Registration Weekend

A look at the ice jam on Black Hawk Creek from Falls Avenue Friday

Last week we lost all of our snow and we are back to "Brown Season" again. So, since the weather had warmed up I decided that Saturday would be my first foray of 2018 out on the gravel roads.

My only concern was that maybe it might be a bit mushy, but I have fenders on the Orange Crush, so no worries. I would just take that bike out. By the way, Planet Bike Cascadia ALX fenders are awesome.

But before I was to get out there and do some gravel riding I wanted to get registered for Gravel Worlds. I almost forgot about doing that too! It's kind of ironic, at least to me, that a fine event like Gravel Worlds, which has a killer vibe, a Friday get together with beer at a bike shop, and in all likelihood a tougher course than the DK200, doesn't sell out pronto like the DK200 did when they had online registration. I guess that Gravel Worlds isn't a "bucket list" event and doesn't get the media publishing spotlight like the DK200 does, or maybe it would be that way.

On second thought, I'm glad it is the way it is........anyway.

I got into the event, that's the main thing. So mid-August I'll be driving back down to Lincoln to get my gravel on again. Hopefully I learned the lesson from last year and I utilize that knowledge to at least avoid the issues I had which prevented me from finishing. If my guts actually functioned the way they were supposed to last year I know I could have finished. Oh well.......

Then I registered for another event. Same area as Gravel Worlds, just a couple months  (almost) earlier. This one is called the Solstice 100. I'm pretty stoked to try out this second running of that event. I know....... I wasn't going to load up the calendar, but I couldn't help myself! So sue me...... Maybe I can talk my buddy MG into doing that one. It starts in his home town of Malcom, Nebraska, after all.

No worries about mushy gravel out here! Hard, fast, and dry was the order of the day.

Then after lunch time I headed out for a little gravel action. The wind was out of the Southwest, so I headed South to my usual routes. I wasn't going to go very far because I didn't know how good of shape I might be in after coming back from the flu a couple of weeks ago. The wind wasn't supposed to be very strong, but, of course, the weatherman was wrong! 

I managed to punch out a little more than two hours of work Saturday. A good start to the base miles.

 The wind was tough, but I have to get used to it. I managed some good efforts, but my main goal was to just roll. I wasn't pushing real hard now since I need to get a base under me and have some decent fitness before I go nuts and put myself through the wringer. Miles. Miles and more miles. That's what I need to do now.

I'm not sure how many chances I'll get through February. The weatherman is saying it is going to revert back to cold and we are supposed to get a lot of snow throughout the month. February is typically our snowiest month in Iowa, but the way it has been going this year?

I'll be surprised if we get a whole lot of the white stuff. We'll see.......