Great day for a training ride.  Rode to Leroy (55 miles).  All elements of the ride were in play.  Head winds of 15-20 mph, tail winds of 15-20 miles, areas of rain with occasional sunshine.  And by the end of the ride I was not so weary that I could have not have biked another 50 miles.  6 weeks to the big ride.

Began training for the Eastern section of the 2017 cross country ride.  40 miles of hills in Southern Illinois followed by a 55 miler to Leroy and yesterday a 100 miler to Champaign.  Getting used to the new bike and it looks like I will need to buy a new saddle.  The old one on the new bike looks like crap! But, it's broken in and feels comfortable.  Really looking forward to renewing old acquaintances and meeting new bikers in June.  I will continue using this blog to post when the ride begins.

New bike (Cannondale Synapse all carbon) arrived and I had my first ride on it.  Unfortunately it rained most of the day but I rode anyway.  Nice feel and look forward to my training rides when the weather finally permits

 

Gave the old Cannondale Snyapse to oldest son Christopher for his birthday.  Ordered a new one and hope it gets here next week.  Tired of doing the rec center workout as I need to get outside for better training rides.  Looking forward to better weather for my outside rides.

First 40 miler of the season and it's only Feb. 21.  Starting my training for the Champaign to Boston leg of the cross country trip.  Need to get to Russell's for my new bike.  Giving my old Synapse to oldest son Christopher.  Need to break it in before the trip.

Wow, middle of  February and it's 65 degrees.  Nice but until the wind gets below 15 mph I will continue to use 5 points rec center.  Starting my training for the eastern part of the cross country ride.  Looking forward to seeing old friends from the 09 ride.  Stay tuned.

Finished our annual jaunt to Florida to take a vacation from the frozen tundra of Central Illinois.  Over 200 miles of biking in what was mostly bright, sunny (80 degree) days.  Only one day of the two weeks were not bicycle worthy.  35 mph winds and storms.  And yes, I did ride that day.  Like I said in my facebook post,"one windy, rainy day in south Florida is still better that any day on a stationary bike at the rec center."  One of the oddities of my rides was a sign outside a construction zone that actually deterred me from walking my bike across the area.  Located above it read "NO TRESPASSING......anyone who trespasses on this property commits a FELONY!  That was a first for me and inspired me to take the five mile detour.  All in all a great vacation.
On another note, it looks like I will be doing the Champaign to Boston segment of the cross country tour this year.  I tried to talk Hank into joining me and he might do it if all things work out.  Hopefully he will be able to so.  We can get the band back together.  Stay tuned.