One-A-Month Club

Warm (?)temps this heart-felt weekend, sent folks out onto the gravel by the (1/2)dozens! A couple of solo hundys and a group ride around Cedar Falls gave 6 riders another check mark towards the dirtiest cup of all - and here are their reports:

Dennis Grelk
The DsM Sunday century was canceled due to the impeding weather, so I ended up riding solo Saturday. I swear I pushed headwinds for 70 of the 100miles, and the other 30 were spent walking/riding at 5mph on level b's and iceskating rink hills.
Motionbased Ride Report

Mike Johnson, Paul Meyermann, Kathleen Porter and John Adamson - four
of the five members of Bike Tech Racing who are going to Leadville this
year headed out for a 100 miles of dirt on Sat. The roads were snow
packed and fast, the temperatures were fine and the winds were steady
and strong out of the south. Out route took us West to New Hartford -
rode our favorite hills - Parkersburg, and beyond Aplington. It was a
good time riding slow and steady with lots of conversation and stops for
food and drink. After 8 plus hours of riding and falling temperatures we
got home with about 130 - let's see - 130 - that would be 130 K's and
we were glad to be home, warm and eating.
John


Tom Anderson:
After Sunday’s ride was called due to weather, I knew that I’d have to take a drastic step in order to reach my goal of riding a gravel century for each calendar month in 2008. I also knew that I needed to redeem myself from what felt like a beating during the January Hilly Hundy with the boys.

So with that in mind I set my alarm for 5am, I wouldn’t need it as I woke at 4am in anticipation of the ride. I took my time getting ready in the morning and ultimately hit the road around 5:45am with a balmy 9 degree temp. My route would first head north to Granger for a stop at the Casey’s to lose a layer (Dennis Grelk was in my head remind me to not sweat out the jersey’s early in the ride). A quick 10 minutes later and I was headed to Woodward. Another Casey’s, a Gatorade and quick call to check in with home before hitting the road. The next leg went west and then north for 10 miles into Ogden. I felt great on the northbound leg and was moving along at 17-18mph without really working. I spent a good 30 minutes in Ogden for pizza and choc milk before heading out again.

Then the fun began as I had to start working my way south. After 11 miles, I was at the Northwest corner of the route (X Ave and 230th) for a few pictures to document the accomplishment. Heading south, I was only averaging 9 mph and it was taking a toll on the body and mind. I kept working through it and the route headed east every 3-5 miles which gave some relief from the wind. Just north of Perry I decided to drop the loop into town and head to Woodward. It would be a good decision due to the time restraints I was under (I had promised to be home in time to clean-up and leave for a Drake game by 5:30). A few more roadside stops for food and stretching had me into Woodward around 2:30. At my current average I should make it home in time.

However, the gravel wasn’t going to let me off that easy. Just outside of Woodward the road turned to mud. It wasn’t too bad at first, but it was getting progressively sloppy towards Granger. Just south of Granger it got worse and turned into peanut butter. There was about 7-8 miles of being lucky to maintain 8 mph. My GPS was in the pack so I didn’t have the speed, but it was probably closer to 6mph the majority of the time. Just when I thought it would never end, I hit the pavement and the final 2 miles to home. I had to ride another .6 in the neighborhood to hit 100 exactly. I jumped off the bike at 5:10 and into the shower. To my wives surprise, we left the house on time for the game.

Overall, it was a good ride with some good accomplishments. I did a century solo (I don’t think that any of my road centuries were solo), I learned a lot more about packing and clothing choices, and I learned how to push my body and mind through some of the hard times. I struggled with food choices as something was haunting me most of the day.

By the way, the route needs some work but is not too bad. The first 20 miles are relatively scenic, but from 20 to 60 is boring and wide open. Once on Deer trail it gets scenic into Perry, then boring back towards Woodward. This route is also very flat. I have yet to upload the GPS data, but I’ll be surprised if it has more than 1000 feet of total gain.

Pics are on flickr.com, start with the pic of the computer screen, my commentary is on the pics as well.