Pre Work Bike Ride... single speed

Today is Tuesday September 1 2026 and this morning before work i rode my single speed bicycle outside.

It was glorious.

We're in the middle of a long super hot stretch of weather which sucks unless you start pedaling your bike at 5:25 am in 78 degree weather and then its kind of amazing.

i rode to Crown Center and back, i felt good, i never wanna die!

Weekend Bike Rides... warm and windy

Today is Monday August 31 2026 and i rode my bike outdoors last Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday i went out with a friend and we did the Rocky Route on road bikes. So 37 miles.

On Sunday i went out solo on the mountain bike and did the Rocky Route again. 

Saturday was a lot of fun, my riding partner is relatively new to town so most of the route was new to him. He spent 8 years living in Chicago riding a fixed gear bike so he was good to go on the mean streets of Downtown Kansas City.

The pace was slower than i usually ride, he was hurting by the end, we had a blast.

Later that day i found some quality couch time and put my feet up and watched a bit of a movie.

Did i mention that on Friday i ran a mile? It's been about a year since i did that but i want to get back into running so i bought some fancy new running shoes and gave them a spin. Not surprisingly my legs were pretty soar from that 10 minute effort.

Sunday my ride window was very early and i was pedaling by 5:35 am. 

The first half of the ride was magical, at 5:35 am it was 78 degrees with bearable humidity, a stiff tail wind, and a full(?) moon. The last half of the ride was a stiff head wind and i wanted to die. My legs were not having it. i wanted to go hard, i was excited to go hard, i figured i'd feel good, i was wrong.

There is a mountain bike race this Saturday that i'd like to do. It's on some trails that would be new to me up by the airport. It starts at 8am which is perfect for me.

We'll see how the week unfolds but so far race attendance is looking promising.

Saturday Ride...

Sunday Ride...

Johnnys Ride...

Today is Thursday August 27 2026 and last night i did the Johnny's group ride.

i felt great until i didn't and then i got dropped.

After getting dropped i chased very hard for the remainder of the ride. My calves were cramping by the end. The first part of the chase was done in tandem with a cool guy on a tt bike, we worked well together and almost caught the group several times but the traffic lights were just barely working against us. Eventually he turned of and i finished the ride solo.

A trend has appeared on these group rides, i'm getting dropped on the long uninterrupted pedaling sections. So now i'm googling "cycling best way to improve my sustained power". TBD on if i will seriously attempt to put into practice the results of that google search.

i'm constantly re-evaluating what i want from cycling. i want to get faster and be at or towards the front of group rides and races but i don't want to do riding that doesn't appeal to me. Riding hard appeals to me but riding smart continues to elude me and i appear to have reached the point where riding smart is necessary to unlock the next level or riding hard.

Coming to terms with your mental and physical limits is a trip!

Life is a journey!

Weekend Bike Rides... 115 miles worth

Today is Monday August 24 2026 and i rode my bike outdoors twice over the weekend.

It was pretty amazing.

On Saturday i did 67 miles on the road bike and on Sunday i did 48 miles on the mountain bike (on pavement).

X is making good progress as she recovers from her bike crash / dislocated elbow but she's still weeks away from really exercising... which means i have a little more free time if i play my cards right. And playing my cards right means getting up early on Saturday and Sunday because that's where the best free time is.

Saturday morning i pedaled towards Lawrence but stopped and turned around about 5 miles out when i noticed storm clouds dead ahead. It caught me off guard. Either i hadn't been paying attention or they came out of nowhere. i raced the storm back home but it caught me and i got pretty wet.

Later that day the not so little man (whose basically 100% recovered from his sprained wrist) and i went to the Spirit Halloween store, one of our favorite places.

Sunday i was up early again for a sweet urban mountain bike adventure which culminated with the Old Leawood North loop. The temps finally dropped and i had to start that ride with a wind jacket, which was awesome. Fall is coming

This was a very encouraging weekend. i felt pretty great on both rides.

My loose plan all year was to be fast (or at least less slow) in the fall and its looking like i may actually pull that off. Now i need to start thinking about what a successful fall will look like. the Little Sugar mountain bike race is fast approaching but prior to that i see two other mountain bike races i could do plus a gravel race. All are in close proximity meaning i've got a real shot at participating.

Hopefully i can do at least 3 of those 4 races and if i can do well in 2 of those 3 then i'll be happy. i'll hold of on defining what "doing well" entails until i'm in the process of trying to do it.

X and the not so little man are again coming with me to the Little Sugar race, we're going down on Thursday and the race is on Sunday. Last year i emptied the tank prior to race day which meant my performance was underwhelming. This year i'd like to avoid that plus i'm pretty sure i'm in much better shape so not taking advantage of that would be a bummer.

i think with a bit of planning and foresight i can manage a short family vacation which concludes with a bike race. 

Things are happening!

Saturday Ride...

Sunday Ride...