Vacation!

43 degrees out when I got up this morning. Started drizzling just after I left the house. Got out on the highway and ran into a brutal headwind. Made it over the hills in Bella Vista and into Bentonville, where I ran back into that headwind........wow! This sure beats working. I love vacation time! Came back home with... the wind at my back and the sun coming out. Doesn't get much better.

77 days out. Not a lot of mileage this weekend, but some fun rides. Was in Dallas visiting family for Easter and got to try out the Tour Dallas ride. Longest distance they had was 30 miles, but they do a great job and were expecting 3000 + riders. Sure looked like they made it. Here's a shot I took with my phone waiting for the start......and I was near the front.

Shortly after the start we headed out across a long bridge, made a U-turn and headed back across. Might be difficult to see in the camera phone picture, but that bridge if full of people who were actually behind me.

After going through some pretty nice neighborhoods, the ride headed out around White Rock Lake (as long as you were doing the LONG 30 mile ride). Anyway, it was a very nice ride. The organizers and the Dallas PD did a great job.

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I've added a couple of things this week, the most important of these being a link to my Tour de Cure fund raising page. I hope if you read this you'll consider donating to this great cause. I also added a countdown to the start of my ride, so that I don't have to keep mentioning how long it is until I go.

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Have a great day and thanks for reading.

1st day of spring.....

What is the deal with this weather? First day of spring and it's snowing again! Only 91 days until I leave for Oregon, and I still haven't gotten very many outdoor miles in. Starting to get a bit tired of my trainer. On a positive note, I did get to ride last Sunday at the park with the new cassette and chain rings, and it felt great. Shifting was nice and smooth, and my chain didn't try to jump off a single time. Should've replaced that stuff a long time ago.

only 100 days left to get ready.....

Looks like there are exactly 100 days until departure date. Where does the time go? It's been a rough week this week. Experienced a bit of a set back after riding 32 miles Sunday hoping to clear my head of this awful sinus ailment. Instead of clearing everything up, I seem to have triggered a relapse and have spent the last 3 days in the house. Oh well, if I had to be sick, the week my bike is in the shop is probably the best time for it. Left my bike over at Ozark bike to get an almost entire new drivetrain (chain rings, cassette, chain....). Looking forward to getting it back trying it out this weekend.
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Been going through my paperwork and tour kit from ABB while I've been laid up. Sounds like I'm really behind on my training, so I'm starting to sweat it a little bit, but I'm hoping the little bit of running this winter left me in good enough shape to ramp things up quickly.

Time to ramp up the training.....

This would work much better if I didn't feel so bad. I got in two 25+ mile rides last weekend at Pea Ridge Park when I first started feeling bad. Then this weekend I spent the very first beautiful 60+ degree Saturday at home coughing my lungs out. I did make it out this morning for the Hwy 71 Classic ride down in Fayetteville, but limited my ride to the short turn around and covered 32 fairly easy miles. With rain moving in this week, it looks like I'm back to the trainer in the living room again.

Why in the world would I want to do something like this.......?

Sounded cool at the time....after waffling back and forth a few times, I finally decided to follow the advice of one of my favorite quotes (it's on the wall over my desk)........

Risk -
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
-Mark Twain

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That pretty much sums up the why.

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So anyway, here I am beginning my journey to ride my bicycle across the country. So, in case you're wondering how I got to this point.....

I bought my first road bike and really got into cycling about 4 years ago trying to find a good way to get into shape and have a little fun. For a little motivation, I decided to shoot for the 50 mile Tour de Cure ride here in NW Arkansas. 50 miles! Holy cow, that's a long way! Luckily I had a really good friend to keep me motivated, and push me along to ride farther. I doubt I would've kept riding as long as I have if they hadn't pushed me past the point where the work turned into fun. You know who you are....Thanks again.

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Well, I completed the 50 mile ride with my friend and got some good coaching, and advice, from another friend at work, and from there 50 miles just didn't seem like that far anymore. The following year I rode across Oklahoma with the OK Freewheel, and even made it to Iowa for RAGBRAI (Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa). I had so much fun with these, that I've done RAGBRAI every year since (3 years running, now).

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At RAGBRAI, I started noticing that it always seems to take two or three days to get comfortable riding every day.Then, when you're really starting to enjoy the ride and the freedom of not having a care in the world other than getting to the next town, it ends....and we go home and go back to work.

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So, to answer the question at the top.....I don't really have a great or compelling reason to do this....I really just want to go for a ride that I can lose myself in and not have to go home so soon.

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Ok, so here's the route I'll be doing......