Take this past week, for example. Early in the week, we were still dealing with a hotter/wetter August than most people can remember. When it wasn’t raining, the temperatures were in the 90s and the humidity was nothing short of “thick”. But, by the end of the week, all of that was gone and evening temperatures dipped into the low 40s and the air presented that crisp, dry feeling that is normally reserved for late October (shortly before a heavy snowfall).

It was under these chilly conditions that a co-worker and I arranged for a Saturday morning ride starting at 7:00am. I got up at six (while it was still dark outside) to get some food in my system and gather my bike stuff together. A quick look at the outside thermometer (every good Minnesota has at least one of these around the house – some install several) indicated that it was only 44 degrees.

It would be a chilly morning for a ride – especially when the calendar indicates that it is still officially “summer”.

It was a morning that required the proper cool-weather gear to enjoy the ride. I chose to leave very few areas of exposed skin – at least for the early stages of the ride.

It’s been a long time since I had ridden in mid-40 degree temperatures, so I needed to think for a few minutes about the best approach to layering. Temperatures in the forties do require some attention, as any exposed skin will take on a chill and begin to ache. So I broke out the full tights, the full-fingered gloves, and my cool-weather wind breaker jacket. I put on a decent base layer, a jersey and found my extra-thick wool socks. The final few pieces included a skull cap and wind blockers for my cycling shoes. As the temperature would be warming up as the morning progressed, I knew that I would be shedding various articles of clothing throughout the ride. But, it was a good starting point and I was rather comfortable heading out the door.

The morning was indeed quite beautiful, as the sun just started to peak up above the horizon just as I left my driveway. Having no wind is any cyclist’s dream conditions, as Saturday morning was as still as can be – at least right away.

As one of my better cycling purchases, my toe covers offer the perfect amount of wind blocking for cool conditions, while still letting my shoes breath and not get overly warm. It sucks to ride with either cold or hot feet and these covers are the right choice when temps dip below about 55 degrees.

I met up with Brigham at the local Rainbow Foods and we quickly decided to hit the usual roads in the west metro and target a two hour ride (with no real pace considerations). Neither of us had ridden since the previous weekend, so there was no desire to push the pace. I think we were both just glad to be on the bikes again.

After looping around toward the northwest, we were heading back along Baker Park when I needed to make a quick stop near their primary 6 mile trail that surrounds Katrina Lake. Since we were already on the trail, we decided to follow it around until hitting Maple Plain before jumping down to County Road 6 for the return route. Although I really dislike using my New Steed™ on trails (not for concern for the bike – they just aren’t conducive to 20mph riding), this trail is quite nice for riding and we were able to keep a decent pace without the trail impeding our efforts.

Here is the map to show you how our use of the main roads took the diversion onto the meandering park pathway.

Once we were back on County Road 6, we came upon an intersection that was being controlled by a volunteer in a highly-reflective vest. They were monitoring the intersection for cyclists participating in the Gear West Mosquito Man Duathlon – which combined running and cycling. This event had a curious layout where the racers started with a 1.5 mile run, biked for 8 miles, ran another 1.5 miles, biked AGAIN for 8 miles, and finished with a 1.5 mile run.

When we encountered the riders – the slow ones we passed were on their first cycling leg. We were also passed by several riders (mostly in dedicated time trial gear) who were probably on their second cycling pass and would soon be finishing the event. It looked like a fun event – although most of the cyclists were spread out and riding alone (which is always a little sad – but that’s the life of a triathlete/duathlete). Along County Road 6 there were several small groups of people (likely family members of participants) who were sitting alongside the road to cheer on the athletes. Thus when Brigham and I rode by, we were greeting by cheers of encouragement – even though we weren’t in the race. That was a fun surprise on what would normally be a rather quiet, uneventful ride.

My treat for completing the ride was some burgers that I cooked up on the grill. I did NOT eat both of them, but it was nice to have a little extra after the first one was finished off. I incorporated some fresh beef-steak tomatoes from a relative’s garden – making for a nearly perfect cheeseburger.

Not wanting to be further confused with the race, we left County Road 6 and headed back north to finish our loop and end the ride. By the time our ride concluded, it had warmed up to a balmy 52 degrees and I was starting to feel a little warm on the bike.

Of course, that is simply riding in Minnesota. If you don’t like the weather conditions, just hang on for a while as they are bound to change.

For the whole day, Erin had a list of things to do or try at the fair. Here we stand in line at Bayou Bob’s Shack for some alligator.

