From Neil T….

“Finished another flint hills metric. Got out early in the morning for this ride. Left at about 8 AM. It was 38 degrees so I dressed accordingly. I rode out towards Cottonwood Falls and picked up the final 50 DK route from last year at V road. It wasn’t to bad of a day. The winds were about 10 MPH out of the WNW. So I had a little wind pushing against me but nothing killing me.

By the time I finished the rolling hills on V road the sun was up and it was starting to warm, but I didn’t want to stop. I felt good, legs were great and I was rolling along at a decent pace. As soon as I turned onto DD road NW of lake Kahola the wind was no longer hitting me in the face and I realized just how hot it was outside. It eventually warmed up into the mid 70’s. I stopped at that point and stripped off my outer layer of clothes, took a few quick pictures, put on some sun screen, (this pasty boy burns quick) and jumped back on the bike.

I changed the DK route a bit at road 310 & B. I went south at B and took some flat roads over to road D west of Americus. That was probably the best thing I had done all day. If I hadn’t I would have had 7 miles on road D. As it was I only ended up with about 2.5. This was a good thing because road D just had fresh gravel put down.

At this point I had about 55 miles in on this ride and my butt was getting a little sore. Each piece of gravel was a reminder and I was not having fun. I tried to ride on the far edge of the road but we had some rain this past week and where the big farm machinery had driven through the tire tracks were there and it was bumpy and not a bit more comfortable on my butt. I kept riding and pushed to about 60 miles.

At that point I took a break, my legs needed it. So I pulled off the road for a few minutes took about 10 minutes, then got back on and headed home.

It was a great training ride to be out there uncomfortable for a long time and keep riding. I had a blast. I can’t wait to get my next metric in here soon. Also hoping to get out to Hermann on April 10 for a 100 mile ride.
68.1 miles/ 2598 elevation gain/ time 5:05.”

Sounds like a good mental training day, Neil. We’ll see you in Hermann.