The temperature has been a little cooler (mid to upper 80s) the past few days, but it seems like the humidity has been even higher than before, so the cooler temps haven’t really felt like much relief. I was sweating profusely throughout the ride. The humidity was such that haze was visible as the hills rolled into the distance.

The ride started with some hills, mostly of the rolling variety.

After a tough climb, I was on flat ground briefly.

But it wouldn’t last long. The haze, combined with the evening light, was quite stunning.

When I stopped to take photos, sweat literally dripped from my body. It was incredibly muggy. It was worth putting up with the extra sweat, though.

I turned around in Stanford, IN, and headed back along different roads. Again a brief flat section.

Thousands of birds took flight near a barn.

Soon, the road turned up. A climb out of the flat valley wasn’t as hard as I had imagined.

Then, the bigger rolling hills started … there were quite a few of them.

I passed a couple of quarries.

As the crow flies, I was never more than about eight miles from home. There was a great variety of scenery, for such a short distance. The ride totaled around 22 miles, but it felt like more — they were tough miles.

The day was supposed to be a little cooler (mid 80s) and I suppose it probably was, but the humidity was very high. I had to stop a few times and wring out my gloves and sweatband.

A few words on pacing

The club rides I’ve done recently have been quite educational when it comes to pacing. On the club rides, a pace is chosen and held quite consistently. On smaller hills, it is possible to maintain the same level of effort by downshifting. The end result is a much smoother, more consistent pace. Obviously this falls apart on steep hills, but otherwise it works fairly well.

When left to my own devices, I’ll frequently ride much more casually, riding at a laid back pace and then either hammering or slogging up the hills.  Or sometimes I will set out to hammer and I’ll ride really hard, but I won’t be able to sustain it. On this ride, I made a concerted effort to ride at more of a constant pace, and I could feel the difference. I was definitely working harder than on a relaxed ride, but I was able to keep it going throughout the ride.I’ve done this on a few solo rides recently and I think I get a much better workout this way. However, it does make it more difficult to slow/stop for photos, etc. So, as with the club rides themselves, I wouldn’t want to ride this way all the time, but it’s good to have the option.

My wife Sarah drove our car, not only to meet me at the other end of the state, but also to provide support along the way. She spent all day doing this — I am incredibly lucky to have such a supportive wife! As a bonus, she took some photos along the way.

We stayed the night in Terre Haute the night before, and got up at 4:30 am to get ready, check out of the hotel, eat a large-but-mediocre IHOP breakfast, and drive over to the start point. The sun was just starting to come up when we got there.

I had planned to ride with Bill Lambert. We had a little trouble finding each other at the start. While I was waiting for Bill, I ran into Charles, who I rode the Nashville 90 with the previous weekend. Here I am on the right in the orange jersey, and Charles is in the middle, in the blue/green Upland jersey. The lady on the left is Sarah, a friend/colleague of Charles. Anticipation, and spirits, were high.

Just as the ride was starting at around 7:00 am, Bill and I connected, and we were off! He’s in the yellow jersey below.

There were over 1500 people at the ride, so it was quite a large group of riders. Bill and I were off to a good start, passing slower riders and watching faster ones take off ahead of us. We had vowed to start off at a sustainable pace, and not jump out of the gate. I think we did a good job. A police escort made the beginning of the ride go very smoothly, as they blocked traffic to let us pass. It wasn’t too hot yet, but it was very humid — foggy, even. We were riding into the rising sun which meant we had to put on our sunglasses earlier than we expected.

Most of the ride was on Historic National Road, a four-lane highway also known as US Highway 40.

We rolled through Terre Haute. Frankly I didn’t pay much attention to the town, between watching out for other cyclists and talking to Bill, I didn’t get to see much. It was a beautiful morning.

As we got out of town, I started to realize that the ride was going to be a bit hillier than I expected. The terrain was very mild compared to the hills around Bloomington, but there were numerous long, gradual climbs. I like hills, so I enjoyed this quite a bit. The scenery was gorgeous as well, mostly consisting of fields and hills.

The first 20 miles were over very quickly and arrived in Brazil, IN.

Sarah was waiting with the car. We topped off water bottles and ate a little bit before continuing on our way.

The hills got a bit bigger. They were still mild, but a lot of fun.

It didn’t take long before it started warming up.

We passed the Putnamville Correctional Facility, and noticed guards looming in the guard towers. It looked like serious business.

