Is this thing on?

Apologies on the radio silence folks - life has been busy here in Rishy-land.  While I've certainly been out and about, I've also had a bit of chaos on the personal life front.   Things are finally starting to settle back into something of a rhythm, so I figured I'd try and put out an update.   Unfortunately, I'm not really going to be able to do justice to the month of September in anything resembling a reasonable post, so I'm going to have to be somewhat scant on the details.  

After Jesse, I embarked on the annual OBC fall trip.  I don't actually know that it is an annual or a fall trip, but it has been so for the two years I've been riding with them, so that's what I'm going with.   Anyhow, the trip took us up north on a four day tour of beautiful northern Minnesota.   Starting with a day of mountain biking and hiking at Giant's Ridge in Biwabik, we then biked to Silver Bay, Duluth and back to Biwabik.   The weather was ridiculously kind, with a tail wind every day and only a bit of rain on the Silver Bay to Duluth leg.   Most importantly (to me), is that I finally got to experience what it would be like to be a fast rider.   I'm just going to post the Garmin data for the Biwabik to Silver Bay leg, and let you take a look.    Specifically, take a look at mile 55 on.  Oh, yeah, baby.   Downhill, tail wind and beautiful roads.   If it was possible to fall in love with a road, I would have gotten down on one knee and proposed.   

Immediately after returning from that trip, I started plotting my next.   In this case, it involved heading to Wisconsin to ride Autumn Trek - a lovely, hilly trip skirting both the Mississippi and St. Croix river valleys.   I went with my fast friends on this one, and was pretty much expecting to get dropped at mile 3 and never see them again.   Pleasantly, they decided to take it easy so I was able to catch up with them a couple of times and ride with some company here and there.   I blew up pretty bad on the last twenty or so miles, though, so they still finished way ahead of me.  Oh, well, something to aim for next year.  

Last weekend was a rare free weekend, with no rides or tris on the schedule.   Taking advantage of the opportunity, a friend and I headed down to Decorah and bounced around on the mountain bike trails there.  I admit, I was a little concerned I may have oversold the place, as my danger threshold is considerably lower than that of my companions, but he seemed pleased with experience.   It did not hurt that Sunday was a picture perfect fall day, replete warm temps, full sun and the slightly manic need to seize the last few drops of summer.    

Old pic, but this is the start of the River Trail in Decorah.  It gets scarier.

Now, I'm transitioning into my off-season routine.  I've started a three month strength training class through community education that, while not exactly what I was hoping for, is at least getting me out and doing something other than cardio.   My knee is still giving me issues, but I'm hoping to start running next week so that I can at least do some 5Ks yet this fall.   The ultimate goal for next spring is to start off with some Olympic distance tris, so I need to get the running in.   Naturally, I also need to get in the pool.   I've committed to showing up to a weekly coaching session in October, and I'm hoping to parlay that into swimming at least twice a week.   And on top of all that, I need to work on my core strength and stability to hopefully keep my back issues in check next year.   Whew!