Stage 8 - Oconomowoc

Today's requirement was 72 miles.

I headed west and did a loop through the Holy Hill area, continued west into Dodge County and then headed southwest to Oconomowoc. Reversed it on the way home.

The Holy Hill area is the highest point in SE Wisconsin and a good place to go to get some climbing in. While I'm not looking for any extra work I thought it approriate that I do a bit of climbing as the boys at the Tour de France are climbing today.

I was unaware that "healings" and "miracles" are a common occurrence at Holy Hill. But if you click HERE you can learn more. Apparently even lameness can be eradicated. If so, this blog is not long for the world.

Entering Oconomowoc I was in need of fluid replacement. I passed a major intersection but there was no filling station. Five miles of riding around town and I still couldn't find one. Note to you entrepeneurs; build filling stations in Oconomowoc, it's a gold mine.

So I ended up doing one of the biking things that I dislike; going into Piggly Wiggly in my bike gear, hair sticking up all over, shoe cleats clicking like high heels and smelling ripe. Lots of frowns from fellow customers. I think that I may have scared a couple of toddlers too.

The Gatorade and water cost the same at the Pig, $1.19. Which means that Gatorade is cheaper at a filling station that at a grocery store. I'll never get this free enterprise thing figured out.

By the way, I hate Gatorade. It's sickly sweet, sticky and makes me have to pee. I mix it 50/50 with water to make it tolerable. Can anyone out there recommend any sports drink other than Gatorade that I can pick up at stores or filling stations?

I like to ride into the wind on the outbound half and enjoy the tailwind on the way home. While the wind in Wisconsin is essentially a prevailing westerly, Lake Michigan has a mind of it's own and can muck things up. That was the case today, into the wind outbound, into the wind homeward. Argh!

I ended up doing 75 miles which is the longest that I've ever ridden on my own. The last 20 miles was more a psychological battle than a physical one. Even though I felt OK on the bike my mind was thinking about my thighs exploding, my heart exploding and my head exploding.

I averaged 19 mph and my heart rate averaged 132 bpm. I need to slow down if I expect to last for the entire three weeks.

I'm still not sleeping well and my weight is unchanged.

Today's moment of beauty happened on an empty country road. A gold finch was flying next to me and then tucked in under my arm. It must have enjoyed the draft because it flew between my arm and chest for about ten seconds. It was pretty cool having such a pretty bird flying so close by.