More fun hills presented themselves … it was hilly enough to keep things interesting, but without being grueling. That said, as it heated up, the riding got harder. The first official stop was around mile 40 … I hardly remember it at all at this point.

Around 50 miles into the ride, I had gotten a little ahead of Bill. I looked back and didn’t see him. I waited for a few minutes, assuming he would catch up with me. I still didn’t see him. So, I turned around to find him. When I turned around, I rode into the wind … at this point, I realized that we had been riding with a decent tailwind all along. Lucky! Eventually, we connected by cell phone and Bill said he had gotten a flat tire, but he was rolling again.

Unfortunately, the fix was not going to be so simple. He got a flat tire again, with a fresh tube. He inspected his tire and discovered it had a crack in it. He talked about booting it, but neither of us had a patch kit. This bothered me, because I had been riding around for months thinking I had a patch kit, when apparently I didn’t. More pressingly, we couldn’t get Bill back on the road at the moment. He called his wife, who was in Indianapolis, a ways away. But she said she would come back with the truck. Bill said he had extra tires and tubes in the truck, and suggested I go on ahead.

Now I had a decision to make. I had been looking forward to riding with Bill, and I really didn’t want to leave him by the side of the road. But, there wasn’t anything I could do to help him, at this point. He insisted he’d be OK. I rode on.

The ride retained the same character for a while. Somewhere before we reached Plainfield, I could just barely make out the Indianapolis skyline in the hazy distance from the top of a hill. It’s very difficult to make it out in the photo, but here it is anyway.

When we reached Plainfield, the route diverged from US 40, we would take smaller roads through some suburbs and across the south side of Indianapolis. We passed through the Plainfield Correctional Facility — on roads marked “Authorized Vehicles Only,” which they had opened up just for the ride. It was interesting riding ride by another prison.

Soon I reached the second official rest stop at mile 66 or so. As before, Sarah was there waiting for me.

The stop was at a high school, which was fine but the bathroom situation was a little unfortunate. They asked you to remove cleated shoes before entering the building, which meant using a public restroom with no shoes on. Gross. And only one stall had a door on it. Not great. But it worked out OK.

It was heating up. I filled up on food and drinks, talked to Sarah for a few minutes, and headed out. The next segment had us taking some smaller roads across the south side of Indianapolis.  We rode through some residential and commercial areas, but none of the roads were very busy. As someone who’s not a fan of urban riding, I was pleasantly surprised. Eventually we hit more rural-looking roads again. I rode with some other riders for a while, including a guy on a gorgeous Titanium Roark frame with leather handlebar tape and a couple of other interesting people. Riding at my own pace afforded me the opportunity to speed up or slow down as desired to talk to different riders.

At around mile 96, I reached the lunch stop at Franklin Township Middle School. It was really getting hot, and I took an extended break to try to lower my body temperature and eat and drink as much as possible. I thought I had eaten all I could, but once I took the time to go to the bathroom and come back, I was hungry again, so I ate some more. I felt the more I could eat, the better off I’d be. On some recent long rides, I had trouble eating enough and consuming enough calories to continue to ride strongly.

After lunch, I headed out. Almost immediately I saw two guys trying to fix a flat tire. I asked if they were OK and they yelled back, “Know how to use a CO2 cartridge?” I didn’t, and rode on, but then I realized I had a pump and could probably help. I went back and helped them pump up the tire. They had a pump, but it was a high-volume one and there was no way they could get the pressure high enough with it. My pump did the trick. These two obviously weren’t very experienced riders. But they were just having a great time, and their enthusiasm was contagious. They were not riding the entire length of the ride; they were planning on stopping in the next 15 miles or so. This would net them 110 miles for the day — still a very good ride! I rode with them for a couple of minutes, but ultimately picked up the pace and went ahead.

Soon I reached the century mark in the ride. It was odd to see 100 miles on my GPS and realize I still had 60 miles to go.

The next 15 miles or so were the most difficult of the entire ride, for me. It wasn’t hilly. There was no headwind. But, the heat was incredible. The sun was agonizingly hot. I passed some riders who had passed me when I stopped to help with the tire. Once I got ahead of them, I hardly saw anyone in the next stretch of road. We were still on back roads, these weren’t even on my GPS for some reason, and I had little sense of where I was. The route made several turns, so sometimes we had a crosswind and other times it was a tailwind, but either way the heat was nearly intolerable.

