A Great Day

Aggro Jo suggested some recon was in order for Howell Island. We were both scheduled for long, low-heart rate rides, so I agreed to meet him at 11am yesterday. If you live in the greater St. Louis area (which I'm sure is true, as I'm not suggesting I have readership around the world) you know that yesterday's temps were around 60+ degrees around dawn, but were far from that following lunch.



We hit the island, me in knickers, a long sleeve jersey, wool socks, and my trusty Pearl Izumi Optik jacket (shown here).
Aggro on the other hand opted for shorts, and two short sleeve jerseys. We rolled out and enjoyed the warm winds blowing across our backs for some 30+ minutes. We were so warm that we stopped to alter our clothing, wherein I stuffed my jacket in the back of my jersey pocket. An unwise move, as some 20 minutes later, the clouds rolled in and the winds shifted from the south to the west, northwest and the light rain began to fall. I thought it might be a brief shower and actually commented, "the weather would have to get a whole lot worse to be a funkilla for this ride."


Mother Nature obliged my request and within minutes the rain started at a steady clip and the temps started their retreat toward "the frozen foods section." We kept rolling at our rather pedestrian pace in an attempt to stay in zone 1 and 2 of our heart rate monitors. Overall the island is perfect for a recovery ride. However, yesterday's weather kept trying to force the issue. If you've been on Howell Island, you know there is a large open field section on the western facing side. Yesterday, that field was ground zero and completely exposed us to the elements. As we rolled down the trail leading to the field, the wind was hitting the trees hard enough to snap sections of them off. I recall thinking a tree top could snap off, land on us, and we'd be trapped on Howell Island. Worse yet, we'd be part of a search and rescue, breaking news story!


We kept our commitment to the ride and towards the end came upon three hunters carting their kill out of the woods. We had seen a buck sprint across the trail earlier in the ride directly before seeing them walking and discussed the possibility of their trophy being on in the same. Since we were rooting for the deer, we didn't offer to help pull their cart with our bikes and left the hunters to earn their keep. We rolled off the island after more than 2 hours and quickly got to the cars and shed our gear. Jo's skin looked like it had freezer burn and mine wasn't much better. As we shivered out of our wet clothing and back into our street clothes, I recall thinking we rode, we had fun, and we got our training in. A good day.


I've made a commitment to harden up, this ride was therapy for me. While others were stalking their four-legged prey, I was stalking mine...my own heart and mind.


By the way, get yourself one of those PI jackets.