Yesterday was our second training ride, and what a beautiful day it was for a ride. The temperature was in the low 50's, a little wind, and sun everywhere. It was also ideal for a marathon, which we crossed paths with a couple of times before leaving town. Following our cue sheets for the day, we were soon out of town on our way out to Rantoul. After battling against the wind for an hour we had reached Rantoul, and waited for everybody to regroup before doing a bit of urban riding. Rantoul happens to be one of the few places in this county that I hadn't biked to yet, so it was a bit of a new experience seeing what was around. Overall, it seemed like a pretty decent place, though we did run into our first real problem with our cue sheets trying to get out of Rantoul. Who would have thought that a road labeled "NO Rd" wouldn't have existed?It ook us a little bit of wandering through an industrial park, but we eventually found ourselves a mile south of where we intended to be. Thanks to the mile road grid system setup in many farming counties, we were soon able to get back on cues. From there is was a little more work as we worked ourselves further east, but as soon as we turned south, it was clear sailing all the way down to St Joseph. Unlike last week, where I tried to keep up with the fast group, I decided to hang back. There didn't seem to be much point in over exerting myself, particularly after last weekend's very long ride. Though despitetrying to take it easy, I still ended up in the second group of riders. Once we departed our first rest stop, I took the lead on our route through Rantoul. As the group started to separate as we headed out from town, I once again found myself in the lead group, however the group had a different composition and wasn't trying to make it a race to the next stopping point. No doubt we were going fast, but we weren't pushing ourselves in the process and could have kept up the pace as long as the wind was blowing in our favor. Eventually some others caught up to us while we stopped for a quick stretch and we followed them into St Joseph where we tried to regroup once again. While most of the riders eventually found their way to St Joseph, a few of us wanted to take off and get bak to town, so I don't know exactly how far behind the last few people ended up.After getting back into town, and knowing that my day was approaching a metric century (100km or 62.13) miles, I decided to ride around town a little bit longer as I took care of a couple errands and met up with those who were getting back into town. Having met and exceeded that goal, I then treated myself to some frozen custard for dessert and spent the evening relaxing.<a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/il/champaign/127123948498030666">I4k 4/11 Training Route</a>