Training Ride: Limestone to Cabery

I am a little behind on my posts. A couple of weeks ago, my friend Julie and I rode to Cabery for our training ride. Cabery, 26 miles southwest of Kankakee, is a little teeny tiny town of about 300. Once again we had perfect riding weather and traffic-free country roads. We ended up with a 51-mile ride. Here are some highlights:

Along the way we came across this stone home built in 1856 with a "quilt barn" alongside it. These painted quilts are part of a Kankakee County quilt tour. My son helped paint some of them with his grandmother and her quilting club.

How about these cute cows? lol

A new stop on our restaurant tour: Cabery Bar and Grill

And then on the way out of town, I spotted this and thought it was funny. Next to the door was another hanging sign that read "A Hillbilly Lives Here."

Next Cycling Adventure: Limestone to Dwight :)

Training Ride: Limestone to Ashkum

The training schedule called for a 40-mile long ride this past week, so yesterday Julie and I took off for Ashkum, on yet another unseasonably warm 80-degree day. We joke about being on the restaurant tour, so outside of meeting the requisite number of miles, our destinations must offer up a good place to eat when we get there. Considering our rides are essentially rural, finding a restaurant (and finding it open) can be a little daunting. We at first planned to ride to L'Erable, but the restaurant there is closed on Sundays. Hence, Plan B: a ride to Ashkum to eat at The Loft.

We had a wonderful, almost vehicle-free ride on excellent smoothly paved roads the whole trip (as can be seen in the upper left picture). On the way home, the wind worked its wonder in our favor allowing us to maintain a record-breaking speed (for us!) of 27 mph. Was that ever fun, flying down one long straight stretch of road, the entire road to ourselves!

Once we neared home, we couldn't resist veering from the intended plan (we're flexible like that when there's good reason!) to head east into Kankakee instead of west back toward Limestone. The good reason: a craving for hot fudge sundaes at Dairy Queen. The end result: a sweet 53.4-mile training ride. The new rule: don't be adding up the calories on the restaurant tour.

My Midwestern Life

This week has brought us Midwesterners record-breaking temps, multiple days of 70-degree weather. Last week I was riding with three upper layers, thermal tights, two pairs of socks, and winter gloves in 45-degrees and 25+ mph wind. Yesterday I rode in shorts and a short-sleeve jersey, sweating as the temp topped 80. Outside of a chance of thunderstorms here and there, the ten-day forecast shows nothing but 60- and 70-degree days. And I'm taking full advantage.
On Tuesday I headed out on the 14-mile Tri the Du course for the first time this year. I had last ridden the course on a cold, gray, windy December day with sporadic bursts of snow flurries pelting my face. Tuesday's ride couldn't have been any more perfect...sunny, 60, 5 mph wind. As many times as I have ridden this course, I never tire of it. In all its open flatness, these rural Bourbonnais roads ground me in a way I can't quite explain. This is my thing, what I most enjoy doing, heading out all alone onto this relatively small expanse of Illinois' richest farmland. It's my medicine.

Road Cycling 101: Live and Learn

Last year was the year for getting used to the idea of road cycling. My previous cycling life had consisted pretty much of loading my hybrid onto the back of my truck and driving three miles to the state park trail where I would ride the 10 1/2-mile partly crushed stone and partly asphalt trail out and back and ultimately feel pretty accomplished. The idea of road riding really scared me. I'm not even sure why I bought a road bike last year. I think it was because I was entertaining idyllic notions of lovely country bike tours. I clearly remember telling my local bike shop guy in these exact words "I will NEVER be racing." The truth is I was terrified of many aspects of road riding -- of sharing the road with cars, of being physically attached to the bike by clipless pedals, of riding without a mirror on the handle bars.

