First Multi Day Tour this week!

[Hammer]

I've posted about this tour a month or two ago. I am a bit nervous and somehow feel as though I haven't prepared adequately for the Tour de Kota. I've gotten about 625 or so miles in this spring, plus some cycling classes in over the fall and winter, plus some 3 mile runs. The longest ride I've done was 54 or so... When the club went 70, I had to go and run errands to prepare for buying a house. We've also had a house to sell.

Life got in the way, I tried to squeeze in rides where I could, though they weren't always the distance that I desired, they were sometimes really tough with 20 mph winds. So I tried to make the miles that I did log count. I rode many 30 mile rides, and a couple 40 mile rides. Hills, flats, winds, etc.

I won't be as fast or as efficient as I'd hoped. I felt really good on the 50, though a little tired afterward... I am confident that as long as I don't over exert myself and take the time to truly enjoy the tour, I will be fine.

I hope to do one of the century days, or I'll bail and only do the 75. I did one century last summer on the MS150.

I've got my camera in tow, lots of film and a digital camera with a 1G card and batteries. This should be a well documented week.

At any rate, even with a headwind all day... It will still be better than work!

Then I'll come back and refocus my energy on my wedding.

[jobob]

I am confident that as long as I don't over exert myself and take the time to truly enjoy the tour, I will be fine.

Bingo! Definitely, enjoy the experience, don't overdo it. You may be surprised to find how much stronger you get over the course of the week. The important thing is to have fun.

[SadieKate]

Mmm, there's a Lions Club pancake feed on Sunday in Vermillion.

Have fun! Forget about the house, the wedding logistics, work, bills, and whatnot . Just enjoy yourself.

[cosc]

Hammer, I am going on the tour de kota too. What fun it would be to meet you. I haven't been able to put in enough training miles. My longest ride was 54 miles. Too early in the season for this slugbug to attempt a century. I've got to finish my packing. My name is Carolyn C. from Chamberlain and I ride a eros bianchi. Hope to see you down the road.

[Hammer]

Hammer, I am going on the tour de kota too. What fun it would be to meet you. I haven't been able to put in enough training miles. My longest ride was 54 miles. Too early in the season for this slugbug to attempt a century. I've got to finish my packing. My name is Carolyn C. from Chamberlain and I ride a eros bianchi. Hope to see you down the road.

It might be too late for this reply, but just in case... I ride a giant OCR1. It'll have a rack and pack on the back. I tend to wear a yellow camelback. My name is Melissa H. I'll be camping with the LaneHogs. I'll keep my eyes open for you.

Have a great ride!

[Hammer]

Cosc, it was nice meeting you this week. I hope that your tour went well.

Well, my Tour de Kota experience was looking pretty good overall. On Sunday I meant only to do the 70 mile loop. my cycling friends wanted to do the short 30 mile first and then the 70. They knew it was going to get hot and windy... by doing the 30 first, you'd be committed in the 70. I kinda didn't want to, but figured the roads were in my neighborhood... I could get back if I decided as I approached 70 that I didn't want to do any more. Well, I hung with the crew pretty well overall. The last 30 were really tough. It was hot, like low 90s and the wind was fairly stiff... upper teens at least. I and two other ladies were riding. We ride together often. We do draft off each other, though usually it's a couple guys in the front pulling all the time. The three of us were taking turns pulling. One lady had muscles that had been cramping. She was behind me when I was pulling. She asked me to slow down a little bit... Now this is a lady that is a really strong rider... I didn't touch the brakes, slowed gradually. But, she rubbed my back wheel and went down. I heard it happen, didn't see it. She got scraped up pretty bad. I felt horrible for her. We've heard from her, she seems to be mending okay. I hope that she is well.


I had like 7 hours of ride time, though we were gone like 8 or 9. A friend of mine had only planned to do 30 miles as a warm up. She got through the 100 too.

Monday I was kinda sore. My back, my bum, my hamstrings all ached. I did have some store brand aleve that I took every 4 hours or so... I wasn't popping them all day. I finished the 70 miles. We had a tail wind for much of it, though the miles that we went into the wind, stunk.

I was tired. I hadn't slept well on Sunday night. I didn't think that I would do the century on Tuesday. I was trying to figure out why I thought this was fun. Though once I got to my friends in the campground, I felt better.

I planned to probably do the 75. I rode with the same friend that had decided to do the century instead of 30 on Sunday. She and I went back and forth the whole morning about what we would do. Finally we got to the corner where we would turn or continue straight for the optional loop. We kept going. A few miles later we turned in to the wind. The next 12 miles were really hard. But there were others around us, so we knew weren't out there all alone, that helped. We got to the rest stop, ate and decided to keep plugging away. The next 17 to the rest stop were tough too with crosswinds including 4 hilly miles into the wind. After that we had a tailwind for much of the way.

We past up one of the last two rest stops. We were feeling good. 9 miles from 100... Seven hours on the bike. We were approaching some railroad tracks, I tried to position myself to cross them perpendicularly... they were running at like a 45 degree angle across the road. I don't know what happened. One second I was on my bike, the next something had caught my wheel, I got sucked down and then I was on the ground. Oooh, it hurt. I do remember bumping my head. I don't think that I blacked out. I satyed on the ground for a little bit to collect my bearings and try to figure out what happened. I slowly sat up, uttered a small profanity, nothing too bad. I look over and my friend was on the ground too. I'm like, "what happened to you?" She had swerved wide to miss me, trying to do as she'd been told by other riders. But went down on the tracks too.

We finished the last bit to our town in an ambulance. The emergency crew had to take our bikes back to the rest stop we'd past so that the SAG wagon could pick them up and take them to our last destiantion. We couldn't get them, because by the time we got there, the bikes were locked in a truck. Our friends said the bikes were fine. Our friends also said that the ride wasn't 100 miles, but actually 106.

Anyway. I ended up with 8 stitches in my elbow, 2 in my knee and a cracked collarbone. I did pass out in the examining room after they put the collar on me. My fiance was there. But it had been a little bit since I had eaten and my body possibly succombed to the stress. I hate passing out. It feels like your head went to sleep.

I'm proud of my friend that I rode with. She did great! For two ladies that didn't think that we'd do the 100... we'd each only planned to do one 100, the second with lots of hills and winds from the SE from 16 to 21 mph (during the later part of the ride) we did well. My friend had already gotten to the park for awhile by the time I got there. Our crew came over to see me when we went to collect my stuff. They're great people. I'm glad I got to ride some of it with them. Though my ego hurts probably hurts the worst.

I met some other fun people along the way. My fiance says if I crash a third time, we should hang it up. I think that I'll have to make another attempt again. We'll see.

Thanks for letting me share.

[Trek420]

Ouch!! Glad that you and the bike are ok. Heal fast and hope that you ride again real soon.