Riding a bicycle to a state of mind...
After finding out what the weather would be like this weekend a few days ago, I planned with my friend,Chris, to do a long training ride today. I think we did just that. I set out from my house at 12:30 and it was fairly warm (about 35 degrees I think) and rode south to meet him on the South end of town. We rode south into the head wind that he loves to ride into for whatever reason (I think it's the massacist in me that agrees to it). After stopping to fix his leaking tire we decided that we would make a longer ride of it and he said that we could ride south to a place called 'Bald Knob'. I told him that, in my entire life living in the area, I had never heard of that town. He told me, "It's not a town so much as a state of mind." So I asked him, "How, precisely does one ride a bicycle to a state of mind?"
So it turns out that 'Bald Knob' is this nearly featureless feature in the landscape of an otherwise desolate land of prairie and corn fields. I live in a very flat part of the world and as we pass a tree line and emerge on the other side, I look up and see it. There about 8 miles to the south-southeast is a large hill in the middle of this flat landscape. And, I suspect that the only trees on it were planted by the people who had built farm houses on it. So, hence the name, 'bald knob'.
So, all in all I rode 56 miles and burned in excess of 2500 calories. My legs hurt all but about 2 miles of the journey and I am very physically drained. I went out and had Greek food for dinner and I suspect that I have still not touched 2500 calories worth of food eaten today. As I approach my target body fat percentage, I'm going to have to figure out how to get enough food to make up for these long rides.
Anyway, I took a visual record of some of the stuff on my ride. Without further adue, in the words of an online friend...
On a bike, sometimes a closed bridge is still passable...and you might even get to check out some nice scenery.
Ahh...small towns are so peaceful on a Saturday afternoon. We stopped to change a tube.
I promise it'll work better in a minute.
The view from top of 'Bald Knob'. Somewhere way off, just out of sight is my home town...only 26 miles to go.
I will hit 40 mph down this hill..The back way down 'Bald knob'.
So it turns out that 'Bald Knob' is this nearly featureless feature in the landscape of an otherwise desolate land of prairie and corn fields. I live in a very flat part of the world and as we pass a tree line and emerge on the other side, I look up and see it. There about 8 miles to the south-southeast is a large hill in the middle of this flat landscape. And, I suspect that the only trees on it were planted by the people who had built farm houses on it. So, hence the name, 'bald knob'.
So, all in all I rode 56 miles and burned in excess of 2500 calories. My legs hurt all but about 2 miles of the journey and I am very physically drained. I went out and had Greek food for dinner and I suspect that I have still not touched 2500 calories worth of food eaten today. As I approach my target body fat percentage, I'm going to have to figure out how to get enough food to make up for these long rides.
Anyway, I took a visual record of some of the stuff on my ride. Without further adue, in the words of an online friend...
On a bike, sometimes a closed bridge is still passable...and you might even get to check out some nice scenery.
Ahh...small towns are so peaceful on a Saturday afternoon. We stopped to change a tube.
I promise it'll work better in a minute.
The view from top of 'Bald Knob'. Somewhere way off, just out of sight is my home town...only 26 miles to go.
I will hit 40 mph down this hill..The back way down 'Bald knob'.