Next week I will be riding on my tenth RAGBRAI, the Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa. I definitely feel more prepared for this year's ride than I did last year, but I still feel woefully unprepared. Because Mel started her job in the Twin Cities at the end of May, I was left in Cedar Rapids watching Emma on my own until we got moved to the Cities in July. This made it very difficult to do much training last year. Prior to RAGBRAI, I managed to only get 22.66 miles of riding in. This year, I have ridden 98.16 miles so far. This seems like an improvement, but this year is supposed to be fairly hilly, and I have done very little training on hills. Hopefully the first couple of days will serve to adequately prepare me for the remainder of the week.
In other ways, I am somewhat more prepared for the week of cycling across Iowa. I set up the tent earlier in the week to make sure that it was still in good condition, and that I had the correct poles. I have laid out clothes for the week, although I can't finish packing it up until I do laundry tomorrow morning. I still need to gather the electronic devices together that I need, such as a phone charger and the charger for the digital camera battery. I also need to gather all of my cycling gear together as well as locate my sleeping bag.
I am wondering about who will be riding with my group this year. By the Register's registration deadline, only eight people were listed with the team. However, an email I got from the person driving our bus indicates that there are sixteen people, with a good possibility of ending up with a total of between twenty-four and twenty-eight. I guess I will find out Saturday morning how crowded the bus will be for the ride from Evansdale, Iowa, to Council Bluffs.
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