Two Wheel Blogs

Route: To SIU-E, then back again
Miles: Not nearly enough of them.
Pace: None to speak of.
Tunes: Joe Strummer, STREETCORE and EARTHQUAKE WEATHER

I started out with good intentions. Really, I did.

My son was home from college this weekend. Whenever he's home, he wants to eat the Sunday buffet at Mr. Curry's. (Apparently, they do not yet have an Indian restaurant in Cape Girardeau.) And today was no exception. As attractive as that sounds, I had to decline. It ran counter to what I needed to do. Having registered for the Track 'n Treads biathalong last night, I needed to go out and benchmark the event. My plan was to run the 5K course, then do two laps around the single-track trails. If I could follow the map correctly, that should add up to the 11-mile route. So off to SIU-E.

As I climbed the Delyte Morris bike trail towards the cross country course, I noticed that the trail was starting to get a little soupy. This was my first warning that it would not be a good day to ride. Once on the course, I changed into my running shoes, hit "Start" on my watch, and took off. I'd not run the course since last October, when I ran the Tiger Finale. Today, the course was still damp and sloppy -- especially on the hills. I have trouble climbing hills when they're dry. When they're muddy ... forget about it. But I ran the course the best I could.

• Mile 1: 8:15 -- A good start.
• Mile 2: 8:26 -- Not bad. Mile 2 has a nasty hill in the middle of it.
• Mile 3: 9:52 -- I was out of gas. Also, in my defense, technically this was my split for 1.1 miles.

My time was 26:33. Not great, but not bad, considering I've only been running with any consistency for the past two weeks. (And I had just done a 6-miler the day before.) Still, with race day now less than a month away, it was time to see what I could on the course. Now I know, and I can build from there.

In biathalons, I know you're supposed to spend as little time as possible in transition. Basically, it's running shoes off, helmet and gloves on, and start pedaling. And come race day, I will try to do just that. But since today was just for run, I took my time. I even changed my shirt. Once suited up, I set off for the single-track trails. As soon as I entered, I noticed that the trail were ... well, to call them "muddy" would be an understatement. They more closely resembled pudding. I tried to ride it as long as I could, but it was pointless. The course -- at least for me on my bike -- was unridable. I decided I'd go home and change bikes, either coming back with my son's mountain bike or cutting my losses and going out on my rode bike.

So I rode home and washed off my cyclocross bike. As i weighed my options, I stated watching the US-Canada hockey game. And I got hooked. As nice a day as it was and as much as I wanted to get back out and hit the road, I decided I'd rather watch the hockey game. I probably won't watch another hockey game for four years, but I wanted to see this one. So I watched the game. And I'm glad I did.

The afternoon began with good intentions. And I did benchmark my 5K time. Now, I'll go back out on the mountain bike to see how long it takes me to ride two laps on the trails. I just hope we have a lot of warm, dry days between now and March 27th. If the race had been today, with those conditions, I would have been a DNF.