Elk Hunting-2009

After returning from California I unpacked and began packing for my next adventure-elk hunting in Colorado.

This year I asked a friend, Ralph to join me. Ralph enjoys the Colorado mountains, but due to knee joint issues is unable to hunt anymore. This turned out to be a real benefit for us as Ralph was our cook and what a great cook he was.

Ralph and I left the Cedar Rapids airport on Thursday afternoon and touched down in Montrose later that night.

Friday was spent getting acquainted with my sister and her family and sighting in our rifles. After lunch on the ranch we headed up to our home for the next 5 days, a cabin at 8,700 feet. On this trip, my brother-in-law, Robert and his sons, Jason and Nathan would join us. Nathan would stay back in the cabin with Ralph to keep him company, while Jason, Robert and I would hunt.

The next 5 days our routine never deviated much from this template: up at 4:00-4:30 with Ralph getting up first to start breakfast. At 5:45 we made our way out to where we would sit for our hunt that day. Usually we would sit for 3 hours in one spot to watch for any elk in that park (meadow) or at a watering hole. Then we would "still hunt", walking slowly for the next few hours. Robert and Jason would return to the cabin each day for lunch and then go back out hunting in the afternoon. I packed a lunch and stayed out hunting each day except for one day. Then we hunted until dark (7:00) and returned to the cabin for a late supper. After supper it we spent time reading or playing cards for 30-60 minutes and then it was time for lights out at 9:00.

The weather was unseasonably warm for this area in early October. The 7,000+ acre ranch had several sightings of elk in the weeks leading up to the 1st season, but during our 5 days hunting we never saw any elk and didn't really see any fresh sign.

On the next to the last day of the hunt the three of us made it up to BLM ground southeast of Buckhorn Lake and found an area that looked promising. I returned to this area on the last day and saw a lot of fresh sign and sighted (1) bull elk. It was perhaps an accidental sighting as I had a sage hen burst up in front of me and land in a tree nearby. After I stopped to get over the scare and watch the sage hen in the tree, I noticed something that caught my eye off to my left perhaps 200 yards away. I used my binoculars and discovered that an elk's 'butt" was sticking out from a clump of trees. Because of the dense cover I couldn't see the rest of the elk and I waited for about 5 minutes hoping it would move a little, but it didn't. So I decided to move slowly to my right about 5 feet so I could perhaps see the rest of the elk-body. When I did that the elk took off running and I could see it had antlers, but couldn't see how many points.
I waited another 5 minutes for the elk to settle down and blew my elk-cow call. Thinking the elk had left the immediate area I then slowly started walking ahead to see if I could make contact again with the elk. After about 5 steps I saw the butt of the elk running away from me in the distance and that was the last time I would see that elk.

Later the next day (the day after the season was over), we took a drive down to Telluride and on the way back we saw one group of (5) elk and later a large herd of around (50) elk. In the larger herd there were several bulls and (1) very large herd bull in the center of the cows. It looked like this herd bull was a 7x7.

Ralph and I had a great time and on our flight back home Thursday afternoon we recalled the last 6 days of our adventure and the experiences we lived.

California Wine Country Bike Trip

I am a little late in updating my blog, but I have been busy. Patti and I joined friends, Deb & Keith for an 8 day trip to California in mid September.

We signed up with Bicycle Adventures, www.bicycleadventures.com for a 6-day cycling trip through the wine country of northern California. We visited Napa Valley, Sonoma Valley, Anderson Valley and Dry Creek Valley regions.

We were sag supported and our luggage was carried by vans to our next destination each day. Our cycling mileage was in the 35-50 mile range each day. The terrain was rolling hills with a couple of steeper climbs later in the trip. We usually would stop at 4 or 5 wineries each day and do a tasting.

This was new country for the four of us and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We were joined by 11 other couples and 3 guides. Our tour started in Santa Rosa and we made a big loop through Napa, Sonoma, Healdsburg, Calistoga and some other towns in that area. We also biked on the last day through a redwood forest and were able to see for our first time the majestic trees.

After our tour was completed we headed down to San Francisco and spent 2 days touring Fisherman's Wharf, Chinatown, Golden Gate Bridge, Lombard Street and other sites in the area.

This was a great vacation and we would like to do another biking tour similar to this to a different region, perhaps the Tuscan region of Italy.

California Here We Come

Patti and I have been getting ready for our trip to California. Our packing is almost done. We shipped out our tandem by Fed-Ex on Monday. It should arrive at The Hotel La Rosa in Santa Rosa sometime Friday. Our flight leaves Moline at 8:30 on Saturday and arrives in Oakland around 1:30. Then we have a 2 hour shuttle ride to Santa Rosa.

We had a good training ride on our tandem this past week-end from Moline to Savanna and back. This two day ride was our second annual Muscatine Cycling Club ride. in total we logged about 107 miles. Our overnight at the Granny O'Neal's B & B turned out to be an interesting experience and we will have to stay there again next year.

