Tuesday, September 28, 2010

RAGBRAI Jersey

I actually wasn't going to blog about today because I did the Springwater again and I'm doing it again tomorrow with my friend (and brand new aspiring cyclist), Lori. But, I had a wonderful ride and I've got 20 minutes to ice my back so here goes.

My back was aggravatingly upset yesterday so no riding. Lots of icing, mobilizing, some pilates and my anti-inflammatories had me up and running again today. I was only marginally motivated to ride today, but my afternoon sessions don't even start tonight until 5:30 so it seemed like a shame not go in a long ride. Nothing interesting was happening until I was crossing a crosswalk and the guy in the truck who stopped to let me go stopped kinda fast. The littler truck behind him totally missed that he was stopping and SLAMMED directly into him. It was loud and taillight glass went flying. Oh man, did I feel bad. I really didn't know what to do so I said, "Sorry!" and just kept riding. I felt so guilty even though I really didn't do anything wrong.

Of course, when I feel bad about anything it makes me want to ride hard and fast. Not sure of the connection there, but all of the sudden I was motivated. I went all the way to the end of the trail then went exploring a little past it.

It was on the way back, though, that I had the experience that makes this ride worth a diary entry. I'm riding past Powell Butte and I heard, "RAGBRAI! Did you do RAGBRAI?" This happens a lot, but this time it seemed extra special. A cyclist just a few years younger than my dad pulls up beside me and we start talking. He's from Minnesota and has always wanted to do RAGBRAI, but has been scared off by the number of cyclists. So, we rode together, a little faster than my normal pace and just chatted about RAGBRAI and Iowa. We discussed Midwestern heat and humidity and how much we love eating after riding. Then we discovered that we both have had herniated discs (he's had one, I've had four) and this immediately turned into telling tales of how we both overcame our injuries and how we keep riding. It was just five miles of the loveliest conversation and when we parted ways I felt like once again I had discovered why doing a bike ride is endlessly more rewarding than doing cardio at home.

So, anyway, that's my story for today. Out of time! Cheers!

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