MS 60

Yesterday, I got up bright and early to ride the MS 60. Last year I did the 150, but given that I'm going on RAGBRAI this year, I thought I'd try to do something before that event as a way to train, and to decrease the time away from home. I hauled along the mountain bike, the one with the wind plane, and met Ming at his house as the start of the ride was just down the road.

I'm not sure I was up for a 60 mile ride, particularly with the wind and hills. I was definitely feeling the burn by the end of the ride, and even a bit today. My lower back had a bit of a crimp which is usually a sign that I've overdone it. But we finished, despite the headwinds and hills, the 45 degree temps (somewhere in that range - hard to tell as the clouds were coming and going and sometimes it was really cold and other times not so bad. I wore a fleece pullover the whole ride, but I was also in shorts), and even a very brief threat of rain, where a few raindrops scared us near the end.

Ming. It probably looks like he's getting back on his bike after taking a dump off the Gateway trail, but he was just adjusting his seat. Not too far before this spot we rode through some white paint that had been spilled on the trail. I got it on my tire and bike. No big deal. One of the other guys on our team had it spatter up onto his jacket, shorts, and shoes. After seeing that, I was much more careful on the way back.


Me, looking a little tired in Scandia at the reststop. There was watermelon. Yum!


Ming got hit in the eye by a bug. Guess which eye.


Maybe this will help...


Scandia...home of some of the first Swedes to settle in the state (1850 or something).


I believe this is the settlement.


These painted horses are a Swedish specialty. I think. At least they were all over the place in Scandia. This one is at Barton W. Johnson Park, right next to the settlement. Sort of looks like I'm riding it. I decided against molesting it as there were lots of bicyclists coming down the hill and eating watermelon across the street. I'm not sure why I have an Elvis sneer on my face if you check it out in the larger version.


Woo hoo! 57.x miles. It was quite 60. You can see how cloudy the skies were. It seemed warmer here. Up the Gateway, volunteers were wrapped in multiple layers of clothes and hunkered down and shivering.


The end of the ride, at Ming's house. It doesn't look flat, because I already have it jacked up. And it's not off because the tire was stuck on there so solidly that I had to call AAA to come and get it off. Fortunately, the guy who showed up had a great big bar so he could wack it off from the other side. My legs weren't feeling too bad at this point. But after sitting down and kicking the tire as hard as I could, alternating between legs, I was in much worse shape. Come to think of it, that's probably where the twinges in my lower back are coming from today. Doh!