Tag Archives: bike

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.

06192019 – Bike & Swim

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Summer life.. rode with trail behind to drop kid off at soccer camp – plan was to ride from there to the lake, but I forgot lock.  So I dropped trail behind and rode to the lake. On my Motobecane I decided to hit the section of mountain bike trails between Glenwood and 55. The climbing felt easier on this bike, but the cornering not as solid! I actually fell off into the woods because I slipped off the tread. It was an awkward downhill fall that was kind of hard to get up from, especially since my ear bud got looped onto a bush!

I finished the ride to Cedar Lake and the water was cold!! This would be my first swim in forever! There were only a few people around so I suited up and walked in.  I did about 200m swimming though I actually have no clue on the distance. I went back and forth several times!

The beard creates some major drag! I got tired fairly quickly. I didn’t want to leave my phone, bike key,etc just laying on the beach.  I put them into a dry bag and stuffed it into my wet suit. Not the most comfortable situation and the bag let water in.  Fortunately, it wasn’t a lot and nothing got ruined.  Though I did lose my silicone wedding ring and the ID portion of my RoadID bracelet.  So that kind of stinks. I didn’t even think about taking the ring off, but now I know!

On the way back I rode the mountain bike trails back home picked up the trail behind and the kid from soccer. What a nice morning to swim and bike.  I ended up with 12 miles of riding total.

06182019 – Bike

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Took out the fat bike with my daughter on a borrowed bike to see if she’d like it. She wasn’t happy about the whole thing. She fell pretty early on going around a turn and the handlebar got her on the leg. It was a slow loop of Karate Monkey. Total ride was 1.4 miles. On a happier note, I saw a former student who is leading Loppet Trail Kids summer camp groups!