20 Hilly Trail Rides: DONE!

As the saying goes, "I can do hard things."

That's not only true with my running, strength-training, and stair-climbing, but with biking as well. Case in point, that hilly bike path that I talk about each week in my WRD posts. 

For the past few summers, this bike path has been a part of my late spring, summer and early fall fitness regimen. This was the third consecutive year of making it a weekly ritual (during the biking season) and I'm ever grateful for how it has morphed into must-do thing.

This all started when my friend, Amy, asked if I wanted to meet after work and ride with her out to the lake (and back). This was late May 2021.Afterwards, we agreed to meet the following week. And the week after that. Before long, we decided to just keep meeting each week, in addition to our occasional weekend long rides.

at the official Mullets Selfie Station, during one of our weekend rides

Thus, we set a goal of doing 20 weekly rides before the season ended. In 2022, we upped the ante and made it to 25 weekly rides. So, it was a given we'd chase a similar goal in 2023.

Our first official trail ride of the season was on May 10th. We should have known that day's 13mph wind (out of the southeast, nonetheless) would be a strong hint as to what we'd be facing each week. 

Each week, we dutifully showed up. A few times, Barb showed up, too. Many times, Mike (Amy's hubby) joined us as well. Most of the time, Krystal was my bike of choice (she's a very lightweight hybrid). Gustavas (my mountain bike), though, got a turn (early June) when Krystal was in the shop for a tune-up.

There was one week early in the season (June 5th) when we got past the first hill and turned around, due to dark rain clouds (and lightning!) moving rapidly towards us. We returned to town, but headed back out the next day to finish what we'd started. Wouldn't you do the same? 

checkout those clouds!

We were committed to getting these rides done each week, no excuses. Even during the week of RAGBRAI, we met on Monday (instead of the usual Wednesday) so we could get the bike path ride in before I left the next day for a couple days of RAGBRAI riding.

yes, this hilly ride (in the heat of July) was a perfect precursor to what was awaiting me

Speaking of RAGBRAI, the route this year was especially hilly, and many of the days were long with high mileage. Myself, I only rode three days (Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday), so I didn't get the bragging rights of doing the entire week. But, the three days that I did ride gave me 174 miles of biking, and 5,089 feet of climbing! I'd say all these weekly rides, on all those hills, served as great training. 

All 20 of these weekly rides were tough, hands-down. While some may have felt "easier" than others, none of them were easy, not even by a long shot. Even though it was the exact same route, each week, I don't think we ever had the same experience twice. The weather was usually a factor (heat, wind, humidity, etc.), often making the hills seem even more ominous and/or oppressive than they already were.

The wind definitely was the wild card. There were very few weeks (like, maybe two or three?) where the wind wasn't a downright evil force to battle. More often than not, the wind seemed to be out of the east or southeast...meaning we had to fight it the entire way back, after the turn-around at the lake. Even when we were "blessed" with a west wind, we seldom ever enjoyed it as a tailwind because we would have to first fight it as a headwind on the way out. Let's just say there wasn't a whole of  downhill coasting to relish, LOL. Even on the rare occasions when we didn't have a headwind, there usually would be a side wind...and those side winds can really challenge your balance in the quest to remain vertical.

It wasn't just the wind that made things challenging. We had some hot days, where the feels-like temps were in the triple digits.. There was one day all three of us got dive-bombed by the same red-winged blackbird. Another day, just recently, the bugs were so thick, it was nearly impossible to breathe properly without risk of ingesting them. There also were days when the path was covered with grass clippings or rocks, creating numerous skidding hazards.

Yet, we kept showing up each week. I guess it was one of those love/hate things. As tough as the hills were each week, cresting the final one brings with it a state of euphoria that is pretty hard to discount or deny. Somehow, that brief moment of bliss makes the entire ride worthwhile. Quite the conquest!

Full disclosure...although we enjoyed the challenge of taking on the hills of this bike path each week, we were in absolute total agreement that 20 rides (and well over 20,000 feet of cumulative elevation climbed) would suffice for 2023. Now, we get to just enjoy biking for biking's sake with no (self-induced) pressure to conquer any unnecessary hills, LOL. 

So, is this something we plan to do again, in 2024? Absolutely! I mean, why not?  It's a tough route (have I mentioned that, yet?), but that's part of its charm and intrigue. Besides, staying in ones comfort zone does one no good.

A couple of related posts:

About Those 25 Weekly Rides 

10 Things About Those 20 Rides

Have you ever taken on a challenge that had you questioning your sanity? How do you feel about biking on hills, for resistance training? Ever utilized cycling for cross-training?

 I'm linking this with Kim and Zenaida for the Tuesday Topics Link-Up

By the way...are you following me on social media? You can find me at these various platforms: 

Let's connect : Facebook Instagram  Pinterest Twitter