Metric

I decided with my day off and the promised 60F temps, I'd go for a nice road ride. With all the melt we've had, I haven't actually braved taking the road bike out yet. The roads were all pretty dry, but I wanted the option to hit some dirt should I have felt frisky. The cross bike also makes for a little more effort. I made it out on Sunday for about 2 hours which felt tough. Winds were low, but it was chilly at 32F. Monday was spent riding to and from work to restretch the legs.

I picked the north route out of North Liberty. Head west on Penn St. all the way to the highway, highway west to the Amana turn. North of Amana to Shueyville/Swisher turn. Through Swisher to Shueyville to Ely Rd. Then south to Solon, down Mahhafey Bridge Rd. To Sugar Bottom Rd for some more climbing, over the dam and then back into N. Liberty. Turned out to be a metric century, ringing in the ride total of 62mi/100k.

The first 14-15 miles the winds were in my face about 20 miles an hour. That made for some work. I took about 4 hours to do the ride which is slow, but the winds were high anytime riding west or south, and I was on the cross bike. I stayed fueled to perfection. I never cramped, only felt the burn the last 10 miles or so. The route features some really nice climbing and descending for Iowa. I am feeling really good on the bike. I could punch it when needed and pacing on the climbs was effortless. I could shift down a cog and crank, then back it off to a higher cadence and a lower gear. I still need some big gear tuning on the trainer though.

Hope all you other road pounders got out today and enjoyed the weather. Water levels are all very high with all the melt off we've gotten so far. Keep the rubber side down.