I am kneeling beside Evan and Patti is to the left of Evan

We have been out 3 times on our mountain bikes since we shipped out our tandem. Monday night we took Evan on our club's ride and put in about 13 miles. Evan was on a trailer bike behind my bike. Then last night I went running with Mark Lofgren at Wildcat Den State Park and ran about 3.5 miles, while Patti bike 9 or 10 miles. Then this evening we road our bikes up to Stockton and back for another 11 miles. We are hoping to get out on the bikes one more time on Friday before we leave on our trip.

The biking portion of our California trip is 6 days and tours through the California Napa and Sonoma Valleys. Then we do some sight seeing in San Francisco for a couple of days. We are going with our good friends Deb & Keith Elliott, who are celebrating their 30'th wedding anniversary.

Wildcat Den 5k Trail Run

This past Saturday I ran the 5k trail run down at Wildcat Den State Park. This was my second year for doing this race. The park is about 3 miles from our house and I often go down to run or walk the trails.

My very first 5k race was ran here last year with a time of 24:55, which was 21st overall and good enough for 1st place in the 50-59 age group. This year I improved on my time and clocked in at 24:22, which was 17th overall, but only good enough for 3rd place. Two faster runners that didn't participate last year, decided to run this year.

This was my 8th race this year and by far the hardest. The uneven terrain and the steep hills back in the park, make for a very challenging run. Out of the 8 races I have 2-1st's, 2-2nd's, 2-3rd's, 1-4th and 1-5th.

Training For Trail Run This Week-end

This Saturday I will be doing the Wildcat Den 5k trail run at the park 2 1/2 miles from my house. This morning and yesterday morning I went down and ran on the trails in the park to get accustomed to the terrain and the inclines. The hill climbing training-both going up and down has given me a good workout.

This will be my 2nd year to do this run. Last year's run was my very first 5k of my racing career. My time last year was 24:55. Compare this time to my last race 3 weeks ago, the Hon 5k, of 21:01, which was my fastest time this year. Trail runs tend to be a good bit slower than runs on pavement, due to the slight amount of sinking your foot does in the ground and less rebound from your foot-step hitting dirt vs. pavement. I would like to get my time down to 24:00 this year. We'll see if I have made this much improvement in 12 months.

HNI(Hon) 5K Run

This past Saturday I ran in the HNI 5k run from the waterfront in downtown Muscatine. This is a very flat course and everyone's times were fast.

There were 164 entries, some of which were walkers. I ended up finishing 22nd overall and took 2nd in my age bracket. My time was 21:01, which was a PB or PR(personal best/personal record) for this distance. I averaged 6:46 per mile. My next best time was the Hayes Hustle back in April, where my time was 21:59.

I have 3 weeks before my next race, which will be the Wildcat Den trail run.

Du State Du Duathlon-Loud Thunder Park

Yesterday I competed in my second duathlon this year and this was my second year to do the Du State Du. The weather was ominous with the weather channel predicting a 70% chance of thunderstorms all day. Even with the bad weather forecast we had 131 participants.

This race comprises a 2 mile run, a 15 mile bike ride and then the 2 mile run again. The transition area is used for the changeover. During the first transition your running shoes are taken off and biking shoes put on as well as your helmet. Then you take the bike off the rack that is provided and run out to the transition starting place and get on your bike. This is reversed during the second transition. Last year my times were 0:59 and 0:49 respectively for the two transitions. This year I shaved a little off and had 0:36 and 0:40, which gave a 0:32 second improvement overall.

I also improved in my running all so slightly. Last year my times were 13:47 and 14:40 for the two running legs. This year I had 13:25 and 14:59. Adding these together my running improved by :03 seconds.

Then there was the biking leg, which I didn't really want to talk about. Last year my time was 44:21 (average 19.9 mph). This year I did a disappointing 46:13 (19.1 mph). For me the wind this year was a big factor. It was blowing out of the south at 11-13 mph. I also had a bad leg cramp (right calf) during my last hill ascent about 2 miles from the finish line. I had to slow up to work the cramp out and this cost me some precious time.

Overall my time last year was 1:14:31. This year it was 1:15:55, which was 84 seconds slower. It was still good enough to get me 2nd place (same as last year). Even if I had rode as well as last year I still couldn't have caught the first place finisher (from Sterling, IL) in my age group. He was nearly 6 minutes ahead of me and finished 10th overall. I ended up finishing 32nd overall. Another factor in my slower times was not being fully recovered from my 5k race that I did the day before.

Well the rain held off for most of the finishers and began in earnest as we were gathering for the award ceremony and lunch.

Watermelon Stampede 5k

Race announcer Del Web-calling out times of finishers.

