Blessing of the Burro Ride

In addition to it being Mother's Day on Sunday, this weekend also included the annual Blessing of the Burro bike ride on Saturday.  I am part of a triathlon group known as the Donkeys who are a fun group of pals who love triathlon, training and socializing.  There is a long history behind the group and I definitely do not know it all, however I do know that I enjoy being part of everything.  Anyway, Saturday's ride was the official kickoff for the 2012 biking & training season.  Even though most of us train year round (to some degree), this ride is always something to look forward to mainly because Wisconsin winters are long and brutal and April/May finally brings somewhat decent weather that will allow us to get back on our bikes and do outdoor riding instead of the long, boring hours on the bike trainer in front of the TV.
The Burro ride is usually in the neighborhood of 20 miles and the goal is to see the Donkey's (yes, real donkeys).  For training purposes today I needed to ride 45 miles, so I needed to be creative and find a way to tack on 25 additional miles.  It turns out the starting location for the Burro ride is about 13 miles from my home in Menomonee Falls.  If you do the math we have 13+20+13 = 46 miles....perfect! 

Out to the New Berlin starting point

The Donkey Ride

So the stage was set to ride from Menomonee Falls to New Berlin & link up with everyone for the 20 mile Burro ride and then ride back home after the 20 miles.  As an added bonus I was able to link up and ride into New Berlin with a newly discovered friend who is also training for Ironman this year.  He lives just a mile down the street from me and is a rather good cyclist.

He met me just outside my house at 7:15 and we took off promptly.  We start chatting along the way and we get maybe 1/4 mile and my rear tire blows out.  Great way to start a long day on the road.  Ironically the day before the ride I only had 1 spare tube and 1 co2 cartridge packed in my saddle bag.  I haven't had a flat tire in almost two years, but I figured I better throw in an extra tube and a second co2 cartridge for this ride just in case.  Because we built extra time into our ride, I had plenty of time to change my flat on the side of Pilgrim road.  This is always good practice for triathlon and especially a long distance event like Ironman.  I was actually impressed with my ability to make the repair and be back up riding in what seemed like under 5 minutes.  John and I chatted while I changed the tire and perhaps that made it seem faster than it really was.  Either way, it was smooth, easy and required virtually no thinking on my part which is a good sign.

A couple of real beauties.

We made it through the hills of Pilgrim and Sunnyslope roads on fresh legs averaging 19mph for the those 13 miles.  We got to New Berlin a bit early and waited for the the rest of the group to arrive.  Eventually about a dozen people showed and we headed out on the 20 mile jaunt.  At the 10 mile mark we reach our main destination - The Donkey Corral featuring the mascots of our group....Pedro & Taco (as named by a son of one of the Donkey Masters in our group).  We fed them some shot blocks, pet them, and take strength from them for the 2012 season.

The 20 mile ride was enjoyable and the time past quickly. We averaged a casual pace in the neighborhood of 16 mph.  Before we knew it we were back to our starting point and the conclusion of phase 2.  John and I said our farewells to the group and took off home to finish the last 13 miles of the trip.  Unfortunately some wind picked up later in the morning and the trip home was into a nice little headwind making things much more work than the ride out (which had no wind).  We still averaged about 17.5mph on the way home, but my legs were starting to feel it especially on a couple of those bigger climbs.

The day was a success and although the weather was cooler than desired, it was a fun time with the Donkeys.  Let the 2012 outdoor riding season begin!

Me drawing strength from the Donkeys