Update: Today I passed the 11,000 mile mark since I started riding last May.
Today was the other bookend in our matching centuries- 102 yesterday and 103 today. It's a first for me, and in all likelihood, a last. Man (at least the ones built like me) were not meant to travel these distances while resting on 8 square inches of flesh evenly distributed between butt, feet and hands. Since Monday, we've covered about 280 miles, an average of over 90 miles per day and we'll continue that mark with a near century again tomorrow- I think the plan is 92 miles. The terrain in Minnesota is relatively flat, but these distances are strong.
We got an early start this morning- I think it was around 6:30AM and we stayed hard at it all day. The weather was fair- temps probably approached 90, with partially cloudy skies and a very light wind- never much of a factor- at least not for the CFS (Chief Wheel Sucker). Actually I did pull some today, though it was probably only 10 miles or so, while I was having a huge argument with Michael Miller and Max- more on this in a moment. The humidity was all encompassing though. It was "cut it with a knife" humidity. The day was one of those where you just know there's a T-storm just itching to get started-in fact, we had storm clouds on the horizon all afternoon and had a very light rain, I think it's referred to as "spitting"- but never
did get the heavy stuff cooking.After a tough century yesterday (tough for me and several others I spoke to- but tough because of what's come before- not because of the route itself) and a very early wake-up (4:30AM), I was really worried about pulling off a second 100 mile day. But, in spite of being somewhat slammed, I did pretty well today and as is common for me, the last 30 miles or so were probably the best part of the day. We did the first 70 miles or so- I guess through the second sag- as Millers plus Bob minus Derek (got sick- dehydrated??). After that we added Gary, the Paines, Mark and Max and sometimes Ernst and Lenny.
The argument I alluded to was a friendly spat between Michael and Max and me and it centered on trying to define the business model behind free web blogs, such as this one. Michael and Max claimed to understand it, but couldn't articulate how the revenue was generated and I tried to school them on what a business model is and why I thought Google had to have something more articulate than the jibberish I was getting out of them. They thought I was being "old school" and JUST DIDN'T GET IT. A good time was had by all, including those little twerps.
The terrain today was slightly more hilly than yesterday and in fact, the ride started immediately with a half mile climb that tipped the old inclinometer at about 13%. The fact that I both made the climb and held breakfast down gave me immense pleasure. But throughout the day, we had some big rollers with faces in the 7-8% range and those are what I refer to as "bitchy climbs". Not enough to require real big boy shoes, but enough to make you wish you were built like a whippet and not so much like a golden retriever.
We finished the day in Rochester, MN- home of the Mayo Clinic. The last few miles of the ride offered us a choice of staying on the main roads or hopping (sounds like a happy thing, doesn't it?) on a bike trail. Again, we made the wrong choice- going with the trail. Cost us 3-4 bonus miles (again, sounds like a good thing). Not a killer, but in the future how's about we save that for the shorter days, OK??