I ran my first Watermelon Stampede 5k in Muscatine on Saturday morning. This picture shows the final 100 yards making our way down to the YMCA.They also had a 10k race for those looking for a longer run. The humidity was 65-70% and the temp was in the high 60's, which made for a sticky-warm run. They had a little over 300 participants. I finished 1st in my age group, but wasn't pleased with my time. I ran the race in 22:17, which is 18 seconds above my best time on the Hayes Hustle back in April. My body doesn't perform as well in the warmer temperatures. My split times were 7:10 and 14:20 at mile 1 and 2 and I ended up with a 7:10 minute average for the 3.107 mile race. There were 9 entries in my age bracket. Recording times for participants finishing race.

I would be running/biking the Du State Du the next day and after the exertion on Saturday, would see how that effected my race times on Sunday.

Training For 5K's

After returning from RAGBRAI, I have been doing less and less bike riding and more and more running. I have three races coming up in about two weeks.

I installed the aero-bars on my bike and have been doing short-very intense rides in the low-aero-dynamic position. Most of these rides are 10 miles or less. Then on the same day I have been doing a 3 mile run at a 8-minute per mile pace. I am going to try and keep this training up for the 7 to 10 days before I start to slow down and taper for the races.

RAGBRAI XXXVII Tribute

It is time once again for the Des Moines "Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa". This marks the 37th year and my 6th. This year's bike ride takes a southern route and begins in Council Bluffs and ends in Burlington. This will be my first go at a southern route. I hear they are usually very hilly (especially southwest Iowa).

The other overnight towns are: Red Oak, Greenfield, Indianola, Chariton, Ottumwa and Mt. Pleasant. The total miles will be around 445 and the feet of climbing around 23,000. The amount of climbing puts it in the Top 10 for the history of RAGBRAI, while the last day also makes it in the top 10 for the least amount of climbing and easiest day.

In addition, RAGBRAI adds a number of first time towns to the family: Williamson, Macksburg, East Peru, Truro, Oakley, Honey Creek Resort, Hedrick, Martinsburg, Pekin, Pleasant Plain, Germanville, Geode State Park, and Indianola as our overnight host on Day 3!

I will be going with the Muscatine Cycling Club again this year. We have two large buses with about 50 locals and 50 out of towners going this year. We leave at 7am tomorrow and usually we stop for breakfast in West Des Moines at the Cracker Barrel, which should put us in Council Bluffs around 2pm. Sunday morning the ride begins.

And this year, if all goes as planned my wife, Patti will be joining me for the last day with our tandem. How she gets down to Mt. Pleasant is still being worked out, but my sister lives in Burlington and my mother is also coming up from Missouri to be there for the last day as the peleton makes it's way through the streets of Burlington.

I am fresh back from my Colorado ride and should be in good shape for this year's RAGBRAI. Also joining me from my Colorado ride are: Jim Bixler, Dave Humiston and Steve Geering. Jim and Dave will be accompanying the Muscatine club, while Steve will be with the Quad Cities club. And Dave Benson, Steve's friend in Colorado where we stayed the last night is also coming on RAGBRAI. He will be with a group out of Oskaloosa called BrewHaHa. Dave said to look for their big green bus.

The weather is looking great for this year's ride with temps in the 70's and 80's during the day and 50's and 60's at night. There isn't much rain chances at this time, but as we know this can change. Here it is at 3pm on Friday before RAGBRAI starts and it is only 66 degrees. I think Iowa had a long winter, extended spring, 3 weeks of summer and now we are into fall already. I guess we shouldn't complain-I would much rather ride in mild weather like this than the heat we have experienced on previous RAGBRAI's. Council Bluff's here we come-----and Burlington--you are not far behind.

Day 1 is from Council Bluffs to Red Oak. The route takes us through Mineola, Henderson, and Emerson. The day starts with about 10 miles of flat running along the Loess Hills. After this warm up, the route turns east and starts hopping hills to Red Oak. All total, the day clocks in around 54 miles and a little over 3700 feet of climb.

Day 2 is from Red Oak to Greenfield. The route takes us through Stanton, Villisca, Nodaway, Dickeville, Corning, Prescott, Williamson, and Fontanelle. This day will get your attention as I'm showing almost 73 miles of riding and over 5000 feet of climb. Fortunately, there are plenty of through towns during the day and they're spaced about every 10 miles.

Day 3 is from Greenfield to Indianola. This will be our first time overnighting in Indianola! The route takes us through Orient, Macksburg, East Peru, Truro, St. Charles, St. Marys, Martensdale, and Prole. This day will also get your attention as I'm showing almost 78 miles of riding and over 4400 feet of climb. Like Day 2, the through towns are nicely spaced.

Day 4 is a a short ride to Chariton passing through Ackworth, Sandyville, Milo, Lacona, and Oakley. It will be only 45 miles of riding and ~2100 feet of climb.

