Top of the world loop

The first official ride has been accomplished.  Absolutely beautifull area. We'll do another loop this afternoon.

Have Bike, Will Travel - Trempealeau County Wisconsin

Image via WikipediaBy: Jeff

Brent and I have been planning for some time now to take an extended weekend biking trip.  Last year we talked about taking such a trip, but just ran out of time.  Then Bicycling Magazine ran this article on Trempealeau County Wisconsin.  As we read and re-read the article, it became more clear to us that this might be a great area for us to try our first cycling trip. We acquired brochures in the mail, which is mandatory for any traveling excursions, plus as much as I love technology, there is nothing like a good travel brochure!!!

Here is what the Tempealeau County Bike Club has to say about the cycling in their county, "Breathtaking scenery, rolling hills, narrow ridge tops, and broad valleys with rural farm settings are part of the seventeen (17) carefully planned loops within the Trempealeau County Bicycle Loop.  There are loops for all occasions and all types of bicyclists.  The paved back roads with little traffic and willing folks to help you along the loops add personality to a beautiful rural setting along Western Wisconsin's Mississippi River Valley."  Sounds intriguing right?  The review from Bicycling Magazine also favored it in a positive light, "It's pretty, sure enough. For the past hour, we pedaled through a patriotic anthem's worth of scenic cliches— spacious blue skies, amber waves of grain, even a fruited plain or two—and from this vista there is lots more of the same, bathed in late-afternoon sunlight."


I for one am very excited and ready to try it out.  Who knows it might just be a really good marketing job.  Either way we will be cycling for the weekend, in a place that is not Indiana.  We have our trip scheduled for mid- July.  That gives us exactly four and a half months to train properly for this outing.  So here are the trip preliminary plans:

• We will be doing six of the seventeen available loops
• Trip will be 4 days
• Cycling will cover approximately 196 miles
• Cycling will include climbing of approximately 13,070 feet

It is time to start training.  The hotel is booked, plans are underway.  We have plans for blogging about our trip preparation, live blogs from the trip, photos, and obviously a thorough review of our trip.

The Myth Of Preparation

Image via WikipediaBY: Jeff

This coming Sunday, Sept. 26, Brent and I will be doing 50 miles of the Apple Cider Century.  Here is my question. When does one truly know that they have prepared enough to accomplish their goal?  Oh we have prepared plenty!, but is it enough?  We have road several miles and hours over the summer.  We have joined group rides.  Heck Brent has even done a full marathon this year!!!

One thing that I know for sure is that we will look like  we have prepared well.  Both of us have shiny new Cannondale bikes.  New gloves, cycle clothing, newer Giro helmets.  We have nice cateye cycle computers to tell us how close how far away we are from the end of the ride.  We will look like we have done a hundred of these things!

So here is how I intend to accomplish my first half-century bike ride:

• Do not focus on the 50 miles, just take it one Support And Gear stop at a time.
• Try to get Brent to start talking so he slows up enough for me to catch my breath
• Hopefully my butt will go numb after the first ten miles so that way I don't feel the pain
• Eat and Drink a good amount at each SAG stop (1 to rest a bit, 2 that way I know I will not bonk!)
• Draft as much as I can.
• And most of all, Just have fun.

I know I am really looking forward to doing this ride.  Honestly I do feel prepared to accomplish the 50 miles.  Ultimately there is only one way to tell if you are truly ready for something, and that is to go out and try it!

Bicycle Indiana

By: Jeff

In a previous post [Here], I have talked about cycling awareness.  Recently an organization in our state, Bicycle Indiana, has successfully manged to get a license plate made to help promote cycling awareness.  Here is a post from their recent blog:

I SHARE THE ROAD LICENSE PLATE

We Did It! We’re pleased to announce that the BMV has approved Bicycle Indiana’s application for a special group license plate. That means beginning Jan. 1, 2011, you can pay an additional $40 for an “I Share the Road” plate, and $25 will go to Bicycle Indiana. This milestone was accomplished because of all of you who signed petitions in support of the plate, so thank you! Stay tuned for details on how to get your plate. In the meantime, thank you for helping make this happen!

We’ll be sending out information to all who signed the petition, but you can also indicate your interest in the I Share The Road license plate by completing this form: License Plate

Land Of The Mouse

Image via Wikipedia

By: Jeff

I am back from a ten day family vacation to Floridia.  We left on a Friday.  Stayed the weekend on Ana Marie Island.  On Monday we drove to Disney World for the week.  Saturday we drove to Ft. Lauderdale to stay with family.  Then on Monday drove back to Orlando to catch our flight home.  To say I am exhausted is an understatement.  Yesterday, I took it pretty easy, but today I did ride my bike into work.

I had great dreams that I would actually wake up early on a couple of days and get some running in.  On the first Sunday of the trip I did just that.  Got up at 6:30.  Walked outside.  IT felt like a comfortable temperature.  Ten minutes into the run, MAN FLORDIA IS HUMID!!! It was definately difficult to get use to that after coming from 50 degree weather in Indiana.  I had plotted a simple out and back route before I left Indiana, so that way I would know where I was at.  In general the run went OK.  Not good, not bad.  I was really sore after it though. It was a nice 2.7 mile run. Here is a map of my route:



The rest of the week:

The rest of the week was filled with plenty of walking and swimming.  We visited all of the major parks at Walt Disney World, so even though I didn't get anymore runs in, I did get plenty of miles on my feet.  Also with all the swimming that I did, I still feel like I had pretty good week of exercise.

Now only two more weeks until my first 5K.  Crunch Time!!!

Becoming A Real Cyclist

Image by magical-world via Flickr

By: Jeff

For the last couple of weeks I have been riding my from home to work a couple of times during the week.  I do two different routes to mix it up, and to deal with the one road becoming busier in the afternoon.  On the way in to work the route is 7.2 miles.  The route that I have been taking home is 11.5 miles.  This has been great and I have enjoyed these routes very much.  Then last Friday the winds began to blow.  In the afternoon it picked up to 16mph with gusts over 20mph.  NICE!!!  My wife called me and graciously offered to pick me up.  This, was very tempting.  I knew it would be a challenging ride, as the first 4 or 5 miles would be directly into the wind. I even thought about shortening the ride home to the 7.2 mile route.  But that is when it happened.  I told my wife, thanks, but no thanks.  11.5 miles, wind, bring it!!!

So as expected the first 4 or 5 miles were brutal.  Even downhills that I normally get good speed on were challenging.  The wind gusting across the barren cornfields were tough.  I just kept telling my self, "just keep pedaling".  And I did.  At about the 5 mile mark my route turned 90 degrees from the wind, a little relief.  In a few more miles my route turned to where the wind was at my back, AWESOME!!!  All total it only took me a few more minutes to get home then it normally does.  Average speed was down by a couple MPH. But, it was worth it.  Great work out, and mentally rewarding.  To be a real cyclist you can't just pedal on the easy days, you have to pedal on any given day. Wind or no wind.