So – my body is telling me that I should take it easy today. For some reason, yesterday’s ride is not sitting well with my legs and I am a combination of stiff and fatigued (since I’m not in very good shape).
Thus, I thought I would put together a simple route in a new area – this time trying to loop around the northern parts of Lake Minnetonka and into Wayzata. I’ve never ridden in these areas before and honestly had never driven my car there either. Big mistake.
The intent was to try for a simple, 15 mile ride to just get some basic miles on the bike and get back home as quickly as possible. It is still too cold to actually enjoy riding – thus I only wanted to accomplish the most basic of objectives – short ride. Great intentions except for the part about me getting LOST!
Now – me – I never get lost. It just doesn’t happen. I’ve got some weird sense of direction and am constantly gauging the position of the sun and the moss growing around the trees to know exactly where I am. I’ve driven through areas of Germany and France where I’m dealing with foreign languages and have not been lost. But – today it happened. It just so had to happen while I’m on my bike, feeling weak from the prior day’s ride.
Here’s some basic environmental stuff for the ride:
- Temp: approx 40F
- Mostly sunny with few, thin clouds
- mild winds at 7mph from the NNW
I had a plan that incorporated memorizing various names of roads that indicated an upcoming turn. Well, it so happens that Hennepin County has abandoned the names displayed on Google Maps and now has everything numbered. Thus, I missed my first major turn that would have had me biking BACK toward Wayzata. Instead, in my testosterone-controlled wisdom, I kept going – thinking it was the “next turn-off” just a half mile up the road. By the time I hit Highway 110 – I knew something was wrong and several miles beyond my planned route. Instead of turning around, I thought I could make a few modifications (without a map) and still make it back to Wayzata. Unfortunately, Lake Minnetonka tends to be a significant barrier where roads are no longer straight and measuring position by the sun isn’t terribly useful.
Here is my final route:
It is an OK route – but something I will not try again until the temps are warmer and I have some more time in my legs. Lots of rollers (hills) and generally junky roads on this route. I’m sure it’s nice in the summer – but needing to ride on Highway 15 outside of Wayzata really sucks – as it’s a busy road filled with people who think their solid-gold SUVs offer them the privilege of running bikers off into the ditch.
Here are my mediocre statistics:
- Start time: 3:20pm
- distance: 26.4 miles
- avg speed: 17.0mph
- duration: 1:34
- bike odometer: 115 miles
Next time – better prep to know exactly where I’m going. I need to start finding 30-40 mile rides for later in the Spring and into Summer – but I need some base miles first so they are not a full-on suffer-fest.
I might also consider GPS for the bike.
