Ride to Defeat ALS - Wayland, MA

Let me start this ride report by saying that it was an honor to ride for and help raise money and awareness for ALS. Reminding myself what I was riding for was the only thing that kept me going during this ride. The account of the ride that I am about to write, is in no way a complaint about the ride. Given the exact same circumstances I would happily do the ride again. Next year I will be much better prepared.

SO, the day before this ride I did a 64 mile ride along the New England coast from Newburyport, MA to Kittery Point, ME and back. The temp was a little cooler than I expected, but I figured that was because I was right on the water, and it was windy. This coordinator for the ALS ride sent out an email on Friday that mentioned the forecast was for 73 degrees and sunny. Dress accordingly. I figured with 73 as a high, lower to mid 50’s should be ‘roughly’ the overnight temps, and once the sun came out, and I was on the bike, I’d warm up pretty quickly. A base layer, a short sleeve jersey, shorts and arm warmers should be fine. I expected I would be chilly at the start, but would soon be removing the arm warmers. WOW,  I could not have been more wrong. I did not know the actual temperature at the time, but it was teeth chatteringly cold. At 6:00 a.m. I registered at the tent, got my bike together and sat in the car to stay warm. I looked around and saw that a lot of other riders had softshell jackets and much warmer attire than I did. What did they know that I didn’t? Well, they were all the local riders that had their entire cycling wardrobe at their disposal. I only had what I brought with me (based on a much higher temperature). I should have bought more.

As I approached the starting line with the others, I kept repeating in my mind… “Rule #5… Rule #5… Rule #5…” trying to summons my inner Jens Voigt.  (For those unfamiliar with the reference Rue #5 please see http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/)  It was not working, I was cold. 7:00 came and we were off. We took a right turn out of the parking lot onto a nice downhill. GREAT, now I can add wind chill to my already cold body. I have never prayed for an uphill so much in my life.

The course made a sharp right turn at the bottom of the hill, and there was a volunteer that was supposed to be making us aware of the right hand turn. However, she was too frozen to do that, as she tried to get every last ounce of heat from the coffee cup she was hugging. So the first 8 people missed the turn, I was number 9, so I followed them.  I looked in my rear view mirror and saw no one behind me. 5 seconds ago there were 80 people there… now no one. I stopped, looked at the cue sheet and sure enough, we missed the turn. The other 8 people didn’t realize it, so they kept going. I turned around and got back onto the course. So the group that was behind me was now in front of me, and the other 8 people that missed the turn are now going to be behind me. I am riding alone, which for me, is actually my preference.

My plan to have the sun come out and warm things up was thwarted by the heavy tree cover on the route. My ride on Saturday was wide open, right along the ocean, plenty of radiant heat from the sun. This ride was on the back roads of rural Massachusetts. There was a FULL canopy of old pines, oaks and even a few chestnut trees (I know, because I tried to avoid the prickly pods that the chestnuts come in). So the best I could hope for was filtered sunlight. At all of the rest stops, the groups of people did not huddle around the food (peanut butter and jelly, banana’s, pretzels, goo gels and ICE water and COLD Gatorade) they huddled in the spots of sunshine.

The scenery on the ride was very nice and the back roads had very few cars on them. The course was hillier than I anticipated. The beauty of riding alone on a hillier course is that there is nobody’s pace but my own that I had to worry about. Because of this, I did not mind the hills at all. My knees over the past few days were not so excited about them, but they are better now.

All in all, it was a great ride. I did check weather underground and found that the temp at the start of the ride  was 33.6 degrees. In shorts, a short sleeve jersey,  arm warmers and a wind breaker that was pretty cold, but like I mentioned at the start of this report, given the exact same circumstances I would do the ride again in a heartbeat.

I would consider the miles I rode on this ride to be the most rewarding that I have ridden. For those of you who ride, or run, or swim, or just walk, I would encourage you, and dare I say “challenge” you to find a charity that you are passionate about, or that has affected you, or a family member, or a friend and do something to help them. I am able to ride a bike, and the fact that I was able to help raise money and awareness for ALS by riding my bike made the cold, and the hills and the sore knees 

seem SO insignificant.

Thank you for all that donated.

Thanks for reading. 

Coastal Cruise (East)

On Saturday I rode perm # 2364 Coastal Cruise (east). It is a 103k perm from Newburyport, MA to Kittery Point, ME and back. The route covers 3 states (MA, NH and ME) and runs right along the scenic New England Coast. I was in New England to a charity ride on Sunday (ride report to follow) so I wanted to do the 100k to work towards the RUSA American Explorer award.