As I passed endless cornfields, I wondered if this section was ever going to end. The photos just don’t capture the sweltering heat.

Things got worse before they got better. For quite some time, as I rode along, I saw cyclists collapsed on people’s lawns. Some were laying on their backs, others were working out cramps in their legs, others were attempting to eat. They were all clearly suffering. I decided that the only way I could make it through this was to push through it. Somehow I ran out of water, even though it was only 20 miles or so from lunch to the next meeting point with Sarah. I just kept riding, no matter how strong the temptation was to find a spot in the shade.

Physically, I was exhausted, even though I felt strong when I left the lunch stop. I tried to eat something, a gel packet. I managed to get it down but the gel was hot and really gross. But, real food wasn’t any better.

Mentally, I was not in a good place, either. I started to have doubts about whether I could finish. I just kept pedaling, and told myself not to even consider any change in a course of action until the next segment. I had a feeling that things would get better, although I also suspected I might be fooling myself, in thinking that.

I also realized, once I passed mile 106, that this was the longest ride I’d ever done. And each pedal stroke meant that I was setting a new personal record. That was some motivation, at least. It was funny having to play mind games with myself to keep moving.

At Greenfield, the route rejoined 40. This was my next meeting point with Sarah. I rolled up, I think she could see the pain in my face. I had thick layers of dried salt crystals on my shorts. Sort of gross, but an indication of how much salt I was losing through sweat. It looks a little exaggerated in the photo, it wasn’t quite as bad as it looks here. I was glad that I had sports drinks and Endurolytes to help replace lost electrolytes.

I took some time to douse myself in water and eat as much as I could. Most things were difficult to chew. We had some grapes in the cooler in the car, and those were great. I wasn’t sure how much they would really help, energy-wise, but they were about all I could eat. I did manage to eat half of a peanut butter sandwich. We sat in the shade and I tried to get myself back to feeling decent.

After the last segment — which was difficult for others as well — I was nervous about what was next. I hoped that being back on the main road, with a tailwind most of the time, would give me renewed energy. But I was worried that I was being overly optimistic.

However, I found that I did, in fact, feel better. I saw a sign that said 47 miles to Richmond. Now 47 miles is significant, but I know I can ride 47 miles, and I thought they would be relatively flat.

The miles started to go by faster again. It was fairly flat, but there were a few hills. I actually felt strongest on the climbs, where some others struggled. It was still hot but somehow I wasn’t quite as bothered by it now. I was pretty much riding by myself most of this way, but that was fine. There were some groups I was leap-frogging. It seemed like we were just enough out of sync that I didn’t want to try to ride with them. I seemed to ride faster than some of them, but I took longer breaks.

Here is Knightstown.

By the time I reached the last official stop at the fire station in Dunreith, I was getting pretty tired. I overheard someone say it had been 92 degrees for 4 hours, earlier in the day. No wonder I had so much trouble! Fortunately by this time it was cooling off … slightly.

Now, in addition to the salt crystals on my shorts, there were some on the back of my jersey as well. Weird!

Here I am with my wonderful support crew.

I still needed a break to eat and cool off. I tried to eat as much as I could — it felt like the next section was the home stretch, but I actually still had some 30 miles to go, and I’d need energy to finish. It was tough to get back on the bike after this stop, given how sore I was.

My main problem now was soreness. I was sore all over — especially the contact points  (hands, feet, butt) and my ankles were hurting too. I was still riding well for the most part, and doing especially well on the climbs, but there were some false flats that were quite demoralizing. The road looked flat, but had a very slight upward slope, for quite a long time. These sections felt slow and painful. And there never seemed to be enough downhill after them to get to coast. Actually, riding on the false flats wasn’t bad, but they made me feel awfully slow. Fortunately I had one more stop planned between here and the end so I only had to go roughly 16 miles, and then 16 more after that. It was a good way to break up the last segment of the ride.

Approaching Lewisville.

An amusing sign: “CAUTION: SLOW MOVING VEHICLES NEXT 3 MILES”

Looking back at some amazing clouds.

The last unofficial stop I had planned in Cambridge City. I was feeling very sore. It hurt to put too much weight on my hands, my butt, or my legs. I felt best when I was riding up a hill, I guess my legs took the brunt of the weight then, but that hurt too. I was anxious to be done, but I had to sit for a few minutes to rest my legs. I couldn’t really eat much by this point but I was so close to the end that I wasn’t really worried about that. I just needed to keep turning the pedals for another 13 miles.

