Milestones

Saturday was a very good day. Instead of driving all the way out to Cross Plains for the official training ride, me and another rider got together with two of our friends for our own trip. We went from Madison out to Cambridge and back, passing through a few other small towns along the way. You can see our route map here. Ended up hitting a total of 45 miles almost exactly, which is officially the longest bike ride I've done yet (though I'm told this only equals the shortest day of the ride). The good news is that my body didn't shut down on me the next day, which is very reassuring.

We used one of the routes on the ACT V website and ended up loving it (except for one small stretch of road that was covered in fine gravel, but that's not their fault). Many of the roads traveled are very out-of-the-way country routes, but most of them were amazingly well-paved. There are few things better on a ride than gliding smoothly down a traffic-free road surrounded by bright red barns, golden fields of wheat and wild flowers on a mostly sunny summer day.

I was informed by one of my fellow riders that Wisconsin boasts the most paved roads of any state in the country. For bikers, that's great news. Apparently this fun fact has to do with the dairy industry getting together back in the day and deciding to lobby the crap out of the state government for more paved roads leading to and from the many dairies. This makes perfect business sense when you think about what Wisconsin winters are usually like.

There were plenty of very decent hills on this route to keep us on our toes, so to speak, and I'm happy to report that none of them completely killed me. Between the better bike and the slowly improving lungs and legs, I think I'm getting a decent handle on my arch nemesis, the hill. Even so, I will always prefer a good downhill rush. And it's likely I'll never wear a polka-dotted jersey, anyway, so oh well.

We stopped in Cambridge for lunch, getting sandwiches and delicious pastries from a local bakery on Main Street. The prices were extremely reasonable and the food delicious. We ate outside in a little park and watched the people out shopping, which is apparently one of Cambridge's big draws. Then, after some more stretching, we jumped in the saddle and headed off back toward Madison.

A few tips for anyone taking this route by bike:

1) The turn off from Door Creek Rd. to Koshkonong Rd. is missing its sign. Just be on the look out for the only road that goes left at the mileage where the turn is supposed to be.

2) Prairie Rd. is absolutely beautiful: new pavement, smooth, straight, level and pretty much free of traffic. Enjoy!

3) There is a stretch of Ridge Rd. (or West Ridge, I forget) that is covered in fine, loose gravel. You can navigate it just fine on road tires, just be aware and be careful.

4) At the beginning of County Rd. PQ, you'll start seeing signs that say the road is closed ahead. It is closed, but only once you're actually inside the town limits of Cambridge. At this point, it's just a short portage over the construction to get you and your bike back to where the street continues.

5) The bakery on Main St. in Cambridge is delicious and affordable. They have kringle.

Overdoing It A Bit

Mountain Bike [2]
Originally uploaded by Lost Albatross.

Great weekend, but I'm paying for it now. Ouchie.

Got in rides on both Monday and Wednesday, with trips to the gym on Tuesday and Thursday (starting free weights, hooray!). Friday evening, right after work, I shot down ye olde under construction Beltline (which I normally try to avoid at all costs but this was a special occassion) and made it to the days' training rides' starting point at Olbrich park in good time. I was met by four other very nice ladies, none of whom were our ride leaders. My fella even showed up to ride along, but we continued to wait for the ride leaders to show. For whatever reason (hopefully nothing painful), no one ever showed, so we decided to take the initiative and do the ride ourselves.

Luckily, I still had a route map from the last Olbrich ride I'd been on, so we set out fairly confident that we'd manage to find our way back safely. Which we did. Which was good. We took Buckeye all the way out east to where it turns into County AB, then turned north onto County MN, then turned again onto Vilas Road, the latter being one of the most beautiful rides around the city I've ever been on. It's all rolling hills, farmland, old red barns and spots of forest. Along the route there were two separate places that kept drawf horses, which were interesting to see (and adorable, if a little strange).

We made it back to our starting point by way of Sprecher and then Milwaukee, getting a few friendly waves and beeps from people along the way (I wonder what it is about a group of non-competitive bikers wearing red that makes us stand out as ACT riders?).