But I managed. Within a couple weeks, I had conquered the clipless pedals and had committed to some bike tours, Chicago's Bike the Drive and the L.A.T.E. Ride, and the really big event came in June when I embarked on the two-day, 100-mile Le Tour de Shore with three friends. The Le Tour de Shore was an amazing experience, and probably the one event that cemented my love for road riding and fueled my desire for longer cycling adventures. Riding 66 miles the first day of the tour was the farthest I had ever ridden in one day, and I was beyond ecstatic. But later in the summer, I topped that with an 82-mile ride at the Two Rivers Century, now my longest one-day ride ever.

As summer progressed, there were many more memorable rides with friends beyond tours, for instance, a 67-mile ride from Bourbonnais to Mokena battling a 25 mph wind to eat at Tribes Alehouse. 2011 suitably ended with a 20-mile New Year's Eve ride to Yanni's Cafe in Manteno for breakfast with those same friends on a 33-degree day.

New Year's Eve 2011 with Julie, Rick and Matthew

Yes, looking back 1,500 miles later, there were cold moments, wet moments, fearful moments -- but so many more amazing moments that could never have happened had I continued to limit my riding experience to one solitary trail. And, so, just as my friend Julie and I were saying to each other yesterday as we were guessing our way to Aroma Park on a 35-mile ride, we live and learn.

Getting My Bike On

After eight weeks of trainer sessions three times a week at the local bike shop, I was more than ready to hit the streets by bike this past week. My long ride in my half ironman training is now at 35 miles, and getting that many miles in was becoming quite a challenge attached to a trainer spinning in place. Long after the Spinerval DVDs had ended and everyone else had left, I had become the lone stationary rider pedaling furiously to get my training miles in. My trainer sessions were easily stretching into two and a half hours.

Just as the trainer sessions had wrapped up for the winter season, though, the outdoor temps allowed for some tolerable road riding. Forty degrees is really my comfort level benchmark. And this past Tuesday brought us 68 degrees, so I was out in all my glory, never mind a wind advisory. I had my warm riding weather but battled 30 mph wind with gusts between 45 and 57 mph. Even so, I managed 21.5 miles riding around town.

Yesterday wasn't nearly as warm at 43 degrees and still pretty windy with 20 mph wind, again with some pretty hefty gusts. My friend Julie and I had a plan, though, and we weren't going to be easily dissuaded from riding to Manteno for breakfast at Yanni's Cafe, partly as our first official ride of the year and partly as our 20-mile training ride. Because we sat at Yanni's chatting long after we finished our breakfast, we were hungry again by the time we made it back to Bourbonnais, so we rode straight to Fieldhouse for a late lunch. At that point, it was nearing 4:30 p.m., and we had plans to meet up with running club members at 6 for a run. We left Fieldhouse for Starbucks for a little caffeine boost before the run. I then bolted home, grabbed my running shoes, and rode over to ONU for a 40-minute run (4.6 miles). In all, I logged a 25.75-mile riding day.

The best part of this is that I managed to not have to drive my car in three days. I could so get used to that.

The Road to 70.3

Today begins 18 weeks of training for my first half ironman. Just look at me, would ya?! I completed my first and only triathlon just last August, and a sprint at that, and here I am going for a half ironman. Actually, I plan to do two half ironmans this year, one in June and another in July. I have decided to resurrect the blog as an avenue for motivation, as a tool to help keep me as focused as I can be. I have never really followed a training plan religiously. When I last ran the Chicago Marathon (in 2007), I followed Hal Higdon's novice training schedule, but I cheated a lot. I don't want to cheat this time around. I want to give this all I have. And doing so isn't going to be easy -- mainly because I have reached a point in my life where I have developed a real "screw it" attitude. Today, though, begins a new focus and a new plan (tri-newbies intermediate). I am going to give this my best shot.

New PR...I Did It!

Today I broke my personal record for a 5K. Ran a 23:17 5K in Joliet today. My previous PR was ten years ago. I placed second in my age group, but there were only awards for the first place finisher in each age group...so no hardware today. It's really not about another medal to me, either. It's more about seeing how much I can improve from race to race. At the beginning of last summer, my goal was simply to break 30 minutes.