Week #13 A little rest, then back at it.

 

Week #13 - 408 miles

After taking a little down time earlier in the week, I got in 101 miles on Saturday and 105 miles on Sunday. The weather was cold and windy for most of the week so it was a good time to take some easy days on the bike to recover from the previous big week of training. 13 weeks into the year and I am 708 miles up on 2020 and I have got in 20 rides of 100+ miles so far. This compares to 7 in 2021 and 16 in 2020, so if nothing else, I am feeling confident in how IWAR will go. I need to make sure that I am rested in the couple of weeks leading up to the race, so I will probably just do 1 long ride the next 2 weekends. 

Week #12 Last "big ride" before IWAR

Week #12 - 570 miles

Got my last big ride in for IWAR on Saturday. Started the ride at 2am and the temperature wasn't too bad to start with. Once I got out of town, it began to drop. Probably around 50 miles into the ride it was down to about 16F, but luckily there wasn't any wind. Still cold until the sun came up, but made for some slow going. Met up with a group around 109 miles in. Nice to have some company for part of the ride, even though it was only 40ish miles. The last 55ish miles the wind was a little stronger and I was trying to get a few more hills in. I was hoping to go a little faster but getting in 14 hours of ride time was good. Also happy how it went considering that I rode 101 miles on Wednesday.

This week I also rolled over 5000 miles (5115 mi) for 2022. That is 763 miles ahead of 2020, so I have that going for me. Also surpassed 125K (125,199 mi) for all-time miles on Strava. Once again I really don't have any mileage goals for the year. Whenever it has been nice I try to get quite a few miles in. This next month I will have to rest a bit to get ready for IWAR. The race is so hard and so many things can go wrong during it. I know that I am prepared but need everything to come together on raceday.

 

Week #11 Hopefully we are done with winter

 

Week #11 - 403 miles

Let's hope this was the last cold spell that we have to deal with this winter. There is always going to be wind out here, but when the temperature is only in the 20s and the wind is blowing hard, it kind of sucks. We have been lucky though and there has been some breaks in the weather every few days. No real long cold streaks this winter and really not hardly any snow to deal with. As of today I am up 595 miles on 2020 and have 16 rides of 100+ miles in so far. Next week I plan to get a 200+ mile ride in for IWAR. Luckily the event is still on after the tornado that hit Winterset last week. It will be sad to see the destruction that happened to the town and surrounding area. On another positive note, I did get accepted into the Pactimo Ambassador group. I have really like their apparel in the past and will be glad to promote them this year.

Week #10 Break in the action

 

Week #10 - 391

February - 1869 miles

Well this was a little bit of a rest week while going back to the Sandhills to see family. So far this year I have been able to get in some good miles along with 15 100+ mile rides in. Now I am over 4,000 miles for the year and as of today, I am 527 miles ahead of 2020. Not sure where I will end up in December. I also have rode over 800 consecutive days. I am trying to get all of the days this year outside but if it comes down to it, I would use the trainer if I had to. 

Hopefully everything will continue this spring, but Winterset, IA just got hit by a huge tornado. I am not sure what will happen with IWAR in April. Hopefully the race will be able to take place, but I will totally understand if it gets postponed. I know Sarah and Steve will try to make it happen, but getting the town back together is probably a little more important than a bike race at this moment.