I felt better after that and rode more strongly for the last few miles. It was finally cooling off and I was very excited to be almost done.

There weren’t really any false flats after this point and I just ate up the few remaining hills. They were small and not difficult, but I enjoyed them.

At the very end, we rode through a construction zone to reach the finish line.

The finish was at Earlham College.

As I turned into the campus, I could see the finish line, and I was elated that I had made it. There was some very nice cheering and  applause — quite unexpected, and exciting. I zipped up to the finish line. I think they thought I wasn’t going to stop. I did, they read off my number and handed me a pewter “finisher” keychain. Awesome! I finished at 7:45 pm, the ride took me 12:45. I had estimated at some point that it might take 12 1/2 hours, so my guess was pretty close.

I later heard from Bill, who finished at around 8:30. He ended up with a total of three flat tires that day. The fact that he finished only 45 minutes after I did, with the extra delays and challenges he faced, is quite impressive. Way to go, Bill! Too bad we couldn’t finish together.

This was a lot different from my other two century rides, since it was a club ride. For some reason, I was struggling more to keep up than I should have. My legs just didn’t have the juice to keep up, or even to sustain the pace we rode at last week. I haven’t figured out why I felt so sluggish. That problem was exacerbated by a lack of planned stops: only two in the whole 90-mile ride. I did find a couple of other riders who were riding at a similar pace to ride with, but I still had to push it to keep up.

The route was quite beautiful, and had a nice mix of hilly and flat sections. I didn’t get to enjoy the scenery as much as I would have liked, because riding was intense.

We started out riding south on IN 446.  We were moving at a good clip, but some conversation was still possible. I spoke with a couple of interesting people. 446 took us toward, and then across, Lake Monroe.

After crossing the lake, we climbed up the hill on the other side. The group started to become more fragmented during the climb.

I did pretty well on the climb but shortly thereafter, dropped off the back of the faster group. That was fine, I didn’t really intend to try to stick with them for the entire 90-mile route anyway. When we turned onto IN 58, there were a few other riders going a more comfortable pace, so I tried to stick with them. Overall, the first 30 miles of the ride just flew by.

However, around this time I was nearly out of water. There had not yet been any planned stops. At about mile 35, we rode by Kurtz, which has a perfect opportunity for a stop, but we rode right past it. I thought about stopping, but figured I should stick with the group. By this time our group was down to me and two other riders, Charles and Doug. We turned onto IN 135. It turned out there was a stop at around mile 40, so I didn’t have to wait too long, but this meant that within the first 40 miles I was already a little dehydrated. Also, we had trouble finding the stop. Not a good way to start a long ride.

I tried to rehydrate and eat the best I could. I had a little trouble because I was trying to use mostly Clif bars and gels, rather than normal food, an experiment that didn’t work out well for me. Real food works much better. But, it’s better to reinforce this now, than during the Ride Across Indiana next Saturday.

Once we were back on the road, I still had to push it a little bit to keep up. But I knew that if I fell behind on my own, I would end up going much slower. It was worth it to push it a bit. And this was supposed to be a training ride anyway, so I wanted to make sure it stayed that way.

135 is absolutely beautiful, there are a few hills to climb but often it skirts the edge of various fields with lovely views, sometimes from above.

Eventually I started lagging behind. For a while I thought about catching back up, but as it got hotter, I got slower. I was trying to eat, but I’m used to stopping to do so. On these club rides, stops are rare. As I slowed down, I saw a hawk sitting in a creek bed, and a lizard ran across the road. Pretty wild!

Soon after that, I stopped to douse my head in water and eat something while standing still. This short break in the shade helped significantly. I got rolling again and when I got to the intersection of 135 and 46, I saw that Doug and Charles were waiting for me. We rolled into Nashville together, where we found the lunch stop at mile 65 or so. Doug didn’t want to eat lunch, so he went on ahead. He said we’d probably catch up with him, but we never did.

Charles and I rode on, I encouraged him to go ahead at his own pace if he wanted to, but we continued riding together for a while. It turns out he’s interested in doing gravel rides, it was great to meet another local rider who shares my interest in mixed-terrain rides — or “adventure rides,” as he calls them, perhaps a better term.