She complained that they were a little “chewy” to get down, but it was a clear success. I enjoyed the hush-puppies that they served with the alligator much better. I’m pretty sure this was the first time, and the last time, both of us would be eating alligator.

Although it was a quick ride, we couldn’t have been happier with the views and a new perspective on the utter size of the entire fairgrounds.

Another item on Erin’s “Fair Bucket List” was a bag of mini-donuts from a particular stand near the kiddie rides. I’m not sure what was so special about THAT stand – but it gave us an excuse to hit up the old “machinery hill” portion of the fair.

We also hit another classic ride which I haven’t participated since my youth – Ye Old Mill. It was celebrating it’s 97th anniversary, which is reflected in the piles of dust on display in the various little alcoves along the ride.

We capped the evening in the fair grandstands for the Weird Al Yankovic concert. It was my daughter’s first “real” concert and she was excited to see what a “rock” concert was like.

Having bought the tickets the same day from the grandstand kiosk, our seats weren’t that great. But, in classic nerd fashion, we made sure to get there plenty early to check the place out.

Weird Al was awesome and took several opportunities to wow the audience with his accordion skills during various polka medleys of today’s hits. Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” on an accordion? Why not!

He closed the night with his classic – The Saga Begins – parodying the song “American Pie” with the Star Wars story. It doesn’t get much more nerdy than that. I thought it was AWESOME and Erin liked it, too.

Weird Al’s last song of his encore was “Yoda” – just before the State Fair Fireworks exploded right from behind the stage. It was a great closure to a perfect day and a perfect concert. Erin’s quote was that it was her “best fair day ever!” I couldn’t agree more.

Karl made quite a few laps through the inflatable slide and bundled up to recover from the ice-cold water.

Charlie provides endless chances for great photos as he is always actively involved in SOMETHING exciting. He’s also got the classic freckles that capture both an innocence and a mischievousness.

My brother’s purchase of a water slide for the front yard is the perfect outdoor attraction for a summer’s family get-together. All the boys who donned swimming suits had a blast!

This was probably my favorite photo of the bunch, as the composition and expression on David come together just right. I’ve learned that these photos only come along about once every 200 shots – so I continue to take lots of shots.

It was David’s birthday that we were celebrating, so he was a willing participant to give me lots of smiles and patience with the camera.

I was joined by my brother, Tim, for the ride. We had several options for the route and chose the one that was the longest and covered large parts of Pope County. It was marketed as a 70 mile route, but we found our actual distance was a little short as I’ll describe further in this post.

The ride kicked off from the Glenwood City Park (near the rebuilt Lakeside Ballroom – which I played at many times during my youth) and was set for leaving on the route between 7:30am and 8:30am. Since both my brother and I were staying out at my dad’s house – a few short miles out of town – we decided to ride directly from my dad’s place to the ride start. This would add a total of 6 miles to the overall ride, but that didn’t seem that big of a deal when the whole ride is well over 60 miles (10% more?). Thus, to hit the route as early in the day as possible, we got everything together and heading out shortly after 7:00am.

Looking out toward the lake from the city park, you could never imagine that there was a massive lake right past the dock. The fog and smooth water surface played a lot of tricks to the eyes all morning as the first part of the day’s journey included a 21 mile loop around Lake Minnewaska.

As I left the garage, I commented that I “hoped my tires held up for the duration of the ride” – knowing that they were displaying some signs of wear. This proved a poor choice of words as my brother hit a rock and tore a whole in his tire’s sidewall within about 50 feet of hitting the highway. As sucky as a flat tire can be, we were pretty lucky to have it happen so close to my dad’s house. My brother had his second bike with him and was able to steal a tire from the other bike and we were back on the road into town within about 5 minutes.

On the way into town, it became evident that the early part of the ride was going to be shrouded in fog, as a thick layer of clouds were hovering right off the lake surface. It was a little bit of a surreal experience, because the lake was perfectly calm resulting in a visual phenomenon where you could not see a horizon line between the lake and the clouds/sky. Any early morning fisherman on boats appeared to be simply floating in a white suspension.

We soon rolled into town and checked in at one of the picnic shelters in the park. Earlier in the year, my brother and I rode the Minnesota Ironman ride – which is a rather popular and substantial ride in Minnesota. At the Ironman ride, every rest-stop was complete with healthy foods – various organic, all-natural refreshments. At the Glenwood stop, they provided donuts, bismarks, and homemade cookies. We both avoided the temptation, knowing that it is not a comfortable ride to start the day with a bunch of donuts sitting deep inside your belly.

