First post

I decided to create this blog to keep a record of my training for the 35th RAGBRAI. I also hope to use this during the actual trip to record the hard work, the fun, the soreness and so on.

For those that don't know, RAGBRAI stands for Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa. The ride literally crosses the whole state, from river to river, starting in the west (usually) in towns along the Missouri River and ending in the east at the Mississippi River. Apparently the cool thing to do is to dip your back tire in the Missouri River at the beginning and your front tire in the Mississippi River at the end. Started by the Des Moines Register newspaper in the 1970s, it now has about 10,000 registered riders annually. This year, I'm one of those... wristband number 90306.

I'm not doing it alone, because Lord knows, I certainly would have found a reason to back out by now. I'm going with my former UNCW roommate Jim and at least, his friends Jon and Blake. They are all from Mason City, Iowa, and did the ride in 2000. We decided to do it this summer before we start the real world (although we all pretty much have already started it).

In all, this year's ride route has been labeled the flattest ever (thank you, God). Nonetheless, the days are long and believe it or not, Iowa does have some hilly terrain. For more information about the route including mileage, check out http://www.ragbrai.org/route-chart.html. The shortest day is the last day, from Dyersville to Bellevue, and its 56.6 miles. The longest day is the second day, from Spencer to Humboldt, and its 77.4 miles. The total estimated mileage for the route is 477 miles.

Most of you have seen me and I'm not Captain Fitness. So, I know I have to work hard to get to a point where I can complete the ride comfortably and reach one of my main goals of the ride: not dying.

I was grateful to receive a road bike for Christmas from my Santa-like parents. It's a 2006 Novara Divano... nothing special - Novara is REI's brand. But, it was fairly inexpensive and it has worked well so far. I also received the fancy clip pedals and a trainer. I've added other accessories along the way including the fancy shoes that clip into the pedals and oh yes, the totally sexy bike shorts (you will never see me where them unless you see me on my bike).

This post is now long enough. The next one will be about some of the work I've done so far and some of my plans between now and July 22. Thanks for stopping by and keeping me motivated.