Just Farting Around

Day 3: Due to a little later start than I wanted and just enough of a west wind to make things interesting, I canned my idea of riding west all the way to Wales today in favor of a climbing workout. So it was 30 miles with no shortage of all types of climbs on my Minooka Dog Park route today.

The title of this post goes to something I saw on a cool old truck for sale, just sitting in the leaves waiting to be restored by someone.

And the writing on the door reads...

I love it. "Just Farting Around"
I must admit that going into the wind on the way out today, combined with the climbing on Guthrie, Beeheim and others drained my legs pretty quick today. I ride up to the dog park even though it is a dead-end up there because I want to include that long climb to the park. It hurts as you keep going up and then right at the end it spikes up short and steep, stinging your legs with each stroke. Once up there the view is quite nice, with dogs and owners all having a good time.

Now, coming back you can approach the long, slightly downhill but mostly flat section of the New Berlin trail east from Calhoun to Greenfield Park in one of two ways. If you are tired after a long hard ride then this can be a chance to simply mail it in and enjoy yourself during recovery.


If on the other hand you are doing a shorter route like I was today, well then you grab a big gear and use all that tailwind to your advantage as you crank out some hot pace in there. That's what I did today. These are great little practice sessions that teach your body how to make that kind of higher effort for a stretch. You never know when you might need that in a group ride some day. Just push yourself to ride at a pace that is above your normal tempo. Breathing is tough. Legs start barking. You could sit up and take it easier but you do not. You stay in the drops pumping it out crank by crank all the way.


It feels good when you're done with a little run like that too.


Maybe Thursday I'll get to Wales and back.