Day 5 is from Chariton to Ottumwa and we return to some long miles. The route takes us through Millerton, Bethlehem, Confidence, Iconium, Honey Creek Resort, moravia, Unionville, and Blakesburg. We'll do about 77 miles and almost 3400 feet of climb.

Day 6 is from Ottumwa to Mt. Pleasant. The route takes us through Hedrick, Martinsburg, Pekin, Packwood, Pleasant Plain, Brighton, Germanville, and Lockridge. This will be the longest day at almost 78 miles and the climb is relaxed a bit to a little over 3000 feet.

Day 7 is from Mt. Pleasant to Burlington and takes us through New London, Lowell and Geode State Park. As I mentioned in above - easy day at 44 miles and 1175 feet of climb.

West Liberty Fun Run

Yesterday I got up early before Church and drove to the Muscatine County fairgrounds in West Liberty. I entered in the 5k run along with about 150 other runners. The temps were ideal at 8am and the course was pretty flat and went on streets through the town.

I set a fairly brisk pace on the 1st mile (sub-7 minutes) and heard that my 2-mile time was 14:05, but on my last mile I had to slow down a bit. I finished with 22:04, which was good enough to give me 3rd place in my age group (31st overall).

My time was about 5 seconds slower than my performance in the Hayes Hustle back in April and the race in April had a big incline at the finish. Guess I hadn't completely recovered from my difficult bike ride in Colorado last week.

Go West Young Man

Isn't that quote credited to Horace Greely?

In the morning I along with 4 other bikers from the Muscatine area will be heading for Colorado to bicycle through the mountains. The biking portion will be 5 1/2 days and will be centered around Frisco for the largest share of our riding and at Estes Park for the last day of riding. Three other riders from Colorado are going to join us for part of our ride.

My writing will switch from this blog to my web-site I use for my bike trips: www.iowacyclist.crazyguyonabike.com

The weather is going to be 30-40 degrees cooler where we are heading and we may run into some hail and snow flurries at the higher elevations this time of year.

I am looking forward to this trip, but wish I didn't have all the driving out and back (28 hours).

St. Malachy Steeplechase 4.65 Mile Run

After being in Vancouver all week on a business trip, I decided to run a race this morning. The race is sponsored by the St. Malachy Church. They have a country church located about 8 miles west of Muscatine. The run was essentially all on gravel with a short section on blacktop. One stretch of gravel was very difficult to navigate due to the large pieces 2"+ in the road bed.

I have never ran a race of this length and for that matter never ran any training runs of this length. Most of my runs are 1 to 2 miles long. I paced myself during the race and kept about the same speed for the full length of the race.

I ended up finishing 4th in my age group (50-59). They didn't have a separate age group for 55-59 or I would have taken 1st. Last year my time of 37:34 would have been good enough to finish 1st, but this year there were some faster runners that didn't participate last year. My legs feel pretty good this evening, but we will see how I feel tomorrow.

Only 8 days until the Colorado bike ride and I have been off my bike for about 2 weeks with an infected cyst on by bottom last week and this week I was away on business. Will spend the next few days back on the bike to get ready for my long ride in the mountains.

Julie's Restaurant-Albany, Illinois

For the last several weeks I have been taking off one day a week (since our business is a little slow this year) and it gives me a chance to pick a day when the weather is decent and get in a long ride to help my training for the Colorado mountains. Today the weather was going to be excellent and I convinced Patti to go with me on the tandem.

Last week I did a breakfast ride to Gin's Bar & Grill in Lone Tree, IA to try their $1 pancakes. You can read my entry on June 4th for the details of that trip. Today I decided to head in the opposite direction to my favorite breakfast location, Julie's in Albany, IL. The ride to Albany is all on the bike path-so we didn't have to worry about highway traffic and the trail is not very busy on week-days. We were on our tandem at Sunset Marina in Rock Island at 6:30 this morning and headed east and north on the bike trail. The wind was out of the northwest 5-8 mph with the temps in the mid-50's.

We had a good ride to Albany and were ready for a hearty breakfast when we arrived. Of course we ordered their special pancakes with eggs and coffee. The cost is a little higher than Gin's, but the pancakes are bigger and tastier. (this is a 14" pancake-ok I may have coaxed Julie into pouring a little more batter on this one)Upon leaving I talked to Julie's husband about the status of this landmark restaurant in Albany. I have been coming up here 3 or 4 times a year on my bike for the last 6 years and I learned 2 years ago that they were trying to sell it. They had no viable offers and have decided to retain the restaurant and keep it open. It used to be open 7 days a week and this was detrimental to their family life, since Julie did all the cooking; so now they are only open Monday through Friday. Last September they were still open on week-ends and our Savanna ride stopped here.

After our appetites were taken care of it was back on the tandem. The wind had shifted to the north and we had a tailwind coming back until we got to Moline where the trail veers west. We ended up with 73 miles for the day, which was a new personal best for Patti.

