Here we go again

It's another year, and, as it turns out, another RAGBRAI. I really hadn't planned to do it again, but it turned out to be a route that was close to a tour of everywhere in Iowa that I know someone. So, you know, I had to ride this year. So, here I am on the way. This year has been a bit more rough than some times last year. I've had more of a struggle doing my training, either for the marathon or RAGBRAI. Last year, I set a goal of 1000 miles on the bike before RAGBRAI, and I came very close to that. This year, I was willing to go a little less in combination with the marathon training- but I went way less. I'm not sure I quite made it 400 miles. And, as I've previously mentioned, I haven't done as much marathon training as I had planned. Then, last weekend, the Tour De Burg came up, with the annual 25-50-75 mile bike tour routes. A couple of years ago, while I was still getting in shape, I went to do the 25-mile ride - and had a hard time making it. Last year, I had hoped to do the 75-mile ride but other events had me out of town that weekend. So, I really looked forward to doing the 75-mile ride this year. Took the bike out to IPro to get a few little things taken care of and have it ready for RAGBRAI as well. Got it back on Saturday, then rode down to the ride registration on Sunday. The chain started coming off, and jumping on every rotation. Upon inspection, I discovered that the front chain ring was missing several bolts, and so it hard warped when I pulled hard around a corner. After almost 1.5 hours, I finally moved a bolt from the inner chain ring to the outer, and off we went (without a working inner ring). I held up fine for the first 20 miles or so, until the hills came along. Not having the small ring in the front wore me out quite quickly, and I branched off to make the planned 75-mile ride into a 50-miler. I was worn out.
The next day, I went to play my weekly softball game. It went fairly easy for me, as I was involved in very few plays. I felt fine, but began to notice a little trouble near my right knee after the game. I iced it down, but it continued to get worse through the evening. It kept me up much of the night, and I worried that RAGBRAI was dead this year. However, it rapidly got better the next day. Tonight, Wednesday night, I can barely find where that sore spot is. It should be in good shape by Sunday. I'll force myself to take it easy the first two days of RAGBRAI, which both have most of a mile of vertical climb. Hopefully, that will be enough to keep it from becoming a big problem. We'll see.
I'm hoping to get a real-time map system going, with my phone's GPS posting tracking updates. I've got two possible ways to do it that I've tested- and neither is exactly what I wanted. As always, with another few weeks, I could have finished customizing it to be exactly what I want, but I ran out of time. Maybe I can get a little more done before the ride starts, but I'll mostly be visiting at my sister's.

So- Here's to having a good ride in a few days, staying healthy, and getting in better shape as I ride across Iowa.