Category Archives: Bike

07062019 – Bike

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This morning’s workout called for a bike ride with 2 x 15k intervals. This meant a pretty decent long ride as 15k is about 9.3 miles. I had a fair amount of time and the actual workout was 3x15k but I didn’t have quite that much time! After finishing the 2nd interval and recovery time of 5 minutes I did a third interval for what ended up being 4.4 miles just to get me home.

I headed West towards Eden Prairie on the trails and then cut North on Baker Road after first crossing it and 62nd Street. There were some good hills on Baker Road and also some stop lights so it wasn’t a full on 15k interval, but still pretty dang close. I came back towards St. Louis Park on the Minnetonka LRT and varied between the gravel and the paved road. I probably could have kept going north to the Luce Line, but this ended up being a perfect distance for today.

I hit 27.6 miles in 1:50:50. My two intervals were 34:03 and 34:28. The third interval of 4.4 miles was 17:51.

06292019 – Bike

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I took my Mukluk out today to explore the trails. I’ve only ridden it in the winter so I wanted to see how it felt on the dirt. Overall it is a newer and nicer bike than my old Giant Iguana, but it is still a fat tire bike.  It is heavier and didn’t go up the hills quite as quick, but once its moving it like to keep moving! I did Area 36, 45 North and the two MORC sections North of Glenwood.  The North Loop was too wet to ride.   Of the 17 Strava segments I had achievements on 11 of them. 3 of which were PR’s! So that’s pretty impressive for the fattie!

Overall 8.74 miles in 1:04.

06252019 – Bike

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The kids are signed up for enrichment programming through the school district and this week I ended up with 3 hours each morning without the kids. So of course I went out for a 3 hour bike ride! It was a little stressful to have a specific time to be back as I wanted to go a little bit further, but I made a smart decision and ended up getting back with a few minutes to cool down before going in to get the kids!

Because of where the kids were it made a lot of sense to head into St. Paul. I’ve done some of the route before, but had never been on the southeast part of the city where I know a lot of people like to ride. I probably should have done some more research to plan a good route, but it was also a little fun to just be out there and explore!

I went up the back side of the hill from Mendota to St Paul and Cherokee park and then down Ohio St. I was going to go back up it, but missed the turn and rode on city streets for a bit and eventually popped out on a bike trail.

I found a really cool trail that was tucked between the Mississippi River and a railroad. I was hoping to cross the river and ride back into St. Paul but the closest bridge was several miles away and I was at the mid point in my time. It probably would have worked out better than what I ended up doing. Sometimes though that comes back to get you later!

Randomly in South St. Paul I ran into this older gentleman who was riding an old steel road bike and he was doing good speed. He told me to tuck in and we rode together for a little bit and then chit chatted. He was heading to Target!

Once I got back onto Shepherd Road it was a headwind the entire ride back to Minneapolis.  Not really ideal, but I guess that meant I enjoyed a tailwind on the way over, right?

It was a perfect day to be out riding. It was also the first time on my Trek in a couple of years and it felt good to go fast on it!

The totals were 36.29 miles in 2:41.  Not bad for a Tuesday morning!

06222019 – Bike

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After the family left, Caleb and I headed down to the trails. We went to the new skills course first to check it out. Its built right behind the Trailhead building and has 3 loops. We did the Easy loop first. I was going to try the Intermediate and Caleb was going to do the Easy but he accidentally started down the Intermediate and didn’t want to stop! He did great on it. He wanted to do the Easy again so he did that and I did the Intermediate. It was fun! We stopped for a quick water break and then headed over to the Karate Monkey loop. He does a great job!! His little legs work hard to keep the bike going up the hills! We did about 2.5 miles together.

A few hours later I was able to get out for a long mountain bike ride. I was actually able to complete the whole trail system (except Brownie). Brownie is RED – Expert so not for me. I did it once and did a lot of walking around obstacles. I hit the MORC trails first – skipping past the North Loop. I did a nice steady pace through all the sections and felt good riding through them and did a few of the harder sections I usually walk or struggle with! I hit the North Loop on the way back and then the Loppet trails. They were setting up for a race so the Area 36 trails were a little different than normal adding in some new things and skipping some others. The new 45 North trail is fully open and I rode it. It will be fun to do, though I was pretty tired at this point!

Total riding was 13.21 miles in 1:42.

Of the 26 Strava segments I got a medal on 14 of them!! 18 of them were PR efforts!! So that felt pretty awesome too!!

06202019 – Bike

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My sister and her boyfriend came up for a little visit. We wanted to get a mountain bike ride in, so looking at the weather this morning was our only option! He brought his mountain bike and my sister’s bike could work if it had wider tires. This would be her first mountain bike experience so it was a much better choice for her to use my Mukluk instead.  She loved it!!

We rode all the Loppet trails, starting with Conundrum and 45 North first before doing Area 36. The signage on 45 North was a little confusing so we took the early exit – the new section might have been open but it wasn’t clear. We finished by doing the North Loop. My sister enjoyed all the sections and the different challenges that each one brought. We didn’t really talk about any of the obstacles but she did them pretty well for a newbie.

She also really enjoyed riding the Mukluk.  It might have been a little high for her and the tire pressure was a little high too I think but she loved the security of the wide tires and feeling like she could roll over everything! After about 90 minutes we decided to be done for the day. It was tempting to keep riding, but probably a good choice to be done before everyone was beat!

About 9 miles of riding.

These pictures are at the turn around point for 45 North.