The official map had the bikers rounding the lake in a counter-clockwise direction and sent eveyone on the newer bikepath that was added to Country Road 24 in the last several years. Unfortunately, this path also takes riders away from the Lakeshore and provides little in terms of scenic views. Instead of following this path directly, we decided to stay close to the shoreline and kept along the South Lakeshore Drive on the first leg into Starbuck. Although, with the heavy fog, there was little to be seen as visibility was limited to a few dozen feet all around us.

On the way into Starbuck, we ran into my old band teacher from high school – Jerry Stein – who was manning the intersection where the bike path intersected the main highway in the area. It’s fun to see the adults from your youth and catch up, if only briefly. We keep on down the road and soon made a quick stop at the Starbuck park for refeshments.

At the Starbuck stop, they appeared to be a little over-zealous with their food purchases and had an assortment that could feed somewhere between 300 and 400 people (there ended up being around 80 people that road some/all of the tour). They had enough bananas that every single rider could have eaten three of them and still had some left over. They also provided a meat and cheese tray – which I found to be an wonderful idea and nibbled from it before clipping into the pedals and heading back on the road.

We finally started to see some blue sky and more than a few hundred feet around us by the time we pulled into Glenwood after completing the 21 mile route around the lake.

The loop around the lake ended with little of note – except that the only time we could actually see the lake was the few last moments before returning to the Glenwood park prior to the next leg.

The next portion of the ride included traversing the newly-built bikepath to Villard – a small town about 10 miles out from Glenwood. If you’ve been to the area before, you likely realize that Glenwood sits in a fairly deep valley formed long ago by glaciers during the most recent ice age. For us cyclists, this meant that we needed to climb some hills to get out of the valley and up to the flats before joining the trail. My brother and I again chose to go “off-route” and took the steep road behind the Barsness Park to get up “Soo Hill”. Taking that road was like taking bad tasting medicine – where it is best just to suffer quickly and get it over at once. Thus, the road is VERY steep, but allows to get all the elevation behind you quickly.

We found the trail to Villard and were soon on a flat, straight and steady ride to the neighboring town. As an old railroad bed, the trail is very easy for any class of cyclist and allowed for us to maintain a steady 18-19 mph pace.

Pulling into Villard, we were directed to a reststop that was located at the most recent build for the Habitat for Humanity organization. It appeared to be a nice, single-family home that was about midway through its construction. While gathering a few refreshments (and snacking on some more homemade cookies), one of the new residents of the home stopped by to volunteer. She seemed pretty excited to get into the house and was genuinely thankful for the organization’s help to make it happen. It was good to see Habitat for Humanity at work and meet someone who is able to take advantage of the community’s generosity. I was happy to be a small part of it by contributing my entrance fee for the ride.

While at the Villard stop, we picked up an additional rider – a women named “Shirlie” – who was going at about the same pace as my brother and me. This turned out to be a nice addition, as the three of us were able to increase the pace over the second half of the ride and knock the miles off rather quickly.

From Villard, we headed straight west along some back county road until we came upon Lowry. This town is pretty small and it was no surprise that the rest stop for the event was actually at the main bar in the city called “The Hatchery”. It was probably the only place where they could organize access to bathroom facilities, so it’s understandable. But, incorporating a cycling event with a stop-off at the local bar still seemed a little contradictory.

The last leg of the journey headed south toward Starbuck, before cutting back to Glenwood along Country Road 24. By this time, we were all feeling the distance in our legs and were glad that the miles were coming to an end. The fog had lifted, but the temperatures were beginning to rise and the humidity was started to become noticed. We rolled into Glenwood right around 12 noon – about 4 hours from when we started.

Here are the stats loaded into the Garmin site:

Originally, the ride was billed to be 70 miles – although I only tracked 62 miles, including the out-and-back to my dad’s place. I think we would have needed an extra leg out to the Glacial Lakes Park to hit the full 70, but neither my brother or I felt bad about cutting it a bit short. Our moving duration came in at 3.5 hours and we averaged just over 17 mph even with all the starts and stops. This was pretty good, considering that the Minnesota Ironman ride we did earlier in the Spring averaged only 14 mph. For Saturday’s ride, the conditions were perfect with little-to-no wind, so the 17 mph average reflects nice cycling weather and was to be expected.