Miles ridden: approximately 20

On Sunday I decided to do a little bit of cross training and joined in on a pick-up game of ultimate down at Reynolds Park. Despite me being an idiot and forgetting to put on sunscreen (ultimate farmer tan!) and despite me being generally out of shape when it comes to sprinting, I managed to hold my own and have a good time.

Monday morning, my fella and I drove out to Blue Mounds State Park for a little bit more cross training via mountain biking. See, we found this really nice hardtail freeride bike over this winter for a really, insanely marked down price and I had to have it. Thing is, I haven't been able to break it in until this ride, so it was long overdue. The bike handled itself marvellously, taking the big rocks and roots without a second though. Me, on the other hand, well I did better than I thought but still managed to clock myself in the crotch (disc breaks, I'm lookin' at you!) a few too many times. Though, to be fair, one time is one time too many. Yikes.

Miles ridden: didn't keep track, so I'll have to go back and check the maps of the trails.

Blue Mounds State Park is gorgeous, by the way, if you're looking for a good place to hike, camp or bike (I imagine it's good for skiing in the winter, too). The MtB trails are well-marked and provide something for both beginners (that'd be me) and intermediate/advanced bikers alike. The trails we took were well-maintained and provided just enough challenge to be fun without totally kicking our asses. Except for the one time where we accidentally got onto an intermediate trail...eesh.

That brings us up to today, when my legs feel like absolute rubbish and seem to be threatening a mutiny. I think I may have pushed a little harder than I should have, but hopefully I'll be relatively right as rain in time to do a couple of rides this week. In the meantime, I think there's a hot bath in my near future....

First Foggy Training Ride

http://www.active.com/donate/act5/2007EMills

After being out on a film shoot until two in the morning, I did manage to crawl out of bed in time for the 11AM training ride scheduled for last Saturday. I am determined to make it to as many of them as possible, because my arse needs it.

I was glad I did, too! When first I left the apartment, the air was still pretty cool and damp. A dense fog had settled over Lake Monona, making it impossible to see out any further than about thirty feet. But it had a loveliness to it, or at least I thought so until I rode down into it and the temperature dropped by ten degrees. Wearing nothing but a jersey and my lovely spandex biking shorts, it was a bit of a shock to the system.

I made it to the agreed upon starting place at Olin Park and met up with a few of my fellow riders, all people I'd never met before, all of them very friendly. Jake, my assigned "mentor" for the ride, rolled up a few moments later and introductions were made all around. All told, there were eight of us--not a bad turn out for the first (and damp) ride of the year. Some had done the ride before, both as bikers and as crew, and a few of us were first-timers.

We set out heading south on the Capitol City Trail, to a section of it I'd never ridden. It loops under the Beltline Highway and snakes off into the farm land and countryside to the south of Madison, then heads west until it links back up with the Military Ridge Trail. We didn't go quite that far, instead jumping onto Seminole Highway and heading north into the UW Arboretum (always a pretty ride) and then back around to end where we'd started at Olin Park.

By about halfway into the ride, the sun came out and burned off most of the clouds. The temperature rose to about 70 and our outer jackets came off. All told, we did about 17 miles in just under two hours. Not bad for a first ride of the year. And I only died on one hill! OK, so it wasn't so much a hill as it was a slight but long incline. I blame my Midwestern upbringing for making me a complete wuss about hills, but it's something I'm determined to overcome. Eventually. After a lot of sweat and tears and not being able to breathe properly, anyway.

A few of us treated ourselves to lunch at The Great Dane afterwards (we mourned the loss of their delicious black bean burger, replaced by a decent but not nearly as good Morningstar veggie patty) and then went our seperate ways until the next ride.

In the meantime, the fundraising rolls on. I've raised the possibility of having my band, Aporia, play a show in the Mercury Players Theatre rehearsal warehouse as a fundraiser for my ride, which will hopefully happen sometime in May or June. We also have most of the parts for the bike we're building for my ride and are starting to piece things together. Challenge! Anyone know how to properly adjust brakes?