Pioneer Century - the penultimate training ride!

Barb Greenebaum and I did the Pioneer Century, and it was a good ride! The first thing I learned is to never wonder out loud, "Is this whole ride going to be flat? Where are the hills?" As soon as I said that, I was punished with more hills than I wanted (>3,000' elevation gain). And these weren't just hills. In some future geologic era, these will have uplifted into a new mountain range.

Anyway, my often-achy middle-aged left hip decided that this was a good time to ache, so my usual lack of speed at climbing hills was reduced to that of a snail's pace. Or maybe it was a slug's pace. At any rate, I was pedaling gastropod-like up those hills.

Eventually, the achiness went away, and I was able to, once again, pedal at the lightning-fast speed of a tortoise.

After 55 miles, we ended up back at the start and were treated with an amazing fajita lunch (what? I can't have more than 2?) and hammer dulcimer music! It was excellent, but then we had to pull ourselves away from all the food and free samples to finish the 45-mile portion of the ride.

This course featured the ever-changing headwind. The second thing I learned is to never assume that if you're pedaling into a headwind when you're going west that you'll get a tailwind when you return and head east. Definitely never say anything out loud about that! Mother Nature does not like it when you assume.

102 miles after we started (yes, they gave us two bonus miles), we both agreed that this was an excellent training ride for the BIG RIDE!