Overall, the Tour de Prairie Lakes was a success (from a rider’s perspective) and I hope it can continue. This was the fifth year for the event – but 80+ riders isn’t much to help pay for the support given to make it happen – even with volunteers to man the stations. It is definitely a great way to feature the entire Pope County and illustrate how great it is to cycle in the area. I’ve put many miles on those roads during my youth and welcome others to share in the same experiences I had.

Our Saturday ride targeted around 25 miles and hit the usual roads. Here are the stats if you are interested. While on the bikes, we encountered a large number of other riders – each with the same idea as ourselves. For morning rides, everyone seems to be over-friendly and there was nary a rider who didn’t wave back when presented with a greeting from us.

For me, Sunday was a day off from the bike. It’s not that I really needed time away from riding, but the 25+ mph wind gusts convinced me that some chores around the house were a welcome distraction to fighting the wind on a bike. Earlier in the week, I came upon a neat decorative wall design on one of the many design-related blogs that I follow. It was a grid of stretched canvas frames with either paint or fabric covering them. In the online post, I saw that they provided simple coverage for a large wall. It gave me the idea to repeat the same basic setup in my living room – since I also have a larger bare wall that needs some covering. Thus, it was off to Michaels for some pre-stretched canvas frames (six of them) and off to JoAnn Fabrics to find a large-patterned textile that would tie the colors I have between my couch (blue), my built-in cushion (rusty orange), and my pillows (golden). I got lucky to tie in all three colors with a single print and, after a few hours of tinkering, had a new custom decoration up on the wall. I will show it off later once I get a fresh coat of paint on the walls to tie in all the colors within the room.

Since Sunday was without riding time, I was itching to get on the bike after work on Monday. The wind was still up – close to 15 mph from the west – but I still decided to just fight it and keep the ride fairly short.

Here are the stats:

The biggest change for Monday’s ride was the weather. Whereas rides in the early part of August had dew points in the 70s, Monday’s weather provided a sharp contrast with dew points well into the low-50s and even a little “nip” in the air. Before I hopped on the bike, it passed through my head that it was “darn cold” to be on the bike and I looked forward to getting the first few warmup miles out of the way. Unlike most other sports, cycling provides a steady exposure to the wind and humidity with a great affect on comfort that cannot be sheltered easily during the ride. You need to dress appropriate and be willing to shed some clothes along the way to adjust to the conditions. Fortunately, I ended up not doing anything special and went out with a typical kit – jersey and shorts. It is still August, after all.

Even though it wasn’t cool enough to break out the leg-warmers. the feeling in the air presented the foreboding of cold weather riding to come. I’m not sure if I am mentally prepared to head out on a ride in the low 50s, even though I find it much more comfortable to ride in cooler conditions than I do in the recent heat/humidity of recent weeks. Fall riding is wonderful in Minnesota for a whole host of reasons – but I could stand to suffer through the summer conditions for a few more weeks before conceding to the inevitable.

This week’s riding is all in preparation for an extended ride that is planned for Saturday, August 21st. My brother and I will be riding the Tour de Prairie Lakes that is centered around our hometown of Glenwood, Minnesota. This is a 70 mile ride that first circles the local lake (Lake Minnewaska – which I have showcased many times on the blog), moves on to a neighboring town of Villard, and loops back through the countryside into Lowry and back to Glenwood before completing the journey. It’s main goal is a fundraiser for the local Habitat for Humanity chapter – but it also provides us cyclists with an event to enjoy.

Our goals for the event are simple – just finish. I can only hope that the weather will cooperate and the winds will stay light. Out on the prairie, the open road and cleared fields provide little shelter for any winds and they can truly howl along. Should half of our 70 mile journey take place into the wind, I will not be a happy cyclist. That said, I hope there is something that presents some adversity – like rain or even mechanical trouble. It wouldnt’ be much of a ride if we just pedaled along easily for a few hours.

The company at which I work is located in a part of the Twin Cities area with several good options for cycling. You could head northwest and travel around the Lake Minnetonka area – a favorite of many local cyclists. You could head southwest and ride through Chaska and Chanhassen areas. Or, you could head into the city and enjoy true urban cycling at it’s finest.

I can say “finest” with confidence, as Minneapolis was recently voted the “Best Cycling City” for 2010 by Bicycling magazine. Of course, reading the actual story about the decision – you’d think you need to subject yourself to 20 degree temperatures, ride constantly in the snow (which is rarer than most people think for Minnesota – we have an awesome road clearing infrastructure), live in Downtown/Uptown Minneapolis and ride a “hipster fixie” bike to actually enjoy the region. Since I don’t fit any of those particular bike-culture stereotypes, I can only describe the details of Thursday’s ride in this post to demonstrate that I at least agree with the conclusions in the article – Minneapolis is an awesome urban place to ride a bicycle.

