MS60 2013

Ming and I rode the MS 60 this year.  It was sparsely attended, so it wasn't difficult to find a few coworkers near the beginning, including Alan who was riding my hybrid bike I used in Iowa for my last two RAGRAIs and Dan and Paul, who were riding road bikes and kept ahead of us most of the way, but finished at the same time.

Here's Alan with my bike and Dan.  You'll note the clothes that look a bit warmer than usual.  It was cold and windy.  I didn't even sweat that much during the ride it was so cool, and I wore gloves almost the entire ride.  Below you can see snow.  Well, it's sleet.  It sleeted on us in the early part of the ride, just after this point, accompanied by a nasty headwind.  Later, a few miles from the finish line, the snow just came down hard.  If it hadn't been warm out earlier in the week, there might have been actual accumulation.



Ming.  Shorts, but a jacket, and he's wearing gloves.


Alan, likewise in gloves, rolling into the rest stop.  This was on the way to the finish with the wind at our backs.  Much more pleasant than the 20 miles into the wind.


Paul, bundled up as well.


And here's some of that sleet I was talking about.  There was a lot more a few moments later.  If you're riding 52 miles into the wind, it's nice not to have to worry about ice and snow.


As I said, it wasn't very well attended, and Ming noted that there wasn't an immediate sign up for next year, leading us to believe that the 60 attendance may be poor enough that they scrap it in favor of consolidating under the MS150.  Not that I'd blame them.  The MS60 can be cold and sometimes people just aren't trained to ride 50+ miles yet if they're casually riders.  There weren't even that many people cheering at the finish line, which is usually one of the more amusing parts, particularly if you're struggling in.

And I found this in my tire after the ride.  We moved from an ice arena to a school, and I end up with a staple in my tire.  Some teacher needs to be more careful with her/his assignments.  I'm glad it left a big enough hole that I didn't have one of those sneaky flats that would have waylaid me during the Almanzo 100.

MS60

Unlike last week's Ironman, which was the first one I'd missed since 1998 because this year I was a single dad and I didn't want to make Eryn wear snow pants to bike, I made it to the MS60 yesterday and it was beautiful.  I told Ming I'm pretty sure I could have done two 60s.

I don't think Ming was quite as up to the distance.  But the general rule is, this year I'm on, this year you're off.  And then next year, you just reverse it.  He asked if losing 40# was having any sort of affect on me.  I'm pretty sure by the end of the ride he noticed it was.  But it was a huge difference this year not having a 4 mph rider with us, and that it wasn't 33 degrees and exceptionally windy.

Ming pumps.


Ming tires to get Logan to take a pre-ride picture.


Logan! What the heck is going on here?!!!  Someone left a message for you on the rider board.  3rd place!?  Ouch...I hope you take your dad back there and erase it.  It's probably still out there at the 3rd rest stop.  How embarrassing!

(While we were there, the guy on the bus said, "Hey, hey...what are you writing sir?"  To which I had to reply, "I'm writing a message to a kid who's not on the ride.  It's funny, not profane.  And I'm going to erase it as soon as I take a picture."  He warned me to be careful of standing where the SAG wagon would drive, just so he could chastise me for something.)

Bicycling - MS60, jne.

I did the MS60 last Saturday. It was damn cold. We started out the day at about 36 degrees, and it warmed up, but not by much. Throughout the day it was cold enough to see your breath, and when I got home I sat in a hot bathtub because I couldn't warm up. Top it off with a strong headwind, 60 miles of riding, and a pile of hills, and I was worried I'd bonk the last 5 miles. One of the toughest rides I've done in quite a while.

Practice ride the Wednesday before the MS60 with Mike. Truly a practice ride as it was cold and miserable, just like the MS60. We made it as far as Richfield before hoofing it back to Eagan. This is Mike, pedaling.

Moh at the halfway point on the MS60. He didn't quite make it to the end. About mile 45 he was down to 6 or 7 mph going downhill. Not a big deal on the MS60 as there are SAG vehicles, so I chased one down for him. Definitely the right decision.

Me at the halfway mark. I didn't take the SAG. It just made for a fun picture.


Ali blew a tire not too far after the Gateway trail. It took three people to pump it up, including a discussion about whether to pump it up to 200 PSI.


Pumping up the flat tire, the view from the other side. I hope it's mesmerizing.


My road bike! Not the bike I took on the MS60, but it was waiting at Erik's when I got home. I had new, wider rims put on it so that I can ride it more often (I'd put a few thousand miles on it many years ago, and the rims got soft and required spoke adjustment after every ride). I took it out for a short ride with Eryn on Sunday. I'm not used to the shoes and clipless pedals after all this time, but it's a much smoother ride, and I'm down below some of the wind. I'm looking forward to getting out on it this week after the rain and the cold weather are finally over.

MS 60

Yesterday, I got up bright and early to ride the MS 60. Last year I did the 150, but given that I'm going on RAGBRAI this year, I thought I'd try to do something before that event as a way to train, and to decrease the time away from home. I hauled along the mountain bike, the one with the wind plane, and met Ming at his house as the start of the ride was just down the road.

I'm not sure I was up for a 60 mile ride, particularly with the wind and hills. I was definitely feeling the burn by the end of the ride, and even a bit today. My lower back had a bit of a crimp which is usually a sign that I've overdone it. But we finished, despite the headwinds and hills, the 45 degree temps (somewhere in that range - hard to tell as the clouds were coming and going and sometimes it was really cold and other times not so bad. I wore a fleece pullover the whole ride, but I was also in shorts), and even a very brief threat of rain, where a few raindrops scared us near the end.

Ming. It probably looks like he's getting back on his bike after taking a dump off the Gateway trail, but he was just adjusting his seat. Not too far before this spot we rode through some white paint that had been spilled on the trail. I got it on my tire and bike. No big deal. One of the other guys on our team had it spatter up onto his jacket, shorts, and shoes. After seeing that, I was much more careful on the way back.


Me, looking a little tired in Scandia at the reststop. There was watermelon. Yum!


Ming got hit in the eye by a bug. Guess which eye.


Maybe this will help...


Scandia...home of some of the first Swedes to settle in the state (1850 or something).


I believe this is the settlement.


These painted horses are a Swedish specialty. I think. At least they were all over the place in Scandia. This one is at Barton W. Johnson Park, right next to the settlement. Sort of looks like I'm riding it. I decided against molesting it as there were lots of bicyclists coming down the hill and eating watermelon across the street. I'm not sure why I have an Elvis sneer on my face if you check it out in the larger version.


Woo hoo! 57.x miles. It was quite 60. You can see how cloudy the skies were. It seemed warmer here. Up the Gateway, volunteers were wrapped in multiple layers of clothes and hunkered down and shivering.


The end of the ride, at Ming's house. It doesn't look flat, because I already have it jacked up. And it's not off because the tire was stuck on there so solidly that I had to call AAA to come and get it off. Fortunately, the guy who showed up had a great big bar so he could wack it off from the other side. My legs weren't feeling too bad at this point. But after sitting down and kicking the tire as hard as I could, alternating between legs, I was in much worse shape. Come to think of it, that's probably where the twinges in my lower back are coming from today. Doh!