My weekend with the Big Dogs

So the long gaps between blogging continue as I put more and more training in.

I've done a few rides over the normal tour day average and I'm confident that I am in good enough shape right now to do any single day the tour throws at me. Yet, I'm not sure if I will be able to line those days up back-to-back-to-back... Aaron and I rode our bikes one Sunday morning thirty miles south to DeMotte to give a presentation to one of the CRC churches and were pleasantly surprised when Jill showed up a few minutes into the service. Apparently she was going to head us off at a point along the way since she was coming from a different direction, but when she took a break to get a coffee we rode on by since we didn't know to look for her. Sorry Jill, I'm glad you toughed it out and made it there and even spoke despite the laryngitis. The ride back was much faster since we didn't have to deal with the nasty headwind.

Being an Indiana resident, though, has made me wary of the portion of the tour that will be spent in the Rockies, so this past weekend I went to Iowa just west of the Illinois border to take part in a race that claimed to be for those looking for a tough ride. The race is hosted by the Ultra Midwest Big Dogs, a loose knit endurance cycling club from all over the midwest. The name of the race is the Balltown Classic which is the name of the town which has the longest continuously operated restraunt in Iowa. The race is 200 miles long. You leave from DeWitt and ride 100 miles to Balltown then come back. There is an option, however, for those riders who are not quite ready for such an extreme race or are just getting back in shape for the season. Coming off of my hand injury and knowing that the longest day on tour is 113 miles I decided this would be the better choice. I sure was thankful at the end of the day. The race started at 5 AM before it was even light out and the hills were real and often. I reached the 60 mile checkpoint in 3 hours and 45 minutes (initially I thought it was a 50 mile checkpoint, imagine my surprise when someone at the 45 mile mark told me that there were only 15 more miles to the checkpoint.) After the checkpoint my performance trailed off and I couldn't seem to get back up to speed after cresting each hill. My total time ended up being 7 hours and 55 minutes, but that includes the 25 minute break and an equipment issue that forced me to finish the last 15 miles wearing only one shoe (the cleat separated from my other shoe and I wasn't carrying the proper allen wrench to reattach it.) On top of that the 100 mile option ended up being 108 miles (for the 200 mile riders the distance back was shorter.) I felt so great when I was finally off the bike because I knew no day on the tour could defeat me (terrainwise). I hadn't heard how many feet of climbing there were in this race until I was done: 6000! I checked my Shifting Gears book when I got home and only the second to last day has that much, not even any of the days in the mountains. On top of all this there was a constant head and cross wind of 10-20 mph. The only way I could have even considered doing the 200 would be to have the wind at my back the whole way home. I did have one noteworthy new accomplishment in all this: I went over 45 mph on one of the downhills.

Three weeks from today I am hopping on the train to take me to Washington, it's amazing how close it has gotten to the start of this adventure.