The climb out of Nashville was tough, but after that, Helmsburg Road was wonderful,  relatively flat and shady. As we made our way back toward Bloomington, I could feel my energy level falling. We rode across Lake Lemon, and the climb up South Shore Drive was really rough for me. It’s always a hard climb, but I was running out of steam. From my perspective, it looked like Charles just flew up the hill. We regrouped at a church to refill our water bottles. At this point I let him know that I was going to be really slow the rest of the way, and suggested he go on ahead. He did. It was fun to watch him take off into the distance as I struggled to get my legs going again.

But from here it was only a few miles back to town. I made it and took a meandering route home, as I intended to keep riding until I could get 100 miles on the odometer. I neared home and still had two miles to go, so I rode around the neighborhood until I hit 100 miles. It was very rewarding to a three-digit readout on my trip odometer again!

I did a few things wrong on this ride. First of all, I should have paced myself better. I was trying to keep up with the club, so this was a problem. I’ve been doing club rides for training, and to experience a different side of cycling, and I wanted to stick to both of those goals. However, ultimately, I pushed too hard. I finished the ride, but I was really having a hard time toward the end.

Second, I had trouble eating. This is normally not a problem for me, but I was experimenting with more Clif bars and such; I usually use them somewhat but aside from lunch that was all I ate. At times I just couldn’t choke them down. That said, some flavors are better than others. Also, the lack of stops meant trying to eat on the bike, which I’m not very comfortable doing.

The flip side is that on a few recent rides, I’ve had success with “Endurolytes” electrolyte capsules. I take about two capsules every hour and they really do seem to help with electrolyte replacement. This also frees me up to experiment more with food and beverages, since I don’t have to depend on a drink for electrolytes. In practice, I still usually use one bottle with water and the other with some kind of sports drink.

Ultimately, this was a good ride, but overall it was more of a workout than it was fun. I didn’t get to enjoy the scenery as much as I would have liked, or take photos, or explore. I just rode, intensely. This is not what I’m usually looking to get out of my rides, but in preparation for RAIN, I think it’s a good thing. Also, I did manage to get to know some other riders, which I enjoyed.

It’s hard to believe RAIN is this weekend. I feel pretty good about it, though, because I know that Bill and I will pace ourselves better than I did on this ride, and I think I have nutrition/dealing with the heat figured out well enough.

I’ve been enjoying the red lenses in my new sunglasses. I tried to replicate the effect in my photos. It’s not perfect, but it gives you some idea of the experience.

I turned onto Duvall Road; it was my first time riding on this road. It parallels Koontz for a while, where I rode recently. This road had some nice rolling hills and views of some fields.

Then the road turned and met up with Koontz, where I had a tough climb. I just took my time and didn’t push it too much.

I made my way over to Evans Road, which had more rolling hills, but mostly it was downhill and had some wonderful views from the top of a ridge.

I went up to the small town of Stanford in search of water, and found some at the fire station.

Then I went back to explore the rest of Burch Road. It had a few significant ups and downs.

I saw a nice gravel road or driveway, not sure which, but I did not stop to explore.

I reached the top of a ridge …

… but almost immedately, I plunged down a steep hill, into a cool, shaded valley.

I was hoping I would stay on flat ground a little bit, but the road climbed back up again very soon.

I reached a ridgetop, with more fields. It was flat-ish and lovely … though hot, with very little shade.

At the bottom of a hill, I found a disgusting pond covered in a thick layer of green.

And, of course, then had to climb back up.

I stopped again on the next ridge when I found a small but steep gravel road going off to the side. There was a gate, and it was open and didn’t have any “No Trespassing” signs or anything. I didn’t take the time to explore this time, but I wonder where that goes, and who owns it. It looked too steep to ride, possibly, anyway.

Soon the road became Mount Zion Road and I came upon one of the best views of the entire ride as the road turned and the view opened up to a valley in front of me, hills in the distance, and fields in between. I was enjoying myself immensely. My recent fast group rides have been great for training purposes, but this is why I ride.

After a lovely trip down that hill, I explored some more new roads, taking Lee Philips Road to Snow Road. I should mention that throughout this entire ride, the pavement was abysmal. Tons of potholes, rough patch jobs, sand, gravel, and other debris on the roads. My road bike did fine with all of it. It would have been smoother on the Trucker, I’m sure, but the hills would have been even more punishing.

Soon, Snow Road became Popcorn Road and now I was in somewhat familiar territory.

