Yesterday I passed 10000 miles for the season. Think it was riding with Tucker after the ride. (Those Tucker miles are going to add up. He’s up to around 4 miles a day now. I didn’t want to run him too much when he was still growing, but now I’m upping his mileage some.)
I was surprised when I clicked on Strava and saw that it was 10K. I thought I’d be about a thousand miles short of that. I really haven’t been riding all that much. I was sick some, then went out to Colorado and pretty much exclusively rode my MTB, which the hours are good, but the mileage is short.
My daily average is just under 42 miles a day and average speed is 17.6. That is pretty good, once again, considering how much I’ve been riding MTB. Plus the speed is slow because I’m lacking a bunch of race miles.
I can’t say all those miles have done much for my racing form, not that I know what that is. I really would like to do a MTB and see how that goes. But I’m going to drive to St. Louis on Friday and race 4 NCC criteriums at the Gateway Cup. Talk about jumping into something I’m not prepared for. But hopefully, I’ll be sort of prepared for it, after the fact, on Tuesday. Cycling is great that it works that way.
I have done a lot of the miles alone this year. I used to hate riding alone and now I do it regularly. I still would rather go out with a group of friends, or a group of soon-to-be friends, than ride solo, but riding alone works for me now.
It gives me time to think. I’d think I would be Albert Einstein or something after all that time for thinking? I’m not. But it does help me organize my thoughts. I have to say, as I age, I like looking around at the same stuff, just appreciating it more. The other night, I opened up the window when I got up to pee and listened to the night sounds for 5 minutes or so. They seemed so foreign, yet so familiar. The clouds and storms have been so great this year, that riding around here is like a moving picture lots of the time.
We had a ride scheduled at noon, but got a text from some guys in Lawrence that are riding this way, so we moved it up to 11. I’m trying to do at least one longer ride a week on my MTB, to get used to it before Chequamegon. It is weird, but you do pedal just a tad different on a MTB than you do on a road or cross bike. I find myself pulling up on the backstroke just a little bit more.
Okay, I have to mess with my bike a little before the ride. Plus, Tucker needs to go romp in the park for a while, or he goes stir crazy. Have a nice Sunday.
Catherine, Eric and Bill’s team won the Downtown Adventure Race yesterday morning. Bill carried a Garmin with him and I heard it was over 5 miles of running. They are going to be sore, either today or tomorrow.
Our roads suck in Kansas. They are falling apart. This is the shoulder of a State Highway between Lawrence and Topeka. I wonder what the highway workers are thinking?
The mushroom from yesterday opened up.
Tucker’s tongue is pretty long when he is really hot.
Roads all over the USA are falling apart. Same with bridges and the rest of the infrastructure. If I were king of the USA a $1 a gallon tax slapped on motor fuels (now that they’re so cheap again) would go a long way to fixing all of that.
Doesn’t Kansas have one of those governors who thinks slashing taxes (especially on the 1% at the top) will result in greater overall revenue as a result of something George HW Bush described as “Voodoo Economics” many years ago? Who did you vote for in the Kansas governor election last time?
Larry
Unfortunately, at least in the state I live in, they keep adding taxes like this, then the money disappears and the roads don’t get fixed and the politicians start proposing a new tax. A recent study showed that in the US there are nearly 60,000 bridges that have been deemed deficient, but are nonetheless in daily use.
What are the highway workers thinking? That Sam Brownback is the worst governor of all time.
So what’s the highway department supposed to do, mow the grass that grows through the inevitable fissures in the shoulder asphalt? Since all substances expand and contract according to temperature, those joints are normal and planned for. You dim bulbs should appreciate the fact that precious life exploits every possible niche, from the upper atmosphere to the abysmal depths and the shoulders of Kansas highways.
The mushroom……I love watching videos of nature when they speed up the camera. It seems that flowers, leaves and whatnot just magically develop out of thin air.
Want your roadways fixed? Do it yourself since you live in state that decries taxes.
This particular mushroom video might show the Kansas highway workers eating it. Magically delicious!
No wonder the road shoulders in KS are grassy.
Beat me to it.
Great idea Larry. Just more tax money to piss away on something it wasn’t earmarked for.
This country is broken. I talk to European friends who pay lots in taxes but receive a lot in return.
We pay taxes in the U.S. and it disappears with not much to show for it.
the actual roadway in that mushroom pics actually looks pretty good. you want beat-up roads, come ride in the upper midwest states…michigan, wisconsin, etc…where the ACTUAL ROAD SURFACES are beat to hell. the roads in the great plains are practically god’s roads in comparison.
Eh … I put Mary Failing up there with Super Sam