Day 5, Part II

Today was a weather challenge day. It was a 76 mile trip, right into the wind most of the way. It also rained on us a few times, and it was only in the 70s. There were some rolling hills at the beginning which gave way to long fairly flat areas. I discovered that a good thing about multiple hills is that it changes the way you sit and grab the handlebars so you get some variety. When you do long sections of the same thing, you get sore in strategic places.

I saw some interesting things today and re-connected with someone I met yesterday. This was Becky and her friend Jeannie. Becky is from Evansville, Indiana, and she has a daughter the same age as mine who is doing Ragbrai, too. When you keep the same habits, like when you leave in the morning and about when you stop, you start to see the same people, which is amazing among 20,000 people. I pass a lot of the same people I've see before.

Something happened to me with about 12 miles left to go today. I had been speculating yesterday that if you did enough days in a row of high mileage that you body would adjust to a new norm. I think I hit that point today. Suddenly I had energy and was powering up hills, despite the weather. It was weird, but exhilirating. We'll see about tomorrow. No guarantees that this will continue, but the next two days are short mileage, 62 ad 53 respectively. Yeah, I know, that may seem like a lot, but we just finished 78 and 76 back to back days. I'll be heading to the Mississippi soon. Hopefully my brakes work, or I may be going for a swim!

I thought I was off to a bad start today. At about 5am I was taking the poles out of my tent, so that it collapsed to the ground, like it's supposed to. Just as it came down, it started pouring rain! I stood there and just thought, "How rude!" So my tent floor got wet, which I had to dry out tonight when I set it up again. As a consequence, I had to pack it wet and it got other things wet, too. Rain is just a hassle to deal with. At least I didn't have to deal with flat tires from tacks, like people did yesterday. Someone threw tacks on the road, and hundreds of people had flats. I had already been through the area when it happened. One advantage of being an early bird.

I'm gonna go find some food now. It seems like all I do is pedal and eat. OH! I forgot to report. I got a tattoo. Yeah, me! Ok, so it's temporary. Maybe I should let you all guess where it is? Nah, it's on my calf. I thought it was funny, so I did it. Amazing how serious the vendor takes his job. It's a temporary tattoo business. Oh well.