Gin's vs. Julie's:
Gin's is cheaper and closer for the Muscatine group.
Julie's has a better view (overlooks the Mississippi River) and their pancakes are better and bigger.

I like my pancakes--so if anyone has another good place for a breakfast ride, let me know!

Gin's Bar & Grill-Lone Tree

Last Saturday (see my May 30th post) our cycling club had a ride that went out to Lone Tree for breakfast. They stopped at Gin's Bar & Grill, which is noted for their large pancakes for $1 each. Patti and I didn't have the time last Saturday to make it all the way to Lone Tree, so today I decided to take half a day off and make the trip.

I parked at Wild Cat Den around 6am and went through Muscatine on the bike path and headed west on G28 past the elk/buffalo farm and then north into Lone Tree. I entered Gin's around 8:15 and there were several patrons there playing cards and some farmers at another table talking over the weather. The waitress/cook/bartender was playing cards and she got up and took my order. The pancake was big (around 10" diameter) and fairly thick. I also ordered 2 eggs and had coffee, which was self-serve. My total cost was $3 including tax, what a bargain. I have always been partial to the pancakes at Julie's in Albany, IL, which is on the bike path that runs between Rock Island and Savanna. Julie's pancakes are just a little larger, but not as thick; so probably about the same volume.

After leaving Lone Tree, I headed north for quite a ways and then east into West Liberty. I went past several turkey farms and as I came into town took this picture at the Louis Rich Turkey processing plant. There were several trailers of turkeys waiting to be processed and they had rigged up a bank of fans to help keep the birds cool. As if they are going to know the difference in a few minutes. I stopped at the Casey's in West Liberty for a sort break before heading east through Atalissa and Moscow. East of Moscow there was a train crossing the road and it had stopped to drop off some cars at Gerdau's steel plant in Wilton and had to wait about 15 minutes. Then it was east through Wilton and Durant and then south back to Wildcat Den. I had 82.5 miles for the trip.

RAMCO-Ride Across Muscatine County

The Muscatine Cycling Club had it's first RAMCO ride this morning. And there was such a great turnout, around 50-60 riders. We left Discovery Park at 7:45 this morning. There had been some sprinkles just a few minutes before we left, but no more rain the rest of the day.

Our first stop was at Julie Evan's parent's house about 11 miles west of Muscatine. A nice breakfast buffet was set for us and we all dug in. The rest of the riders headed to Lone Tree where they were going to stop at Gin's to get their famous $1.00 super large pancakes. Patti and I had to get back for a graduation party and a wedding this afternoon, so we went to F70 then up to Nichols and back on Hwy 22. We ended up with 36 miles on our tandem. It will be interesting to hear how everyone else's day went that compelted the whole ride (62 miles).

Last night Patti and I went out to dinner and celebrated our wedding anniversary (38 years) and what a great time we have had looking back and will have looking forward.

Swing Into Spring Duathlon

Our Muscatine Group
Sunday-May 24: I competed in the Swing Into Spring Duathlon in Davenport, IA this morning. This was a short duathlon with a 3k run/17k bike/3k run (1.8 miles/10.2 miles/1.8 miles). The weather was great but we did have a 10 mph northeast wind that impacted the biking leg.

There were 97 participants. In my age group (55-59) there were 6 and I ended up with 5th place. Not as good as I expected, but we had two very fast competitors come down from Sterling Illinois to compete and they took 1st and 2nd in my age group. I missed 4th place by 3 seconds.

I ended up with a total time of 58:22 for the complete race. My 1st running leg was at a 7:19 pace and my 2nd biking leg was at a 22.8 mph pace and my last running leg was at a 8:03 pace. There were 6 racers from the Muscatine area and my time was 2nd in that group.

This was my first biking competition of the year and should improve as the summer moves along and I enter in a couple of other duathlons.
This is Julie from our club. With her husband Mark they competed in the team division with Julie doing the running. This is before the race started and I had just placed my bike on the rack next to Marks.

Iowa Bicycle Coalition Ride

Today our advocacy group-Iowa Bicycle Coalition came into Muscatine to have lunch with club members and local officials to discuss bicycling in and around Muscatine. The following paragraph describes their mission.

The Iowa Bicycle Coalition will be taking a number of trips this year to explore different areas of Iowa. We will ride the trails, roads, and streets. We'll investigate safe routes to school, work and shop. We'll be spending time talking with cyclists, bike clubs, organizations, bikes shop folks, elected officials and businesses. Let's explore Muscatine and talk bicycling.

We had lunch at the Button Factory and sit around the table for a good hour and half discussing local issues and then got on our bikes and headed down the bike path and out Hershey Ave. to the new bike path section added there and then it was back to the Button Factory. I believe we had 11 in total at the luncheon and 7 of us biked afterwards. All in all-a great day to be out on a bike (80 degrees) and some good discussion on biking issues that face us in Muscatine.

