Falling back creates confusion

Yesterday I headed out the door at 10:30am with the temperature about 36. Today I hung around waiting to see if TOPWLH was going to be able to ride. Finally about 10:30 we determined that she didn't have the proper attire for the conditions. I determined to set out on my own. TOPWLH commented that I was leaving at about the same time as yesterday's departure. I agreed and added that conditions were better, that it was about 8 degrees warmer.

Doh!!! Classic DST confusion. It was, of course, an hour later at 10:30 today and therefore no surprise that the day had warmed to about the same temperature that it was yesterday at 11:30.

I headed off to the north, towards the 8 lakes. But I rode to some places that I don't usually ride instead. I crossed Highway 96 and continued on up towards the Rice Creek preserve for a turn around. It ended up being pretty nice and I got in a longish ride for this time of year.It really doesn't look much like a creek. There is water in there, and it is flowing, but mostly it looks like a swamp. The creek flows into the north end of Sucker Lake and then on into the north end of Vadnais.

I bypassed Sucker and Vadnais on the way home and instead rode through Grass Lake. This involves about a mile on a limestone path, something I don't ordinarily do on my road bike. But the ground was good and hard, there weren't any wet leaves or patches of gravel. The ride itself was not a problem. Grass Lake itself was an intense blue in the parts of the lake with open water. Light conditions were not conducive to trying to get a photograph.

As I stated a couple of days ago, surpassing last year's mileage total was a fairly simple task and I completed it today. This leaves only a couple of things that I have thought about that I still might try to accomplish this year.

I set out trying to complete a ride on 160 days. With today's ride I am at 158 so that looks pretty doable. I have done 180 some years in the past but I will be completely satisfied this year with 160.

With yesterday's ride I surpassed 11 miles ridden for each and every day of the calendar year. I have occasionally considered if 12 would be possible. I suppose it still might be but I doubt it, that accomplishment would require another 300 miles. I suppose it might still be possible but I doubt it.

I caught a tailwind downhill at Snail Lake again today and registered 32.1 on the maximum speedometer. This is a tiny bit below the recent 33 but still pretty fast. It was a nice day for a ride and I am glad I was able to do so.