I didn’t take many photos during the next leg of my ride because I’ve photographed it before, and it was getting very hot and I wanted to get home before the hottest part of the day. I stopped in Harrodsburg for food and water, then backtracked to Ketcham Road, where I have ridden before a little bit, but wanted to see more.

Ketcham continued the pattern of endless ups and downs, with a few more nice views, to boot.

In this next shot, you can see the Victor-Oolitic quarry. I have stood/ridden right across the top of it, on previous rides. In fact, I had been there on Saturday. It was interesting to see it from another angle.

Soon I reached Fluck Mill Road.

I found my way home. Along the way, I saw a beaver standing near Clear Creek. I don’t see beavers around here very often, so that was a great way to end the ride.

This was a fantastic ride. Thanks to the heat and all the climbing, it wasn’t quite the low-key ride I had thought about beforehand, but I enjoyed riding at a slower pace and making good use of my camera.

It was a hot day, somewhere around 90 degrees, and comparing being in the woods versus on the road on a hot day is interesting. Each has its advantages. In the woods, it’s shady and cool, but it’s also more humid and lacks the airflow of a faster ride on a road bike. Either way, you’re going to be hot.

Dave and I rode nearly all of the trails in the park, at a faster pace than usual. I felt strong despite riding 80 miles on the road the day before.

This was my first time this year to ride the Hesitation Point trail, which I sometimes shirk because I think it’s intimidating. It is hard, with a climb of over 2 miles, and a lot of technical features, but my fear is really residual from my first couple of years riding, when the trail was just barely doable for me, and not a lot of fun. Now it’s overall very doable, but I forget that sometimes. And the better I get at riding, the more enjoyable the trail becomes. I loved it.

I also did better on the Walnut trail than I expected, especially on the way back, when I pushed it more uphill than usual. It felt great.

The trip down Hesitation Point on the way back was a blast. I made it over a couple of rock gardens that I wasn’t sure I’d clear, and there was a family trying to make their way down the trail. They were stopped right by a dropoff, pushing their bikes. They moved aside so we could get through but that dropoff spooks me sometimes. I tackled it with confidence and did just fine. I was worried I’d wipe out right in front of a couple of kids. That would’ve just been fantastic.

It felt great to hit the trails again, even if it was hot. We rode a bit over 16 miles, and they were hard-earned miles. Actually Dave rode more, as he got there earlier than I did. We took some trails the short way so didn’t actually cover every bit of trail in the park.

I didn’t take much time to take photos, except a shot of the view at Hesitation Point, and a frog we saw sitting on a log in the pond on the Aynes loop.

I’m still loving the 29er. It rolls better overall, and I feel faster on it in general. However, this time we rode some tighter, twistier bits of trail. While I still did fine, I could feel that the bike was a little less nimble than my old mountain bike. It took a little more effort to bob and weave through the trees.

As for me, I am in better shape than I’ve been in a couple of years, so I feel strong on the bike. But because I haven’t done much mountain biking this year, my bike handling skills were a little rough at times.

About 30 people showed up; nearly half of them did the 80-mile route. The other half or so did the shorter 50-mile route. A few riders added an extension down to Williams, IN for a century and then some. I rode the 80-mile route.

After my last ride with some folks from the club, when I had trouble keeping up and ultimately dropped out, I was a little nervous. I thought I’d end up riding with a slower group of riders this time, but I didn’t. I rode with some of the same people, and several others, and the average pace was a little slower this time, but we still maintained a 16.2-mph average over the 80 miles. Even though the pace wasn’t much slower, I fared a lot better this time.

The first major climb was up Victor Pike. I could tell my fitness has been improving. I felt good about my performance on this climb. I wasn’t fast but I still felt good when I reached the top of the hill.

For a while, I did OK, but was near the back of the pack. We quickly reached some roads that were unfamiliar to me, and some very enjoyable downhills, as well as some climbs.

One rider had an odd crank. It was really messing with my head. I talked to him later and he told me it’s called a PowerCrank. The crank arms move independently, so sometimes when coasting, he would put both feet down, or rest one foot while turning the other. I think the idea is that it forces you to turn the cranks evenly to get smooth pedaling. In this photo, you can see that the rider in front of me is coasting, with both pedals down.

For a while, I had trouble keeping up. I fell behind the group a little bit, and it’s very hard to catch back up. Plus, the scenery was just stunning — ridgetop riding with great views, for a while.

