory Creek. It has plenty of water in it due to the recent rains. There is one place where it flows through a small meadow bordered by forest. WOW.

Speaking of rain I had several water episodes. Both tunnels (under Excelsior and under Hwy 7) there was standing water.

In the swam after the Hwy 7 tunnel there was several places the water was over the trail. In one place it was about 3 inches deep.

I really enjoyed going as hard as I could on the gravel. It was a nice change from the asphalt.

Bike

• 1h 23m
• 19.32 miles
• 16.07 Mi/hr

No bike computer - I left it at home. The wind was from the west at 17-24 mph. The 2nd half of the loop was painful - very painful. But I beat Mr. Wind :)

Bike

• 1h 01m 40s
• 17.41 miles
• 16.94 Mi/hr

I worked on my cross bike this afternoon with the intention of riding into Watertown and doing some miles on the Luce Line Trail. The rear tire kept slipping in the frame and my time was running out so I grabbed the Leopard and decided on the Crow River Loop.

Going south into Watertown I was really moving once I got warmed up (19+ mph) I was wondering if my legs were really coming around to where I was last year.

Of course once I turned east I found out I had a NE wind that had been propelling me and now it was going to be a headwind on the east and north sides of the loop!

I really wasn't looking for anything spectacular. I just wanted to get a little spinning in. I was quite please to see I came very close to averaging 17 mph!

Bike

• 40m 27s
• 11.65 miles
• 17.28 Mi/hr

Headed out into the wind (about 16 mph). It took a little while to get warmed up but then I got in a real good groove.

As I headed north I still had a little bit of a head wind but I was starting to realize when I made the turn going west I would be able to fly.

And fly I did! With the same effort as going into the wind I was in the 19-20 mph range instead of 16-17.

Finishing with a 17.3 mph is the fastest ride I have done so far this season!