Training Ride In The Wind

Today was one of those days that it would have been much better to stay home and stay out of the wind and cold weather. The Midwest is still getting cold, raw weather. This morning it was in the mid-40's and the wind was coming out of the northwest at 20+ mph, which made the windchill about 7-9 degrees cooler than the actual temp.

It was going to be the first ride where all 5 of the Colorado riders were going to be together (Jim, Dave, and Bob from Muscatine, Steve from Blue Grass and myself). We met at 8:30 at the elementary school in Blue Grass. Steve's wife, Gina called me a little before eight to tell me that Steve was not going to make it. His daughter-in-law in Kansas City had a baby and he was heading down there to be with them.

Our goal was to head north on Y-40 through Walcott and Dixon and then on Y4E northwest to Wheatland. It was a miserable ride to say the least. Bob, who has ridden for many years told me that it had to be one of the hardest rides he has been on due to the heavy wind. Since the wind was coming out of the northwest and we were mostly going north, we couldn't get any draft from the person in front so we were all exposed to the wind all morning.

After taking a short break at the Phillip's 66 station in Wheatland we began the tailwind portion of our ride and it was truly enjoyable and made up for the first half of our ride. We ended up with 49.5 miles for the day and with the wind and hills we felt like we got in some serious training for our Colorado ride which is coming up in only 6 short weeks.This picture was taken in Walcott on the return trip at Casey's. Bob is on the left, Dave in the middle and Jim on the right. Notice the donut sign. After seeing it Bob brought to our attention that he might have some donuts to snack on when he gets home.

Riding In Mid-May

The weather in May has been very un-predictable with lots of rain and cooler temps. I have been getting in some training rides (short to medium) length and some running. Today it rained all day and I took a day off from the bike, but did do a 3 mile run. The weather tomorrow is suppose to improve and am hoping to join the Thursday night pace-line ride with the Muscatine club.

A Nice Day For A Century

We are getting ready for the first ride of the day at 8am. Jim has his back to the camera and Dave is on the left and Greg is on the right. The others are behind Joe's van.

Since I didn't get a century in yesterday, I went out today to try again. Joe was doing a 150 mile ride today broken into 3-50 mile rides. There were 7 of us that showed up for the first ride at 8am. Two of my Colorado riders: Jim and Dave also showed up. We left the riverfront in Muscatine and headed into the wind (westerly). It was a fast paced ride and our average was 17.2 for the 49 mile ride. After a 10 minute break we headed out again, this time north and then west. About half the riders quit after this first 50, but we had 4 new ones join us. Dave and I rode out to Atalissa and then left the group and returned back to Muscatine. I ended up with 79 total miles and after a short break decided to ride around Muscatine for a while until the group returned. At 2pm I joined the group for the 3rd ride of the day and went about 7 miles with them before returning to Muscatine, which gave me exactly 100 miles when I got back to the truck.

Three-Fourths Of A Century

I have been wanting to get some longer rides in before my Colorado ride and I had the opportunity today to go out and get a century in. I e-mailed those joining me on the Colorado ride and Jim and Steve were game to ride with me.

I left Wildcat Den State Park around 7:45 this morning and rode into Muscatine and stopped by Jim's house and picked him up. Then we headed north in the cold wind toward Moscow and east into Wilton, where we stopped at a convenience store for a break. I called Steve from the convenience store and he was getting off work in Bettendorf and agreed to meet us in Walcott at 11:30. The bank sign in Walcott showed a temperature of 46 degrees and with the 15-20 mph wind the wind chill had to be down in the upper 30's.This is Jim putting his rain coat back on after taking a short break at the McDonald's in Walcott.

We ran into a light rain in the Walcott area and used Jim's Blackberry to look at the weather map. It showed the rain on the north side of I-80 and we made a decision to head south to Blue Grass and Buffalo. West of Buffalo we headed west through Montpelier and then rode into Wildcat Den for a short break. The weather was getting a little warmer and the sun tried to poke through just for a minute. We then headed west to the junction of New Era Road and Sweetland Road. Jim was ready to head home to Muscatine and I decided my legs did not have enough energy to complete my century-so I headed back to Wildcat Den where my truck was parked. Steve headed north to Wilton and then would cut across on Hwy 6 back to Walcott where his vehicle was parked.

We all had a good time even though the weather was a little miserable. This was Jim's second time to be out on the bike and he did an excellent job. I ended up with 73 miles for the day. Tomorrow, there is a 150 mile ride leaving the riverfront in Muscatine. It will be divided into 3-50 mile loops. I think three of us out of our Colorado group are going to meet there at 8am and at least ride some of the route with the others that show up.