Eventually, I caught up on a downhill and managed to stick with the group this time. For a while, we rode in a double paceline. Unfortunately, riding in a double paceline requires full concentration, so I could not take photos during this time. But, I found that at least I was able to keep up with the group. We saw a few deer along the way, and had some close calls with dogs. One dog almost got hit by a car when he tried to chase us. Another dog ran right out in front of one of the riders, but he managed to swerve and avoid hitting the dog.

Eventually, we reached Bloomfield and made our way over to the covered bridge. Built in 1883, it’s still in good shape today.

We headed back to Bloomfield IGA for lunch. I think the locals were a little confused with a big group of cyclists showing up at once.

After lunch, I felt surprisingly good. I don’t know if the group backed off the pace a little or if I was just riding stronger, but I wasn’t having so much trouble keeping up anymore. A couple of flat sections did give me a chance to catch my breath. By this time it was getting hot, but the heat was not as oppressive as some other recent rides. Overall, I felt pretty good.

The return trip wasn’t as memorable as the first half, but that may be because I was more intensely focused on the group ride dynamic. There weren’t as many hills on the way back, but the hills we did hit were bigger. The Harrodsburg Road climb was particularly painful.

I wasn’t really engaged in conversation much of the time; the riding was intense. But I did meet another all-weather commuter. And, another rider had gastric bypass surgery and has lost 180 pounds in the last year. I think this was his longest ride ever. Amazing!

I’m still adjusting to the group dynamic. I’d definitely like to ride this route again sometime, so I can take photos and enjoy the scenery more. The group rides are great for training and generally improving my riding, but photo/exploration opportunities are much more limited.

Tuesday night, I did a hard training ride. It wasn’t a particularly difficult route, but I rode harder than usual. It felt good, I really pushed it more than usual, but I wouldn’t want to ride that way all the time.

I got contact lenses. They are so much better for riding. I have peripheral vision again! And, now I can wear any sunglasses I want. I picked up a pair with interchangeable lenses. I’m amazed at how much better they are than my old glasses + clip-on sunglasses. It used to be any time I hit 30 mph, my eyes would well up with tears and it’d be hard to see. I’ve passed 47 mph on downhills a couple of times in my sunglasses, with no tears in my eyes whatsoever.

I’ve also found that I really like the red lenses. They’re dark enough to help in bright light, but I can still see in the shadows. And, they just make things look nice.

The weather has been gorgeous the past couple of days. Naturally, it’s supposed to heat up again for the holiday weekend. I’m planning on doing a club ride for sure, and some other riding, but I’m not sure yet what else I will do. We’ll also have houseguests, which will be a lot of fun.

Not much commentary other than that. Let’s try the photos in a slideshow. Let me know if you like this better or worse than putting all the photos in the post. Note: if you are viewing this in a feed reader, you might have to click over to my site to see the slideshow.

I rode part of the route that I rode as the last ride before my foot surgery, but I also tacked on some new roads. I enjoyed Bolin and Rockport roads again, and rode by the Independent Limestone Company.

Then I turned onto May Road. This was new to me, and offered relentless rolling hills, which generally trended upward. Looking at the elevation profile, I can see that no one hill was very large, but there were quite a few of them all in a row, getting bigger as I went along. And, as I mentioned, it was very hot. This was tough riding.

Even though I was only a few miles from town, the area felt very wild and remote. I worked my way over to Kirksville Road, which was flat for a while before climbing up to the tiny town of Stanford, IN.

As soon as I reached Stanford, I looped back toward town, a brief stint including a big climb on Burch Road.

From the top of the climb, I got some great views which only improved as I rolled along further.

I soon turned onto Evans Road. I was tempted to continue on Burch to see where it went, but I will have to return to explore that another time.

Evans was another tough roads with some sharp ups and downs, although a flat section did allow a little respite.

I made my way over to Koontz Road. Koontz was another gem, with a long line of rolling hills, but this time the overall elevation trend was in my favor, and I enjoyed an awesome roller coaster ride for a couple of miles.

I went down a long hill on Rockport and made my way back via Tramway Road, another road I had ridden before which is absolutely fantastic. It climbs a little but offers some very nice views. The moon is visible in some of these shots, if you look closely.

I wanted to photograph some great hay bales, but a dog gave chase and I was forced to press on. From this point I was almost back to town. I’m amazed at how close to town some of these beautiful and rugged areas are. I love riding in this area and can’t wait to explore it more.