For Thursday, I got the chance to ride with several co-workers – each of us taking some time off to get outside and ride. Our journey (all three of us) started out from the company parking lot and headed a short distance along some side streets before we found the western edge of the Cedar Lake Trail. This trail is an old railroad line (as most are around Minnesota) and offers an amazingly un-interrupted approach into downtown Minneapolis with only a few interactions with motor vehicles. The trail is flat, smooth and well-maintained to the point that it almost makes you feel guilty for having such a nice environment dedicated to cyclists and walkers. This guilt is especially true when many of Minnesota’s roads are in rough condition due to the extreme seasonal changes we experience.

But, not this trail. Whereas many bike trails in the metro area are twisting and curvy preventing any real speed of being reached, the Cedar Lake Trail is long, straight and open. This gave us a good chance to average close to 20 mph for the 5+ mile journey into town.

Once we neared the Lake Calhoun area, we split off the Cedar Lake Trail and joined up to the Midtown Greenway. I’ve talked about this trail in past posts and it is often heralded as the “flagship” example of how Minneapolis is committed to the local cycling community. Even though it may not provide the most beautiful of riding experiences, it has tremendous utility. We were able to get from the Minneapolis lakes region to the Mississippi River in no time with no stopping along the way.

Think about that.

We biked from the outer southwest suburbs into the heart of a major metropolitan region and rarely stopped our bikes or interacted with any cars. It’s quite amazing when you actually think about it. It illustrates that the Twin Cities truly take their cycling seriously and take action with practical trail development – versus painting a few extra lines onto already congested roads.

Upon hitting the river, our plan was to travel south. We hit the Minnehaha Falls Park after about 16 miles into the ride and the one hour marker – which made of a perfect opportunity for a quick dismount and re-fill of the bottles. By this time, the temperature was starting to have an impact and we were each going through a bottle’s worth of water in less than an hour. Riding at 95+ degrees takes some proactive steps to ensure that your body can tolerate both the exercise and the inability to properly cool down due to lack of sweat evaporation. Consistent hydration is a very important step.

From the Minnehaha Falls, we kept working our way along the river and were soon traveling right through the middle of Fort Snelling and up onto the Mendota Bridge to cross the big river. Many of you may have traveled over this bridge in your cars – making your way through the southern metro region. Going over the bridge on a bike, you quickly realize how long that bridge really is. It seemed like we were on that bridge for 10 minutes (which isn’t actually true), but I did take the extended opportunity for straight-line riding to capture a few picts.

Now on the other side of the river, our next plan was to head northeast toward St. Paul. Brent, one of the riders who was acting as our guide, wanted to make us suffer and cross the river again using the High Bridge. The name of the bridge is appropriate, as the damn thing is really high. This is especially true when starting from the river’s base elevation. We climbed up the winding Ohio Street road – me suffering in my granny gear – until we hit the peak and were able to reap the rewards of the elevation by coasting down the full length of the bridge. Unfortunately, we were met by another big hill following Grand Avenue in order to reach Summit Avenue.

While riding along Summit Avenue, I really started to get hot and was ready for a break. In looking at the Garmin details (which I will display later in the post), I can see why I was suffering. My bike computer registered a high temperature of 102F over this part of the ride. Fortunately, Brent led us over to a Dunn Brothers Coffee place for a brief stop in an air-conditioned building and the chance to down something cold. By this time, the water in the bottles was far from refreshing, as it was the temperature of warm soup. The coolness of the break was enough to breath some life back into me and I enjoyed the remainder of the ride.

After heading back north on West River Road, we passed the University and the new 35W Bridge before heading into downtown Minneapolis near the Stone Arch Bridge. Minneapolis is a fairly easy city to navigate with a bicycle and I have some experience with numerous rides downtown during my college years. We headed right up Nicollet Ave until we hit the branch-off spot to join up with Loring Park. After zig-zagging through the park, we were soon over the bridge near the Sculpture Garden and back on the Cedar Lake Trail for the final leg back to the company parking lot.

In total, we covered around 47 miles. Here are the stats from the computer.

My mileage and average speed are a little goofy, because my Garmin kept registering movement while we were inside Dunn Brothers. If you zoom into the Garmin map, you will see some crazy numbers around this area. Overall, we accomplished nearly 48 miles in under 3 hours of riding while suffering through near 100deg temperatures.

