A turtle, A flat tire, and a metric.

Great day for a bike ride. Drank all my fluids (86 oz) by mile 25, so rode into a nearby town, and loaded back up at the pop machine. Before I got to my turn around point, I noticed I was flying 22 mph, on gravel, at only 100 bpm heart rate. This could only be one of two reason, either I had turned super human, like those speedsters in Mn. :-) Or, I was in a huge tail wind. Well when I turned around, it proved to be the second reason. I was now going 9 mph, with a zone 4 heart rate. Was glad to get down into the trees so the wind would quit harassing me. On the way back I felt something wet hit the back of my leg. The trail was dry, so I was puzzled. Then I noticed my rear tire had lost most it's air. The wet spray was "slime" blowing out of my tire from a puncture. I was amazed that the slime sealed the leak, and I was still pedaling with low psi. Well that didn't last long, 10 minutes later I felt another blast of slime, and I was riding on my rims. So stopped and replaced the tube, and put a patch on the inner tire where a puncture hole was, and headed on.

Saw this muddy creature. I think he just crawled out of his winter slumber. I think it's a snapping turtle, I tickled it's nose with a stick and there was no response. I thought should I see if I can touch it's nose with my finger, then I remember these guys can amputate a finger easily. So I left well enough alone, I hope nobody picks on Mr Turtle and he stays out of harms way until he wakes up. I wish I could ride all week, to see the march of the turtles as they crawl out of their holes and head towards the ponds. Some years I've seen some huge ones.

Stopped and had lunch on stump.

You know losing your hair isn't all bad. It makes it easier to check for ticks after a day in the woods. Rode a metric century in the dirt, I think that's dirty century #10 for the year. Maybe a good goal would be to do 100, either metric or 100 miler for the year, one hundred, one hundreds. Has a good ring to it. It's rides like today and yesterday that I realize how much I love pedaling a bicycle. I know I won't do this forever, everything has a season. But for now, I'll enjoy the ride, ride often, and be grateful.

OK I think I have another 5 days of extra hours at work Monday through Friday. I'll have to see.

This coming Sunday is the annual Eagle Point Criterion bicycle race in town. Crits are fast, bunched and curvy. I'll pass on this one, however I plan on doing some film clips.

So I hope you got to do something fun today too. Play is more important then work, both are needed for a good healthy balance.

Over and out.

Dave