Mission accomplished
It’s now Thursday, August 27, and I spent the last 3 days riding my bike.
All in all, we did right at 230 miles throughout Wyoming and Colorado, and most of that riding (over 95%) was on bike paths!
On day 1, we did a Cheyenne Greenway century. Yep, 100 miles on the Greenway paths throughout the town. It required us to loop around about 5 times. We tried to maximize mileage, and it was kind of difficult. There are a lot of pieces here and there that don’t connect, and so it’s kind of awkward, but we made do and we got it done.
I don’t think anyone’s ever done a Greenway century, so we are the first, and I imagine we’ll probably be the last. So — there’s your challenge, Cheyenne!
It was hot as hell outside. We spent a couple hours riding in temps over 90 degrees, and the smoke was pretty brutal too. Our eyes were red and bloodshot at the end of the day. My sinuses were angry with me on Tuesday. The good thing was that the riding wasn’t taxing, so I wasn’t breathing heavy. It was just a long amount of exposure.
On day 2, we went up to the Medicine Bow mountains to ride the Medicine Bow Rail Trail. It’s about 21 miles from end to end, and we did a couple of out and backs (we parked in the middle). It was all over 9,000 feet of elevation. The smoke was nonexistent up there, so that felt nice. Oh, and it was a gravel path. There were some rough patches, and I almost wiped a couple of times in some really loose pebble-like gravel, but it was pretty good. I racked up 67 miles that day, and it took us about 8 hours total. We stopped for lunch and whatnot.
That was really fun being out there. We saw some amazing views, scared away a few moose getting some water at the lakes, saw several huge deer and lots of roaming cattle, a chonky prairie dog, lots of cool birds … That was probably some of my favorite riding in a long time! It was just so nice to get up and away. Our phones didn’t even work. But I managed to stop several times and take some photos.
Day 3 was very stressful for me. I didn’t sleep the night before because I was so worried about where we were going to ride. And by not sleep, I really do mean I got about 3 hours of sleep. Up at 5:30, checking the smoke report, hoping Colorado is OK to ride in.
We decided to try the Fort Collins Poudre River bike path, and we managed to get about 33 miles riding around FoCo, mainly on the path. But the smoke and pollution was just awful. Not to mention it was 90+ degrees again.
I decided we should move to the Windsor-Greeley leg of the path, further down south and east. We were hoping for about 60 miles for the day. Thankfully, the air was much better over that way, but it was hotter, I think, ugh! We did about 30 miles there, and it was not below 90 degrees the whole time. Definitely went through a lot of Nuun and water pretty quick! But again, the riding wasn’t super intense, so you were able to just cruise and let the wind (kinda) cool you down. Once you stopped, it was sweat city, though, pretty brutal.
I feel pretty darn accomplished having done that many miles on bike paths. While the riding isn’t intense, it’s a lot slower pace, and there’s a lot more you have to pay attention to. The gravel miles are also harder because you’re absorbing the rough road with your upper body, and you don’t roll as much, so you’re turning the pedals a lot more, too. Plus, that high up in the air, it’s definitely just harder on your body overall.
And then I’d like to mention the stress of figuring out where to ride, because that was honestly a nightmare. I tried my best to get in as close to the 318 miles as possible, but it’s so hard when you really can’t go anywhere but around in circles. So I sacrificed my mileage in order to make sure I was still having some fun.
We were hoping to ride up in the mountains, maybe climb Mount Evans, but the smoke made sure we couldn’t. I really tried my best. Basically anywhere within a 3 hour drive was covered in smoke, and the whole Front Range corridor down to Colorado Springs also had pollution warnings. Ugh.
Bad timing, too, because it’s basically smoke-free today. And cooler.
Go figure, yeah?
Well, I’m hella proud, and now it’s time to chill out a bit. I spent the day being pretty mellow. Walked the dogs, did some strength training, played a lot of video games!
In the near future, I’m going to work on getting certified for Les Mills CXWORKS, which is a core strengthening program. I’m super excited, it’s been one of my favorite programs for a while now. If you’re going to do any strength work, do core work. It’s probably the most beneficial thing anyone can do!
After that, I’m signing up for a study program to get my NASM personal trainer certification. I plan on taking about 6 months to study. Hopefully I can pass the exam by then!
I’m definitely going to continue cycling, but I’m not going to do an official training plan or anything until winter again. I want to get the gravel bike out more, and I have some routes I’m looking forward to exploring in the area (I discovered them while I was researching for the ABC ride). I definitely want to do some more road riding before it’s too cold and windy to enjoy it. Considering it’s almost September, I think we have another good month or so before it becomes hit-or-miss. There’s always Colorado, though!
I don’t know what next year is like, but hopefully I can go big again. I want to do the Denver Century, Bike MS, the official Tour de Prairie, the Ride for Sight century again, the Tour of the Moon, the Triple Bypass … gah, I want to do them all! I didn’t get my chance this year.
I know that I’ll be even stronger when next summer rolls around. I am so looking forward to it. But for now, I need a little break. I haven’t not thought about training since basically December 2019. I’m still going to train, to maintain my fitness, but nothing super structured. If I feel like riding inside, I’ll pick a TrainerRoad workout, a Zwift race, a Zwift route … whatever I’m feeling. Outside, I’ll probably just go with the flow!
I can’t thank Athletic Brewing Company enough for all the support, all the great beers, the opportunity to do something different and exciting, especially for Cheyenne and Wyoming! Hopefully there will be more fun adventures in the future.
Until then … cheers!