Exploring 16.2 Miles of Minnesota on 2 Wheels

I’m a fairly novice bike rider. I mean, I rode a bike when I was little, but I think I stopped doing that sometime in high school. Dad and Sister and I used to go for these marathon bike rides (I think our max was 30 miles. Maybe it was 20. Either way, that used to be no big deal).

Today I rode 16.2 miles and thought I deserved a fucking medal. Oh well, if I don’t, then the Minneapolis Parks and Rec folks DO, for plotting and building and paving so many off-street bike trails throughout these cities. AMAZING!

So, I’ve always wanted to explore some of the Grand Rounds Scenic Byways, and I kind of stumbled into that today.

My original goal was to take Summit to the River Road, take that south to Ford Parkway, cross the Mississippi River there and then come back up the West River Road and cross back onto St. Paul either at Marshall or Franklin. Option 1 would’ve been about 10 miles and is in red below. Option 2 added another 2 1/2 or so miles to that and is in the pretty periwinkle-ish color:

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Well, I got across the Ford Parkway bridge and decided I needed water, so I checked the Grand Rounds board to see where the closest drinking fountain was and go that way. Turns out that led me right into Minnehaha Park, which is a gorgeous two-tiered park carved out by glaciers and the Mississippi River (something like that).

Check out this picture of the falls from one level to the other.

Anyway, the top level (where I was) is kept up as a picnic area that includes a pavillion and a cute little seafood restaurant I’ll have to check out some other time. The lower level is left and maintained in its natural state and meanders along the path the river used to take.

So I walked my bike around the pedestrian parts, reading all about the history of the Falls, learned how the Mississippi River carved out this park to begin with, and even took a couple of pictures!

Figuring I should make my next move, I decided to bike just west over to Lake Nokomis (where our summer season softball fields are), bike around the lake, and then come back and take the Minneapolis side of the River Road back up to Marshall or Lake, as I originally had planned.

I biked on the trail alongside Hiawatha (the same road the LRT runs on), and then found myself forced to cross it if I wanted to continue on to Nokomis. Again, I’m a novice biker, so I got a little nervous about getting off the paved path, so I continued instead through Fort Snelling State Park instead, which was a BEAUTIFUL shady ride, covered by trees and on the bluff of the West side of the river. I could peer through the trees when there was an opening and see the beach below on the East side of the river. Very cool. At this point, I was energetic and even a little giddy as I enjoyed my leisurely exploratory bike ride of the Twin Cities’ great bike trails.

So I continued my way through the park (which took a little while) until I had to make another choice, where I decided to follow the sign back to St. Paul and start heading home. This brought me up to Highway 5, where there was – thankfully – a bike lane with a concrete wall separating me from the traffic. I crossed the river here, and then headed back up the south end of the River Road. I could feel myself getting a little tired, so I decided this was a good time to make it the home stretch.

Well, I thought I was going to die right about the time the River Road hit Summit Ave again, which granted is only a few miles from the finish line, but I still struggled. This is where I started wishing for a water bottle holder on my bike and luckily noticed the SA at Grand and Cleveland where I stopped for some quick shade and a Gatorade. Whew.

That’s what I needed to get the rest of the way home, and here I am! I’d hope to do one of those original ideas tomorrow, but I’m afraid I won’t be able to move my legs.

Here’s where I went:

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Workin’ on my fitness

I noticed that I only have one entry filed under “fitness,” so I thought I would point out that I went for a run today. Well… walk/run/jog. But hey, it’s a start!

Age: 20

My body age is 20 years old.

I took a fitness assessment tonight at the gym and discovered I’m not QUITE as out of shape as I feel… My body age is 20, which is close to optimal. Apparently, my goal is 18, but anything younger than your current age is encouraged. I scored in or around the “average” category for everything (bicep strength, cardio) except flexibility, which I scored slightly higher than average (thank you, yoga!). I also discovered that if I lose the amount of weight that I thought I should lose, then I wouldn’t have enough body fat to cushion my innards. That was a little motivating, setting goals not to reach a certain number, but to be able to achieve certain fitness goals. Some of those include:

- make it completely through a yoga class without having to take a ‘child’s pose’ break.
- figure out what my ‘zone’ is for being able to run for longer periods of time (this means NOT pushing myself to run harder, but learning how to pace myself to run longer)
- try a new class, like cycling to add variety to my workout.
- etc.

It’s pretty coincedental that I’m setting all these goals on New Year’s Day. I hesitate to really call this portion of it “resolutions,” because I never really keep those. Or if I did keep them, I wouldn’t know because I forget anyway.

So maybe writing about this will help keep me accountable. Well, that and my faithful workout buddy. That’s what I’m counting on, anyway.