day 4: Algona to Clear Lake

Hello, RAGBLOG followers! I'm sitting by the wireless truck here in Clear Lake. The theme for today is "Surf's up!" and it has already surpassed my expectations.

Clear Lake is a nice little town. I get the impression that it is the town people go to when they want to go to the beach, or have a semi-swanky getaway. There's a nice park, a clean beach, lots of boats. I'm writing earlier than usual today, so there's not tons to report about activities, but there should be tomorrow. I've already jumped in the lake once, and I suspect I'll be back in an hour or so.

Today is HOT. I was on the road around 6:15 to try and avoid most of the heat. The last 10 miles (of 60) were really warm. I could feel the sunburn coming on. I now have a whole series of really attractive tan lines. Note to self:either buy shorter bike shorts, or longer other shorts.

The towns today lacked any real excitement. The first town promised us the General Lee and Dukes of Hazzard lookalikes, but they were nowhere to be found. The next town tried, but selected a very odd "Hobo" theme. Let's celebrate homelessness, everyone! The next town (Garner) theme could be summed up as "Garner: We're not quite ready yet...we're still setting up...." Although Garner did have this very strange taxidermy display on the way out of town. Everything was nicely done-it was just a very weird choice.

Today's ride was pretty good. I hammered out a lot of miles at a fairly high intensity yesterday, so I took the first 14 miles pretty easy. The next 15 I went after with a high level of intensity, then alternated between high and low intensity thoughout the rest of the line. I pulled another paceline for awhile-it was fun, but the ehadwind was pretty brutal, so that did me in. I took almost every possible opportunity to stop during the last 15 miles-ice cream, water, pickle on a stick, if there was some kind of stand, I was getting off my bike to check it out.

I'm slowly getting pictures uploaded to Facebook. I did forget my camera, so there may not be a lot from Clear Lake. I'm off to go wrangle some sort of lunch and then chill out for awhile. Do let me know if there's anything you'd like to know about the ride at all-I'm happy to talk about it!