The Hayes Hustle 5K Run

Today I entered my first running race of 2009, The Hayes Hustle. The 5K race is held at Hayes Elementary School (Catholic), which hosted the race in Muscatine. This is only my second 5K run since I began running in August of 2008. My first was a 5K trail run in September of last year. I wanted to do a taper so my body was ready for this run, but I went out Thursday night (2 days before) and rode my bike on the Muscatine Cycling Club's paceline ride. It is supposed to be an 18-20 mph pace, but that night we hardly fell below 20mph. So my legs were dead meat when I got home that night. I did take Friday off of running and riding, but really could of used one more day to rest up.

The race started at 9am and there were just over 200 runners. Our first mile was mostly flat and the 2nd mile was a good downhill, but the last mile was all up hill. There were timers out on the route that shouted out our times at the end of mile 1 and 2. My first split was 6:41, the second was 6:59 and my last was 8:19 for a total of 21:59 (an average of 7:05/mile). My time was 3 minutes faster than the 5K I completed last fall. The biggest difference was this was on pavement, while the run last fall was a trail run on a very hilly course.

I ended up getting first in my age group (55-59) out of 6 runners and overall was 25th out of 206 runners. Since I am primarily a cyclist I thought I did a pretty good job competing against other full-time runners. I only have about 50 running miles in for the whole year, while I have running friends that put in that many miles each week. My next running race is in mid-May.

What Is A Brevet

Well today I found out. At 8am 13 of us left LeClaire heading to Bellevue and then back to LeClaire. This was a 200km (125 mile) Brevet and was sponsored by the Quad City Randonneur Club. Randonneur is a French word that means, a male long distance cyclist. And a Brevet is a sponsored ride that requires certification of your completion of a Randonne'e. And a Randonne'e is a long ramble (ride) in the country side which is a timed event and with a time constraint on how long you have to complete it.

Besides myself there were 3 other riders from Muscatine, Chad, Bill and Joe.

At the start of the race we were issued a certificate that had certain control points that we must stop and get a signature and a time posted on the card. Our first control point was Low Moor, which was 44.7 km into the ride. The control was a conveience store and the clerk signed and wrote the time on our cards. The second control point was Bellevue at 103.2 km. Then on the return we went back to Low Moor at 161.1 km an ended back at the Comfort Inn in LeClaire for the end.

After the first half hour we had broken into two groups and I was in the last group. Each group had 6 people and the 13th person was behind us all. At the first control point, the first group was just leaving the convenience store when we pulled into town. One of the riders in the first group had gotten dropped and we picked him up just before we got into Low Moor. Just before we got to Bellevue we picked up another rider. The first group was still taking a break in Bellevue when we pulled into the convenience store. When we left Bellevue there were 4 (including Chad, Bill and Joe) in the first group and 8 in our group. By the time we got to Low Moor our group had whittled down to 6. We all stayed together into LeClaire and I checked in at 3:41. My bicycle computer registered 17.4 mph average and 7 hours and 11 minutes. The additional 30 minutes reported on my check-in time is attributed to the 3 stops we made. The ride was pretty hilly and the organizers indicated that there was 4,350' of climbing.

A brevet ride is pretty structured and the organizers have to file our stamped tickets and register our ride in France, where our names get added to the "Roll Of Honor" for cyclists. Woop-ee.

The weather was pretty good today. The temps were cold for the first 2 hours with low 30's during the start and a northeast headwind at 9mph. It did warm up as the day progressed, but the winds shifted more to the east and we didn't have much of a tailwind coming back. My legs are a little sore and of course I am tired and there were times I wanted to drop off the pace and slow down, but I survived and the other riders I rode with were good to cycle with. There were a few riders from the Quad Cities, but surprising there were several from out of town. One was from Galesburg and another was from Cedar Falls. Two other riders I didn't catch where they were from, but they had stayed at the Comfort Inn the night before, so must have been from out of town.

This picture was taken on the return route of a silage silo on a farm.

Century Territory

Today one of our club members, Joe made plans for a century. The plan was to start at 10 and get in 50 by 1:00 and then go out again and do the last 50. We had another windy day with a 15 mph wind out of the east and the wind chill was in the upper 30's to mid 40's throughout the day.

Seven of our club members (including 3 of the riders joining me on my Colorado ride) came out for the first 50 and two more joined us part-way through. My average for the first half of the century was 17.2 mph. I was having trouble with my speedometer and I only registered 43 miles for the first loop. I didn't get a chance to ask anyone else what they logged.

On the next loop some of our earlier riders went home and we picked up one new rider. There were five of us on this ride. My legs were starting to give out and I needed to get back home to meet some friends for dinner, so I returned to the truck with a total of 84 miles for the day. It was my longest ride of the year and was pretty tired after the ride. I know I need to do many more of these longer rides to build up some endurance for my Colorado ride.

Bike Path Riding

This afternoon I was in Davenport and took my bike. I rode the Duck Creek Bike Path and did a loop that gave me 21.5 miles. Temps were in the low 50's and there were a lot of walker, joggers and bikers out enjoying the sunny day.

