March century and a salsa review

I thought I had screwed the pooch on my March gravel century. Days were passing and I didn't want to wait until too close to Ouachita. Thankfully, the weather and other things worked out and I was able to get out with Steve McGuire for 100 yesterday. The weather was gorgeous as we headed east out of town towards West Branch. About 15 miles in my Garmin died and with it went our directions. Luckily Steve had his on so I was able to officially record the ride. It was kind of nice to not have a set out route. We just rode whichever direction we thought we should go. We rode along the Cedar River, broke away and got into Tipton where we had lunch, 37 miles in. The wind was out of the North and after Tipton we were basically as north as we would get. That meant only tail and small cross winds for the next 63 miles. The roads were super fast, I will be sad when they put down the new gravel and ruin them. We rolled through Sutliff and into Solon for refueling. Then we headed back to West Branch and in. The ride had more climbing than any of our previous centuries, and it took less time, so that is a good sign. I also was very happy with how I felt the whole ride. I was getting down on myself for not feeling very good on the last couple hard rides (Thursday with Aaron and Nate and Sunday with the Doc group), but I think that I am just easing my way into that type of balls to the wall pace from the start. I felt strong yesterday and felt like at anytime I could accelerate the pace or really hammer up a hill. Group ride today will blow me apart and I am ok with that. This is a really focused week preparing for Ouachita's 60 miles of fun. Those are future rides, here are the stats from yesterday: 100.04 miles, 8 hours 17 minutes total time including stops, 5,986 ft of elevation gained, 12.1 mph average, 8,000 ish calories, 2 pop tarts, 4 servings of cliff bloks, 3 beef sticks, 48 oz of Accelerade, 48 oz of water, 2 12 oz red bulls, 1 big chicken sandwich combo at Hardees (includes fries and a Mellow Yellow/Powerade mix), 1 oatmeal cream pie, 1 pineapple flavored Gu. Post ride was not my normal pig out fest because Agent is sick and had to go see the vet. It was just a dozen wings, and some mac and cheese along side a Mtn Dew.

I was looking at my Garmin and found out that I have 742.86 miles and over 65 hours on it since the new year. That is just the rides I have recorded, so if you figure in fun rides and commuting I am guessing that I have gotten in around 1200 + or - 100 miles so far this year. I need to keep putting them on this week and be prepared for Ouachita and then ride the wave into the Bone Bender six hour race. I am going to that on a mission. Last year I was prepped to go down and the whole car destroying me thing kinda got in the way. This year I'll be even more ready. I know that I can maintain a level of intensity for six straight hours, Ouachita will let me know how intense that can be.

*************SALSA TIME *****************
Newman's Own Black Bean and Corn Salsa (medium)

Cale recommended a black bean salsa with corn, but I couldn't find it anywhere so I settled for this. Maybe with the help of my blog I can become Banjo Bill and people will just start sending things to me.

No George this time to judge, but I liked this salsa a lot. The taste of black beans didn't get overwhelmed by onions or tomatoes which happens a lot. Also the sweetness of the corn every now and then helped to balance out the salsa as a whole, and it was nice to have bites that had whole black beans or pieces of corn. It made the salsa seem much more substantial. I ate it with some Hy-vee blue corn chips, which are my favorite style of tortilla chip. Although does not matter for judging, I put some of this salsa on a breakfast burrito and it may have been the best idea ever. Only downer, if it even is, was that the salsa even for a medium didn't have much heat.

Texture: B+
Heat: C+
Taste: A-
Overall grade: B+

No pictures today because my camera sucks and is possibly broken again. I will invest in a nice durable small one that I can take with me on rides and not always worry about whether or not it will work. Just have to get the funds together and quit buying new bike parts.