2007 MS-150 Recap

I was originally planning to make 4 longer posts--one for each day of my trip. I kept putting it off because writing it all up was going to be so much work. As Voltaire said "The perfect is the enemy of the good." So I am posting a short message to clear the deck for my next posts.

Day 1
I weighed my bike before I left. The bike plus all the gear I was taking (tent, sleeping bag, clothes, etc.) was 55 pounds. I was surprised by the number of pre-dawn joggers that I saw on the Katy trail. I got rained on a couple of times during the day. In the afternoon I met a couple of riders from the Monsanto MS-150 team. We ended up riding the last few hours together. The last few miles had the big hills that I remembered from the 2nd day of the MS-150 last year. I was hoping to get done around 5:00 but got to the campsite about 7:30.

Stats: 162.8 miles, 15:30 clock time.

Day 2
This was the first day of the MS-150 which was the same route as the second day last year. This was the hillier of the two routes. While I was riding, I told someone else on the Michelob Ultra team what I was doing. He later announced it in front of the entire team when we did our group picture. This made me feel like I had to finish.
Since there were so many hills, I rode by myself most of the time. I climb hills differently than most of the people that I ride with so it is hard to stay with a group. I like to get a running start at the hill and get to the top before I have a chance to get tired.

Stats: 105.92 miles, 8:07 clock time

Day 3
This was flatter than the previous day. The middle section was especially flat and boring. I fell in with a really good group of guys. I was actually glad to get to some of the hills later in the ride. The group broke up before we got to the end.
After I finished, I packed up my gear and started riding home. I made it to North Jefferson and got a shuttle to a hotel.

Stats (MS-150): 98.82 miles, 7:45 clock time
Stats (trip home): 36.50 miles, 3:07 clock time

Day 4
This day was tough. I knew that I had about 120 miles to go. I was also tired and sore. After averaging less than 10 mph in the morning, I started to think about places that Helen could pick me up. When there were 75 miles left I told myself, "75 miles? You can do that! Even if it takes all night."
It was an effort to keep my speed above 12 mph. Then, when I got to Dutzow, my speed started to increase, I was maintaining around 16 mph for long stretched. The only reason I can think of for this is psychological. I had ridden from Dutzow to home before so I knew I could do it.
I had been told that long distance riding was mostly mental. Now I believed it.
I made it home and accomplished my goal.

Stats: 125.57 miles, 12:10 clock time