The bridge near the Sculpture Garden has recently be re-planked and was a joy to crosst

That’s a real ride – no matter who you are – and represents one of the longer ones for me this season. Also, aside for the two climbs we took near St. Paul, the ride was flat and our winds were light so it didn’t present too many challenges. The temperature and distance were the main adversaries and were easily overcome.

Thursday’s ride gives me some motivation to both ride in an urban setting more often and cover some longer distances. Finding three hours to ride – even on the weekends – can be tough, but the reward is indeed high. Plus, the ease of riding in Minneapolis is something I should not take for granted. It really is the finest urban city to ride in the US. I’m just lucky it happens to be in my backyard.

Since I am currently have a running total of six flats for this cycling season (due to an assortment of unlucky reasons), I’m a little gun-shy when things attach themselves to my tires. This means I am constantly monitoring my tires and running my gloved hand over the surface to ensure things are as clean as possible. Monday’s ride had me constantly checking my tires as the road was a steady path of stickiness.

While out on the ride, I encountered several examples of Minnesota’s wildlife.

I got a chuckle out of a group of Canadian Geese that appeared to be practicing their formations. You could tell that the older adults where showing the new generation of young geese how it is done and the best way to form up. It was like the first day of school for geese – with a rather dis-organized formation that was closer to the letter “S” than the expected “V”.

I also spotted a deer approaching the road just a few yards ahead of me. At this time of year, the local whitetail are very red in color with their summer coat. She looked ready to jump in front of me, but thought differently and decided to head back into the woods alongside the road. As she bounded away, I could see a single fawn – spots and all – joining her. As deer usually have twins, I didn’t see a second young one which, sadly, indicates that the second deer probably didn’t survive the spring. But, deer are still plentiful and I was glad to see that she chose to avoid the road.

Upon returning home, I was wet from head to toe and looking forward to some refreshment. Having exhausted my case of Sam Adams Summer Ale earlier last week, I resorted to opening up my single bottle of Chimay Premeire Red Ale. I bought this bottle earlier in the summer with some hopes to drink what is considered the epitome of beer. It is a classic Belgian-style ale made by some monks in the Belgium countryside. It has a lot of hype online, so I was eager to give it a try.

This beer is part of their Red series and has a wonderful caramel color with a fruity nose

It has all of the characteristics that are described online – with a fruity noise that reminded me of apricots. It was an incredibly smooth beer and had a nutty taste that is found in most Belgian brews. In all honesty, I was hoping to be “wowed” by this beer, but it ended up to be only great – and not incredible or life-changing. The flavor reminded me of a Fat Tire – but with much more subtle hops. It was a good beer and would rank in the top five that I have ever tasted. But, it’s $12 price tag didn’t justify (to me, anyway) the quality of the drink.

Also, the beer comes in a 750ml bottle. This means that one beer is like drinking an entire bottle of wine. That’s OK when you are with another person or a group, but on my own it becomes a lot of beer. At 7% alcohol, it also packs a punch. But, I spread it out over several hours and was able to enjoy the whole bottle (the sacrifices I will make for trying new things). Also, it was fun to crack open as it is packed with a champagne-style cork that popped off with a “pop”. It clearly is a great beer – but I find that I can achieve similar enjoyment by something else (ala Surly Brewing) at half the price.

All this carbon and high-tech components do little to stave off the heat

But that doesn’t deter me from riding, even though I’m not able to push too hard. I’ve got thick Scandinavian blood running through my veins, so I’m much more conditioned for riding in cold and wet 40 degree temperatures. When the temperatures exceed 90 and the humidity levels match, my body doesn’t quite know how to handle the combination of aggressive cycling, little-to-no sweat evaporation, and gentle winds that do nothing but blow hot wind in my face. It’s a power-draining experience and it seems like my legs just don’t want to turn the pedals with any authority.

Friday’s ride was a basic Medina loop – coming in at around 21 miles. I didn’t have any real goals for the ride, other than a one hour target. I took off work a little early on Friday afternoon but found myself lounging around the house instead of getting anything truly productive accomplished. By the time 5:00pm rolled around, I figured that I needed to at least do something worthwhile, so I put on a kit and hit the road.

Friday can be hit-or-miss when it comes to traffic. It seems that more and more people are taking Friday off from work and heading out of town by 12 noon. This means that an afternoon ride really isn’t that busy and the mad rush to the northern parts of the state has already left the area. Knowing this, I headed out to the northwest – looking for those newly paved roads that I described in earlier posts.

