Bluebonnets on Hwy 2562
I realized on my ride this morning that I’m doing just a horrible job of posting and part of my training for my 2,100+ mile ride this summer to raise money and awareness for cancer research also involves documenting my experiences on this blog. So – starting today, I will be shortening my posts and including some quick thoughts about that day’s training. Sound fair?
But first I need to get caught up with this week’s training. 😉
This week I’ve been trying to concentrate on riding. I haven’t told Charlie and Sara yet at Boomfit, but I made a decision that I think from here on out, I need to be riding and not doing CrossFit. As much as I love CrossFit, it’s one of the things keeping me from riding as much as I really need to be right now. And I need LOTS of time in the saddle.
Monday March 26
Flooding on Hwy 30 from the Navasota River
So my goal this week was to get 300 miles. I haven’t hit that milestone yet in my training, so I’ve made up my mind that I’m going to do it. Monday started with a 50 mile ride on Hwy 30 to FM 244 and then Anderson, TX and back. It was an awesome ride and I saw some really interesting things like all of the flooding (see the included pictures here).
I also found some hills! I didn’t know there were hills around College Station, but sure enough, if you head east on Hwy 30, you’ll hit lots of hills! So I’ve been getting some good hill training in. Yeah!
Tuesday – March 27
CowTalk Steak House in Navasota, TX. I've never seen this before - so I thought I would take a picture of it.
Tuesday, I went a little further on Hwy 30 to Roans Prairie and took Hwy 90 to Anderson. I also found out that there is construction the entire way between Roans Prairie and Anderson. Very bad. I had a choice to either ride in traffic or ride on the ‘shoulder’ where all of the construction people were working and hope I didn’t cheese off too many people. I chose the later. It was a very rough, slow ride for almost 10 miles.
Wednesday – March 28
Wednesday, I didn’t get a chance to ride as I talked about I Ride for Cancer to the Bryan Rotary Club. That went very well by the way and we raised $2,120 (we estimate we need $7,000 for the actual ride) so that went a LONG way towards our goal. Thank you fellow Rotarians!!
Thursday – March 29
It rained cats and dogs on Wednesday night and I wasn’t sure if it was going to continue it on Thursday so I took a down day. However, I was thinking the entire day that I should have just sucked it up and rode. I mean I’m going to have to ride in inclement weather on the ride – so I think from now on unless there’s a tornado or lightning, I’m going to ride. No more excuses.
Friday – March 30
Roans Prairie Nursery
Friday – Back on track. I decided to try a different route from Roans Prairie to Anderson, so I took FM 2562 to FM 149 into Anderson. Interesting riding and very beautiful. I took a few pictures in those back roads.
I also saw a few people who I think were riding cross country (lots of saddle bags and gear on their bikes) heading east while I was heading west. I waved, but that was about it. I almost turned around and now I’m kicking myself that I didn’t. Next time I see somebody that looks like they are doing that, I’m going to ride with them for a bit. It’s what I would want, so why not right?
Oh and I ran over a snake today. It scared the bejesus out of me. I was heading over a small bridge that overlooked an overflowing creek and the bridge just happened to not have any shoulders. There was a car coming behind me and one towards me. I didn’t see the snake until I was literally on top of it and did a bu-dump right over it. I’m just so very glad it didn’t have the sense to reach up and bite me!!
That makes it 175 miles this week so far. That leaves only 125 miles to reach 300 for the week. As you’ll see below, my plans actually exceed that by 20 miles.
Upcoming Rides
Ranch near Navasota that is completely under water. Look at it - that's not a lake.
I’ll document all of my rides now individually instead of a huge long post like this – but here’s what my plan is for the next two days.
Saturday – I have plans for the exact same ride as Friday. 65 Miles again. It’s a nice ride.
Sunday – This is going to be a little bit longer. I want to do 80 miles, so we’ll see what I do. 😉
Next week, I’ll try to do 300+ miles again. The main thing I need to accomplish is just get lots of time in the saddle to get used to riding for long periods of time.