I nearly did not finish this ride because of my own arrogance. I arrived at the starting control with plenty of time to get my bike out of the vehicle, put the front wheel on it, put the Garmin on it, water bottles etc. But instead, I waited in the car because it was cold. The forecast tem was to be in the mid 50’s… it was 45 with a breeze coming off the water. “It’s only 100k, and I have nearly 7 hours to complete it…I’ll be fine”.

I bought the requisite banana and water from The Plum Island Coffee Roasters at 7:01. I walked back to the car to put myself and the bike together. It was cold and windy, but I brought a newspaper from the hotel to help block the wind from my body. So it was base layer, USA today, short sleeve jersey, arm warmers and wind breaker. I pushed off to start the ride at 7:30. I figured, no problem… 6 ½ hours for 65 miles, I’ll be fine.

As I headed to the ocean front, I could feel the wind blowing me towards the curb. I knew, in order for the wind to be able to move me, it had to be pretty strong. I also knew that as soon as I made the left hand turn at the ocean front that the strong wind would be directly in my face. I tried to judge the wind speed based on the flags on the flag poles. I saw somewhere on the internet that you could do this, but I am apparently not real good at it. I estimated the wind speed (based on the flags) to be between 10 – 15 mph with gust of up to 20 mph. Based on how I felt trying to pedal into that wind, I estimated t at 50 – 60 mph sustained. (Weather underground had the winds between 5-8 mph with gusts up to 12 mph).

I was doing fine despite the wind. The sun had come out and I had warmed up rather nicely and I had some beautiful scenery to take in while I rode. For some reason I started thinking about y control card. I knew I had it with me (that is always a fear of mine). I thought about how long it had been since I had a control card and how this one was a little different, because the open and close times of the controls were “running times” after your departure. OK, so the first timed control closed at 2:28. Doing the math, that meant 9:28, but 30 minutes of that time had been wasted. With the head wind, I was not making great time. I did the math in my head and I figured that I was NOT going to make it. Fortunately, the route took me away from the ocean and into some roads that had trees and shelter to block the wind. I was able to make it to the first control with 5 minutes to spare. I quickly grabbed a bottle of water and hit the road again.

The next control, the turnaround control, in Kittery Point is very familiar to me. I lived there while in the Navy and this area is where my oldest daughter was born. It is amazing how things have changed there. I made it to the control, turned around and on my way back, took a little detour to the apartment in Navy Housing where we brought Amanda home to. It is fun to reminisce.

The trip back to Newburyport took basically the same route. So, you guessed it. I made very good time getting back with the wind at my back. I would be riding at a nice easy pace and look at the Garmin and find that I was doing 20 mph. I was happy that I faced the headwind on the way out, so that the ride back was made much easier.

I made it back to the Plum Island Coffee Roasters at 12:30. It felt good to a RUSA ride again. I am looking forward to the 100k in October. 

I am still here

        For those of you who have been checking this blog during my absence, I appreciate your persistence. The final semester of school was reading intensive, and for someone who does not read very quickly, it required me to devote much more time than I would have liked. Consequently, this blog became a casualty of my schooling.

        School is over, graduation is completed, work is busy, but I feel reasonably caught up on those things that were neglected while at school and I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Sadly, it is from my mid-section that I need the weight to be lifted from. Yes, my physical health became a casualty of my schooling as well. The good news is that I know how to get that weight off. I have done it before and I am determined to do it again. I will post updates here as I go along.

         I apologize that this post is so short, but I just wanted to post something to let everyone know that I am still alive and doing well.

       

Give me a Challenge... however small

WOW... my last post on this blog was June 1st. I knew it was a while ago, but not that long. Sadly, there is not much "bike" news that I can pass on. I have been neglecting my bikes, and it shows. It has been too hot over the summer... I have been too busy at work.... I stayed up to late to do homework... and the list of excuses goes on and on. All of them just that... excuses and justifications (in my own mind) to not ride.

On Friday I was reading Mike's blog and came across a word that I had never heard before. "Coffeeneuring". Well, I clicked on the Coffeeneuring Challenge link on his blog and found the rules for a challenge that MG (a DC Rand rider) had created. "Coffeeneuring Challenge" rules as spelled out quite clearly on her blog, and it sounded like just what I needed, a challenge, to get my fat toucas back on the bike.

In a nutshell, I have to ride to 7 different coffee shops (of my choosing) by the end of October. The coffee shops have to be more than a 2 mile ride, the rides can only be done on Saturday and Sundays and you can only visit 1 coffee shop per day. Well, you can visit as many as you want, but only 1 will count towards the challenge.

