MS 150 Ride this weekend

[Hammer]

The Pedal the Plains ride starts tomorrow. My hubby is joining me. He's a bit nervous. Farming hasn't quite allowed him what one would call adequate training time. He's ridden twice this summer. Once for twenty miles and once for 28. Though I think that he's in good shape, he works his tail off a lot of days climbing up and down silos and chasing cows. I think that as long as he refuels well and just takes it easy, he'll be fine. Though winds from 20-30 mph are supposed to appear tomorrow afternoon as headwinds.

Ah well.

The route goes right by our driveway, so I made a display of suport for my club.

[sbctwin]

Good luck on your ride. Remember, the most important thing...HAVE FUN, first and foremost...

[Mr. Bloom]

Good Luck!

[Possegal]

Good luck and how cool that you go by your own driveway! I love the sign.

[short cut sally]

Have fun and good luck. It is kinda cool you get to go by your driveway/farm!

[cosc]

Hammer, I'm glad your DH could ride with you. It's very hard for the farmer to find time to ride this time of year. I hope your ride was a super one. Let us know how it went for you.

[Hammer]

You can find the full story here, on my blog.

The shorter version:

On Saturday we had winds above 17mph, gusting to 25 mph from the Southeast, the direction that we were going. My hubby was on my hybrid. We hadn't had it in to be checked over. I was going to clean it and lube it, but didn't. He already had the bikes loaded Thursday night and suggested that I just leave them. It wouldn't have been a big deal to take them off the rack. I don't know why I didn't choose to ignore that piece of advice. I would've felt better.

Anyway, 20 miles in DH was hurting and feeling some pain in his legs. The day was very slow. We left Sioux Falls at 7a.m. We stopped at every rest stop. We didn't get to the finish line (75 miles later) until 4:45. I didn't really ever feel like the wind was a huge problem. I'm not sure how much time I would've saved by myself. That's not really the point. I'm glad that I did it with my hubby. I didn't have to work very hard on my roadbike, but my butt and back was sure feeling the saddle time.

Hubby was very very frustrated with himself. But he got through it like a champ. And got back on the bike the next day, even though I wouldn't have blamed him for not doing it again.

Sunday started in the mid 70s and very very humid. Moisture condensed on our bikes as soon as we brought them outside. Wind was less than 10 mph from the SE. The temperature climbed into the 90s and was near 100 by the time we were done at 3pm that afternoon.

Sunday was a better experience. And we figured out why it was so difficult for my hubby. The rear brake was lopsided and rubbing against the rim. Doh! My husband is even a mechanic and didn't catch it. He was getting down on himself for that. I reminded him that he was too involved with the problem, he was busy diagnosing the engine instead of examining the peripheral components. He did tweak the seat and got that into a better position to reduce issues.

We saw several kids on the ride with family. I was impressed with their drive. I hope that our future kids will enjoy cycling. I won't hold them to it. I just hope that they find a passion for *something*. Anything would be fine with me, as long as it's constructive and healthy.

I am glad that we did this together. It's for a great cause. We were physically able to accomplish the distance. There are people would love to be able to, but their muscles won't cooperate. It's really the least that we could've done.

I'll post a link to pictures later.