Water Training

Clark called for a team training session for July 5th.  16 miles of road riding, followed by 8 miles of single track, followed by a run, then 16 miles of road riding back to the start.  Of course, he called the training session in June, when the weather was an unknown.  He also modified our route, since he knew that the river bottoms were nothing but sand.  So, off we went at 10 AM this morning.  Cloudy muggy weather.  As we crossed the Minnesota River, we looked back at the river bottoms and commented that they might even be flooded.  Looking ahead, we saw an elderly gentleman enter a puddle across the paved trail.  The puddle seemed to go for quite a distance....  We ended up going through close to half a mile of water, some of it over the wheels, but with a gentle flow, some of it less deep, but moving quickly.  All rideable and fun.  There was a section that was over knee deep and too swift to ride, so we shouldered the bikes and waded through, holding each other for stability.  On the far side we resumed a steady pace and finished our "road" ride to Murphy Hanrahan.  Some fun single track and a sticky humid run later, we set out on our ride home to a nice clap of thunder.  Three miles in and a steady rain was falling.  Thirty seconds later and the sky was falling.  We were all trying to negotiate traffic, spraying water, road grit, puddles, lakes, etc., but all we were thinking of was how to get back to the river bridge.  Alternate routes???   15-20 extra miles.....  I think I hit a new high on my heart rate monitor on the first section.  It had the fastest flowing water.  The next section was the deepest, and still moved at a swift pace.  After those sections of fun, the third was a cake walk, gentle water just below the top of the wheel.  All are safe and sound and water logged back at Casa Flowers.