On the bike ride down to Van Buren a couple of weeks ago, there was a group of photographers from the Photographic Society on NWA. I was intrigued by the group as I've been wanting to hone my own photography skills, especially after this year. As it turned out, one of the members of the organization, has a showing at The Perk, a coffee house, over at Rupple and Wedington roads. This seemed to make a good destination for the morning. Since it was a pleasant 56 at 7:00 in the morning, I was able to get an early start.
I left directly from the house and immediately fell into a good pace. On the trail, I passed Larry Purcell and doubled back to chat briefly while he ran and, of course, get his picture. His oldest son Jacob and my son David were in play groups way back when in the pre-school era. Carlin, his second son, and Rachel have done quite a bit together in high school the past couple of years, including putting together a food group where they experiment with different meals.
The miles continued to go by easily, even when I had to go into the wind. By the time I reached The Perk, I managed to already put in 20 miles.
Unfortunately, a photograph of Wendy's prints do not do them justice and I include the one below as an example of her work.
I was very impressed by the prints I saw and if you live in the Fayetteville area and have a chance to stop by there and take a look, I highly recommend it. She has quite a variation of work. Here is her link if you want to see more:
www.wendydunnphotography.com
Interestingly, the photograph gracing the home page of her website is the one above.
I moved on and into the wind but I was not fazed; true the wind was slowing me down but I had become one with the wind. My body felt as if it absorbed its essence as it hit me. And, I thought of the wind full of micro-nutrients that my body could utilize to re-energize me.
I'm not sure what there was about my mental and physical state today that had me moving along the ride so effortlessly. From Prairie Grove onto West Fork with some good-sized hills thrown in but the spirits and energy remained very high.
Outside of Hogeye, I paused on top of a hill to take the picture below.
As I went to brake, there was a very noticeable wobble of the front wheel. I had noticed some wobbling earlier and checked to make sure there wasn't anything, like leaves, stuck in the wheel or between the brakes or that the locking lever had come loose. All seemed fine and I contributed the wobble to the wind. Checking again at the top of the hill, this time I happened to feel the tire and noticed that it was quite low. So, not only did I have the wind to contend with the past 40 miles, I had a very under-inflated tire. I had removed a sharp small stone from the tire early in the ride and I suspect that is where the leak came from. Fortunately, when I pumped it back up it held for the remainder of the trip.
When I got to West Fork, I was thinking that I could probably make this an 80 mile ride excursion. But once I caught the tailwind from West Fork to Fayetteville, the miles suddenly began to sail by and by the 65 mile mark I was contemplating a 100 miler. To pack in the extra miles before it got dark, I went back and forth several times on a couple of east-west corridors of the trail.
Arriving home, I was as giddy as if I had done my first 100 miler. I had been wanting to get another 100 in this year but, just a couple of days ago, I had pretty much conceded that it probably was not to be. Between the cold morning temperatures, the constant wind we have had, the short days and, most importantly, the fatigue that seemed to be overtaking me, I resigned myself to being happy with getting in 50-70 mile days. So, this 100 miler came as a big surprise to me today and boosted my morale tremendously. And, yes Colene, I did do the extra 8/10ths of a mile segment when I pulled into my road!
Today's Ride: 8hrs 43mins. (9hrs 40mins actual time). 101.13 miles. 56°-62° 25mph winds. Miles YTD: 9,183.24
Number of miles per day needed to reach 10,000 miles by the end of the year: 19.45
Donations for Biking for Food, which support the Community Meals at St Paul’s Episcopal Church in Fayetteville, AR, can be sent to: Biking for Food, St Paul’s Episcopal Church, 224 N. East Ave., Fayetteville, AR 72701
Or, make a pledge per bike miles ridden at www.stpaulsfay.org/bikingforfood.html.
To see older postings, search the Archives listed on the right had panel.
To see postings before 15 August 2011, please go to www.mylifeasabike2.blogspot.com
To see postings before 11 June 2011, please go to www.mylifeasabike.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment