it is not

Today's Assenmacher 100 turned out to be 98.6 miles. Which I completed in 5 hours and 5 minutes. I hung with the fast bunch for 46 miles until I blew up on a small climb. Rode to the 54 mile stop got a PBJ and a couple cookies. Filled one bottle and hit the trail with the guys. Once again, hit a climb and popped. I did the whole ride with 3 bottles. Only the one stop. I think I should have had breakfast or at least ate something before the ride, but I woke up late. I just don't have the legs I used too. I'm training my ass off and not getting much out of it.

That's... not exactly chopped liver under the circumstances. Kudos.

On today’s group ride, I was a little chatty during the long, hard climb. I typically climb a bit below threshold so I know I won’t blow up. I can actually have a conversation. It drives my friends crazy. I did not get much of a response on today’s climb, likely for similar reasons.

I’m going to sleep like a baby tonight without the constant waking and crying and poopy diapers.

No roads there?

Doesn't look like it.

Maybe you need better conversation starters? Try using the discussion topics I post here.

smh

roads? Where they're going they don't need roads.

They need a road to get there.

They'd drop him like he was hot.

Incorrect

They didn't arrive at where ever they are via helicopter, train, or boat.

Via bicycle.

Slow morning.

I want to ride but it’s still too dark. Daybreak in 30 minutes.

Good, hard effort on the morning circuit. Set power PRs for 3 min, 5 min and 20 min.


...then it was all topped off with my first 0 mph topple. :notamused: It's garbage/recycling day and I found a truck clogging up my alley when I got home. I slid over to one side, on to the grass and garage aprons, waiting for the worker to clear the bins. I unclipped my left foot, extended it down... and then hit a bump in the grass that was just enough to send my weight to the right :o

LOL

Oops.

How did he get there?

Local transportation?

That first picture did not look like it was taken from a horse-drawn carriage.

I've never been on the Oregon Trail . . . or to Oregon.

I once started plotting a bikepacking route that followed the Oregon Trail as closely as possible on dirt roads, starting from Independence, MO. I used Google satellite images and county maps from various state DOTs as well as historical maps I could find as much as possible. I think I managed to plot a decent route all the way into Wyoming before I lost interest and gave up. I probably still have the routes saved on RidewithGPS.

Couple things I remember from the exercise:

(1) Figuring out a route to get out of the Kansas City metro area by bicycle was one of the more challenging parts. KC is not bike friendly AT ALL.

(2) I got the impression that most of the Nebraska portion of the ride would be boring AF. It follows the Platte River for a long ways and river bottoms tend to be uninteresting. There are also large portions of the original route that are major highways now which makes sense because the old trails followed the path of least resistance and trying to find parallel routes on gravel was difficult at times.

(3) Related to the above: I got the impression that several hundred miles of the route would be uninteresting until you get into the mountains. At which point it would become difficult.

(4) Since prevailing winds are against you most of the time, it would be especially challenging in the plains.

(5) This would be a lot more work than is worth it just to post a funny picture on instagram with a "You have died of dysentery" caption.