While just outside of Loretto, I heard the familiar “cling, cling, cling” of a dog collar and looked over my left should to see a mid-sized brown dog barreling toward me with all his might. In the distance I heard his owner shouting at him to come back home – but there was no stopping him and he was soon on the road trying to get on my tail. Fortunately, I had a clean jump on him and was in no threat to have him catch me. After a couple of aggressive yards on the pavement, the dog realized his disadvantage and canceled the pursuit. I was a little disappointed that he gave up so early as I could have used the chase to get some energy (and adrenaline) pumping through my system. Every dog on the road reminds me of the scene from American Flyers when they meet up with “training partner” Eddie. Dogs can definitely inject a little bit of excitement into any ride.

Saturday’s ride was a little more low-key with the high temperatures curbing any speed and duration. I cut the ride short and was just eager to get home, out of the heat, and into the conditioned air inside the house. 19 miles on the road under those conditions is enough for anybody – let alone a hack cyclists like me.

Sunday offered a little more excitement, continuing the common theme of sweating buckets outside. My daughter wanted to go to the Uptown Art Fair and bring her dog – so I met up with the Ex and her mother to hit Lake Calhoun briefly before walking through some of the fair.

The Minneapolis Lakes are awesome and offer a lot of postcard moments for taking photos

Sunday’s weather trumped all the other days in the weekend, as temperatures were easily in the mid-90s, the sun was baking everything with its rays, and the high humidity made everything instantly wet. We parked in an open lot near the Calhoun Beach Club and walked over to the fair. This gave a chance for the dog to get a little relief in the lake before getting stuck surrounded by thousands of people on high-temperature pavement. The dog is a flat-coated retriever and has a thick black coat – making for an uncomfortable experience. We did our best sticking to the grass and the shade for some relief.

The ducks were plentiful but just out of reach

The art fair was simply that – an art fair – and I didn’t find anything that was too out of the ordinary. There are far too many people that are jewelry makers and way too many photographers of flowers to result in anything extraordinary. The one unique stand involved an artist who created near photo-quality images using nothing but embroidery silk thread. The art work itself wasn’t too impressive – but the sheer amount of time and patience that went into creating each one was truly astounding.

On the way back, the dog got another dip into the lake, this time to chase after some ducks and fully submerge her body for some relief. She was funny as she dove her head completely under water – looking for anything to aid in cooling herself off. On the way out, she decided to roll around in the sand and get incredibly dirty (see the pict for some evidence of that). Thus, it was back in the water to “wash off” and at least get presentable for the ride home in the car.

The way back included a quick stop at YUM! for some cupcakes – which was a nice way to end the weekend and put a close to the suffering imposed by the heat.

I’ve been taking my good Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5 camera along on rides in hopes of improving the quality of my cycling photos.

Here are the Sunday ride stats:

Tuesday after work was a different story, as I really felt like getting some decent miles into my legs. After the weekend rides, I was feeling that a regular rhythm to the rides was doing my body good – plus my legs weren’t complaining at all. Unfortunately, the temperatures were still pretty warm with relatively high humidity, so I wasn’t expected to break any of my summertime records. Still, I wanted to ride hard and long.

On my way south toward Wayzata, I encountered another cyclist on a mountain bike keeping a fairly good pace along the dedicated bike path that heads out of town and along the lakeshore. Getting a little closer to him, I noticed that he was wearing a Leadville Trail 100 jersey. I’ve read a little about this race and realized that those jerseys must be earned (not purchased), so I asked him it he had ridden the race. To my surprise, he said “yes” and went on to describe that he was about ready to leave for the 2010 version – taking place in just a few days. He stated that this would be his 13th attempt at the race and had a simple goal of finishing within the 12 hour cut-off time.

If you are not familiar with this race, it sounds rather brutal. It takes off from Leadville, Colorado (which is already at approximately 10,000 feet elevation) and climbs through the local mountain passes for 14,000 feet of total climbing. It is a 100 mile out-n-back course that is mostly off-road on a mix of logging trails and singletrack. It is a true endurance race, to say the least.

I’m most familiar with the ride from reading the Fat Cyclist blog. If you have seen my pictures with an orange colored cycling jersey, that comes from the Fat Cyclist (he goes by “Fatty”) and is produced locally by the Twin Six company. Fatty talks in detail about his annual pilgrimage to ride the Leadville 100 each year. It’s fun to enjoy the race vicariously through his blog and understand what it is like to ride a truly epic adventure.

