Saturday, May 28, 2005

Steelhead: A Fish And A Race

I rode the Steelhead 1/2 IM bike course today for the first time. The course is flat-out awesome! I had read somewhere that it was hilly...NOT! Galena is hilly. Devil's Challenge in Devil's Lake, WI is hilly. IMMOO is hilly. Steelhead is flatter than Nebraska. There is, at most, one hill at about the halfway point that presents any difficulty at all and it's easier than Galena's parking lot..

Overall, the course is very smooth, fast and a lot of fun. I was tired and sore when I finished but felt like I could've headed out on the run with, oh, only minor difficulties. Say, how long is that run again? I finished the 56 miles in seconds over 3:00, pretty much the bike time I'm shooting for on race day, so I guess it's within reach assuming I hit the freakin' swim cutoff time.

Both out and back you're on M-63 for a ways which can be busy, but there's usually a 2-3 foot-wide shoulder that lets you ride out of traffic. The local and county roads are very lightly trafficked and no problem at all. Scenery is not bad for rural Michigan, which is to say vineyards, orchards and mobile homes. There's a mini-mart at the 1/3 point in case you forget a Hershey bar or something.

All in all, not bad. Wil, we're gonna get through this!!!!! Course I'm saying that after spending an hour in the jacuzzi.

5 comments:

Nancy Toby said...

You're doing some hardcore training! Woo, good for you! GO GO GO! :)

Tracy said...

Nebraska you say? Oh, the jokes I could make...lol!

This is going to be awesome and I'm SO relieved!! OK, what do we have - 10 weeks? Cool.

:) said...

Nice ride. I am glad it didn't turn out to be bad...Wil would have freaked. Of course, you could be lying, just to make her feel good... ;)

Comm's said...

That just sounds like fun.

The desert for me would be the lightening storms, I love rain and thunder and lightening, something just so primal about wathching it or better yet doing something in it. It may be the only time my wife has ever seen me dance.

soccerdad said...

you just had to throw in that immoo comparison, didn't ya!!