A Bit of Morning Gravel

I got out on my gravel bike for a bit of gravel riding this morning. The ride, though short, was lovely. I saw three pheasants, a bunny on the run (I scared it), a dog and heard a bunch of birds singing. The gravel was wet but solid and fairly easy to ride.


I'm doing 30 Days of Biking once again (for the 6th time with a couple of bonus rounds thrown in) so getting on my bike this morning was motivated by knowing that I needed to get my ride in for the day. I usually end up riding later on in the day, sometimes I even ride in after dark, so it felt especially good to check "ride bike" of my list of things to do early in the day.

My rides for 30 Days of Biking thus far have been short ones - I let myself get all soft, squishy and out of shape over the winter and have been dealing with some medical limitations so I'm taking things slow. That said, I'll be stepping things up as the month goes on and really picking up the pace come May. You see, I've signed up for not just one but two gravel rides this year.

I signed up to ride RiotGRRRavel, a women's gravel race that I did last year, again this year because I had such fun doing it in 2014. The ride is on June 20th and in addition to the 30 mile route they offered last year they are offering a hillier 50 mile route. I'm not yet sure which route I'll be riding, probably the 30 mile route.

As for the second gravel ride/race - I am sending in my postcard entry which says that I will ride the Box of Frogs gravel ride on June 7th. This ride is 60 or 100 miles and it's quite silly that I signed up for this but after doing RiotGRRRavel I know I can ride at least 30 gravel miles so I figure I can go farther. I think. I hope.


I signed up for this ride because  I like the concept behind the ride. Instead of everyone starting all at the same time so the slow riders (like me) straggle in well after everyone else, Box of Frogs is having people "hop on when it's right for you" so that everyone finishes more or less at the same time.

The ride finishes at 2:00 p.m. - I'm guessing I'll start around 6 a.m. to finish at that time. Oh well. I may end up straggling in after everyone else anyway but I want to give it a go - so I will.



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