So, it was fun to connect with someone in Minnesota who was also ready to embark on the same adventure as the Fat Cyclist. We talked in detail about the race for a few miles before my planned route departed the trail and headed west along the lake. I wished him the best of luck and hoped he would have a great time on the ride.

Here is how the ride finally ended up – with not great results, but good enough for the conditions:

For both Sunday and Tuesday’s ride, I was using a new pair of Descente bib shorts that I had just purchased. For as much time as most cyclists talk about the technical details of the bike, the quality of the complete ride is actually influenced more by the clothing incorporated into the ride. Bikes are great, technical wonders – but miserable conditions and improper clothing choices can take a $8000 bike and render it a literal “pain in the ass”.

In my past, I have generally gone “low ball” with my clothing purchases and found the items that were extremely discounted or off-brands from the Nashbar or Performance Bike catalogs. After upping my miles this summer, I have started to realize that is a poor choice and doesn’t do justice to any ride. If I can’t last the duration of the ride due to my clothing (versus capabilities of the bike or even stamina of my body), then it becomes rather self-defeating.

My new bib shorts are awesome (the Descente Strata line) and provide the right level of padding and compression to make for a very comfortable ride. I can tell that several years into some of my other shorts has resulted in a breakdown of the Lycra and they just don’t hold my muscles as compactly as they once did. Plus, the Descente shorts are made very well and should last far beyond my bargin-basement purchases. At nearly $140, they better work well – but it becomes money well spent.

For as much as I enjoy the pain and suffering of a good ride – there is something to be said for being as comfortable as possible throughout the entire process.

Nice smooth roads for the ride today and the local municipalities are busy getting roads back into shape

Here are the stats, should you care to review them:

As it has been sometime since I covered this route, I was surprised to encounter a whole bunch of fresh tarmac on the many of the roads around Loretto. I had complained earlier of how crappy the roads were getting – with the patch work in-place nothing more than a lousy approach to mending roads. Little did I know that the sloppy patchwork was part of a bigger scheme to re-surface the whole road. Thus, I now have many miles of smooth pavement – where the bike seems to just propel itself along. It’s sad to think that a single, harsh Minnesota winter will wreak havoc on the smooth surface, rendering the standard bumps/cracks that characterize Minnesota roads. But I will do my best to enjoy it while it is still smooth.

I’ve also made points in the past to indicate that I do a pretty good job obeying traffic laws – especially when it comes to stopping at stop signs and signaling turns. For Saturday’s ride, I was approaching a four-way stop intersection and noticed a car behind me. As usual, I slowed to a standing stop, looked for any on-coming traffic and pulled through to continue the journey. The car behind was going the same direction and soon pulled up next to me with his window down. He actually “thanked me” for stopping at the stop sign and indicated that it was rare to see a cyclist actually obey the law. I agreed with him that most cyclists abuse their legal obligations as a vehicle operating on public roads and generally ignore more traffic controls. We wished each other a “good day”, each with a little sense of surprise.

My encounter with this motorist actually illustrates a sad state with cyclists today. When a car driver goes out of his way to acknowledge that a cyclist actually OBEYED THE LAW – it doesn’t speak well of cyclists. Although I’m not a vocal advocate for cycling rights, I do like to speak with my actions and am glad they were noticed.

As cycling is still a big part of my life, that other facet that I truly enjoy involves photography. With the last few months, I have stepped up my game and bought into some equipment to make the capturing/process that much easier. Plus, the newer equipment enables me to capture the types of images that I have not been able to get in the past – expanding my hobby into new areas.

If you think that getting into photography is only about the camera – you might be surprised at how much extraneous stuff needs to go along with it. Several weeks ago, I bought a Mac Mini with the sole purpose of supporting the photos and doing some basic editing using Apple’s Aperture software. The other aspect that the Mac Mini serves well is a “media pc” where it connects directly to a HDTV. Thus, I found that I would rather have that computer permanently connected to the TV and would prefer something more portable to support the camera work.

Which led me to the Apple store on Friday afternoon to pick up a 15 inch MacBook Pro. Although I am now significantly poorer, it is an awesome machine and I have already migrated most of photo-related activities to the new computer. (I’m writing this post on it while sitting next to the pool on Saturday night – you can’t ask for more.) I look forward to how this new hardware will support my photography habits and may result in some significant refreshes to this website.