Yesterday I was going to ride with our club on our Tuesday night ride, but the weather cooled down to 43 and there was a 25+ mph southwest wind that discouraged me. So I spent an hour on my trainer inside the house. I was hoping by this date I would be doing all my riding outside, but I guess it wasn't meant to be.

I took this picture at the west end of the Duck Creek path where it runs adjacent to Emeis Golf Coarse.

Windy Spring Weather

Today the weather was going to be questionable all day. Chance of rain and very windy conditions-25-35 mph. I finally got out to do a short 15 mile ride. The wind was out of the east-southeast and my ride was on a north-south road. There was a few times I had a little trouble keeping from being blown off the road.

This is a picture of my wind sock out at the end of my driveway.

Biking Club Rides

The last 4 or 5 days have been nice enough to get outside and bike. Two nights ago I attended my first club ride of this year. The Melon City Bike Club simply calls this their Tuesday night ride; however, most of the riders that attend call this race night or hammer night.

There were 8 of us that showed up for the ride. The wind was blowing swiftly (20+ mph) out of the southwest. We headed into the wind and we let the fastest riders do all the pulling on the first half of the ride. Averaging 18-20 mph into this kind of head wind was amazing. Since I am the senior citizen in the bunch, I let everyone else do the work and I drafted. Hopefully, as the season progresses and I get into better shape I will be able to do some of the pulling. Coming back was real quick, averaging 28-30 mph. The wind had started to die down a little, but it still gave us a good boost. Two riders turned around before we got to the halfway point. I got dropped before we got back to the starting point, but ended up with a 20.9 average for the 34 mile ride. I found out that you don't get much of a draft from a good tailwind.

My Colorado ride this year is scheduled for June 28-July 3. So far I have several that are planning on going. Hopefully, I will make our lodging reservations in the next week or two and put the final plans together to make this ride happen. If you would like to see a preview of this year's ride, you can go to my web-page: www.crazyguyonabike.com/iowacyclist

St. Patrick Day's Ride

Yesterday the Melon City Bike Club had their annual St. Patrick Day ride. Patti and I took the tandem and we counted around 25 riders in our group. We headed south of Muscatine on Stewart Road. The wind was coming out of the southeast at 5 to 7 mph. The sun was out and it was close to 60 degrees. Such a great day for a leisurely ride. We ended up with around 24 miles for the day. It was the first time getting out the tandem this year and the first time that Patti had ridden outside since last fall.

The weather is looking good for the next 2 days as it is supposed to be in the upper 60's to lower 70's. I am hoping to get out on the Tuesday night club ride this week.

The sunset picture was taken in late January during our vacation in Jamaica.

Spring Around The Corner

After a very long...long winter things are looking up. Yesterday it got up to 73 degrees (a record). There is still snow in ditches and on the north slopes, but it won't last long.

I went out and did a 50 mile ride yesterday, riding into the wind (15-25 mph) for the first half of the ride. The return was very enjoyable with the wind at my back.

I started using a different training program for my cycling a couple of weeks ago. It is called "Power To The Pedals". It's structure uses 2-1 hour sessions per week that are very intense and work on different approaches to building cycling strength. It's too early to tell how this compares to my previous cycling training methods.

Will be taking a couple of days off and going to an in-door water park with our daughters and grand-kids.

Warm Weather In February

It has been a long winter and it isn't over yet, but today it got up to 58 and tomorrow we are expecting much the same. I went outside for my first bike ride since late November. For the past 2 months I have been spending time on my trainer and doing a spinning class at the YMCA. I did a short 17 mile ride today and averaged a good pace of 18 mph on a fairly hilly course.

I didn't get a chance to go snow-shoeing today, but will go in the morning. I suspect that most of tghe snow will be melted by tomorrow night.

It looks like we have a 5 day recourse from old man winter before it turns cold again. It felt good to get outside and bike along a road with some scenery. I didn't get chased today by any dogs, but did have one bark at me for a while.

Winter Training

It has been 6 weeks since I have updated my blog. The Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Holidays have been a busy time for me and my family. And to top it all off, December was one of the worst for the amount of snow and the cold that we have had here in a long time and for that reason it was mid-November since I have been outside on a bike.

I started riding my bike on a trainer in our rec. room on November 17th. I set a goal of doing 6 to 7 hours of riding per week on the trainer. Last year I put in more time on the trainer, but found it boring and difficult to go much more than 1 hour at a time; so this year I have decided to do some cross-training to supplement the bike riding. I began in late November and early December running 3 miles per day. When the snow hit, I switched to snow shoes and am doing 1 to 1.5 miles per day. I also wear a 35-40 pound pack to put a little more stress on my legs. Snow shoeing give you a good aerobic workout.

I also was working in 1 session per week at the YMCA on the spinner and in a Pilates class. I wasn't able to get in those routines during the Holidays, but hope to begin again this week.