fidean.net

Saturday was the longest ride Autumn and i have probably ever been on together, something over 50 miles (her bike computer read 80 kilometers at the end, but had been bumped out of the mount for an undetermined amount of time).

We had planned to do a longer ride, and the weather seemed to be cooperating perfectly. Partly cloudy, and low 60s in the morning, only heading to around 70 for the afternoon. We had a good breakfast, packed a lunch and put the 2 girls in the burley and started out from the house around 10:30.

Autumn took first shift pulling the trailer, riding her Gary Fisher hybrid (big wheels, strong brakes, good trailer puller). I was riding my newly re-assembled singlespeed commuter, just resprayed with rustoleum black and sporting some spanky new shiny black fenders.

We started out intending to check out a new trail she’s found through a nice nature preserve just north of us, then head out the Gateway trail a bit. We knew the 2 trails should connect, but it took a bit of detouring to make the connection on the way out, which added some time and stress.

Along the way, we found a wonderful play/swim beach on the lake she’d just seen for the first time earlier last week and had a nice picnic there. We headed around another lake (Phalen), hoping to hook up with the Gateway somewhere around there, and ended up doing some gravel riding because of trail rebuilding. Finally, we got to the main trail around 1:30. It was at this point we noticed that the computer had gotten bumped along the line and only showed 90 minutes of riding time.

The Gateway trail is really a nice biking route - for the non-twin citians, it goes from downtown St. Paul 18 miles northeast along an old railroad bed. It connects with two trails that head straight north, the eventual goal being to have a bike trail system from St. Paul to Duluth. It’s a fairly popular trail, but not so much traffic as to be a bother. A couple of small packs of roadies training, a few familes riding together, several older couples riding together, and one woman probably in her 60s who we leapfrogged with or passed by on opposite directions 3 times - she was pretty fast.

There are a few stops in the middle stretch of the trail for street crossings, but after that it’s miles of non-stop path through beautiful woods and pastures. After a while on the trail, we figured out it was only 10 more miles to the end, so why not do the whole thing.

We took a rest top at the end of the trail, chatting with a few others doing the same. Odometer read 43k (about 20 miles), at about 3:30. We let the kids run around for a while to get ready for the trip back, I switched the trailer on my bike and we headed back.

Knowing that the girls had already been in the trailer too long for one trip, we set a faster pace for the return, around 20mph for long stretches until we started hitting stop signs again. Those stops really wreak havoc with the nice momentum i’d built up with close to 90lbs of trailer behind me. It’s not so fun to stop and start a lot with a trailer on a singlespeed.

Luckily, we found the trail connection we’d missed on the way out and it was a much quicker trip, pulling in just after 6 pm. The trip total on the computer was a hair over 80 kilometers (50 miles), probably not counting a handful more. I have to admit trading the trailer back to Autumn close to the end as i ran out of steam on the One Last Hill Of Any Size of the ride, so she had the trailer for well over half the miles. She also finished in better shape than i did, as i just didn’t keep up on the water like i should have (her triathalon training helped too).

Today, we’re both surprisingly not sore, neither muscle-wise nor buttocks-wise. Much praise to the new Brooks, which was comfy the whole ride, and felt fine even on a quick errand run today. We’re both thinking we’ll try a century ride next year, but probably not pulling the trailer.

August is finally slowing down a little, but it’s been a crazy busy fun summer. I’m glad to hear that John and Lorie had a fun honeymoon in Mexico, Ella’s still talking about her trip to the reception in the limo.

We went camping last weekend to Whitewater state park, in southern minnesota, notable mainly for being virtually mosquito-free. It is that, and pretty too. We probably did as much vertical climbing there (many many many stair steps) as we did exploring 2 days in Nevada.

We also went to the Forestville Mystery Cave, which was very cool (practically cold!). We had a great guide, and Ella had a fun time shining a flashlight around at the different cave features.

With Fiona so close to walking, and crawling around so much, our campsite criteria have changed. Our favorite park, Afton, has big wide grassy sites and we can let her explore all over the place. The sites in Whitewater were pretty much packed dirt, not so near-toddler friendly, especially after it rained.

Fiona has completely mastered crawling, and is rapidly mastering stairs. She cruises around wherever she can get a stable handhold, and many places that she can’t. She likes to grab Ella’s easel (with the big metal sheet for a whiteboard) and shove it around the floor - worth about 100 decibels, that is.

Ella is constantly amazing us with her imagination, silliness and incredible memory. Last night, she looked at me and said, “We’re the people who are protecting themselves from the monster, you’re the monster who’s out to get us”.

Looking ahead at the rest of our (very cold lately) summer, Autumn is planning to do another short course triathalon and 10k race in the next couple of months. We also just signed up for the St. Paul Bike Classic, a 30-mile tour around the city that we’ll do pulling the girls in the trailer.

well, i really did it…and it was fun! kicked butt in the swim (was 120/332!), held pretty well in the bike, and then lost a lot of rank in the run. went slower than i thought i was going (thought i was running about 9 mph, but it was more like 11. SLOOOOW). i’m still really happy with how i did. in the end, i was 253 out of 332…far from first (top in my class was a 32 year old woman who finished in 1:03:38), but far from last (last woman in my class finished in 2:06:48).

more pictures, click here!