The prize... the fun and exercise that you get doing the weekend rides is your prize. I am not looking at what I can get, I am REALLY looking at what I can lose. Maybe a couple lb's.

I made my list of coffee shops and made a plan. Saturday morning came around and I got the bike ready to go. Air in the tires, lube on the chain, wiped off all the cobwebs and I was off. I actually put the bike in the car and drove to the B&A trail and rode to Java Diva's. Information about Java Diva's can be found at their website Java Diva's . It ended up being a 16 mile ride at an incredible slow pace. On the way back to the car, I stopped at the Farmer's Market to meet Bev and get some good fall vegetables. It was a great ride, great weather and a great way to start the challenge.

Sunday morning was the true test. Would I get up and ride again? The coffee shop on the list today was City Dock coffee in Annapolis. This would require me to ride over some mountains (OK, just a bit of a stretch, but after being off the bike for so long, I knew they would feel like mountains). I pulled myself out of bed and downstairs to check the temperature to see how to dress. 46 degrees. I had complained all summer that it was too hot to ride, I could use the excuse that it was too cold to ride. I dressed appropriately and off I went. This time from the house I rode to City Dock coffee and then back home. I have not seen the Garmin statistics for that ride yet, but it was 17 miles at a slow pace.

Two down, 5 more to go. Next weekend I will knock out two more coffee shops and get a little bit more of my fitness back in the process.

Thanks for reading and I am going to try to carve out just a little bit of time every couple days to do an entry here.

Catch up post

Ok, so how do I wrap up almost months of not blogging into one post? It really won't be that difficult, because I haven't done a whole heck of a lot, which is a problem. The rainy season (March, April and May) has come and gone, and with rain comes a wealth of excuses why NOT to ride the bike. "It's too wet, It's too cold, If I ride in the wet I'll have to clean the bike completely and I don't have time to ride, let alone ride AND clean..." You get the picture. Needless to say, my miles are down significantly this year. So much so, that I will not even fill out a training log for January - May.

Work has been a strain... but only because I let it be. Delayed roll out of new computers has caused other projects to get pushed back and back and back. I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel, so provided that the light is not attached to an oncoming train, I should be back to some sense of normalcy soon.

I have ridden 4 times in the past 7 days, so things are looking up. Last Wednesday I took the day off to watch the Blue Angels perform. Bev had gotten tickets to the VIP tent, and since I consider myself a VIP, I wasn't going to miss it. Well, the Blue Angels decided to have a close call in Lynchgburg causing them to cancel the next few upcoming shows so that they could do a safety stand down and correct the problems that led to the close call. So, I took my bike and rode from home to the Rusty Bridge and back. On Saturday I joined the SPP bagel ride into Annapolis. A large group of riders came out for that ride because of the beautiful weather. On Sunday I rode with Mike and Bob around the Severn River with a detour out to Crofton for some Caribou Coffee. It was a nice ride at a nice pace with nice people. It doesn't get much better than that. Finally, this morning I joined the 5:46 group ride from the Rusty Bridge. I think there were 14 riders at the start. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday the pace is very fast, but with a large group, enough people, for varying reasons, did not want to go fast. So 4 or 5 of us hung back and rode at a more moderate pace. I have not seen the difference in the scales yet, but I can feel the difference in my attitude and energy levels. I am hoping to ride the 5:46 ride again tomorrow. I'll let you know if I make it or not!

Why I ride?

For anyone who has gotten an email from me you may have noticed my signature line that says "Would the person who stole my motivation please return it, no questions asked!" This past weekend I had my motivation returned to me by two SPP members.

On Saturday I managed to force myself to get my bike gear on and head out for a ride. I was leaving the house too late to make it to the starting point of the 7:30 ride on time, but I decided to head in that direction and intercept the group as it headed to Annapolis. Well, as it turned out I only saw Chip heading down the trail. I turned around and we headed into Annapolis to enjoy a nice leisurely ride, a hot beverage, and some good conversation. On my way home I realized that I have really missed the camaraderie that we have riding together as a group. Sharing a laugh, talking about whatever happens to be the topic of the day, or sometimes (for me anyway) sucking in as much air as possible and trying to hang onto the back of the group. That ride helped to return a portion of my motivation.

The rest of my motivation was returned when I received the following email from Dangerous Dan this morning:

       Dear Chris:
           I found a package of motivation on the side of the road, a little tattered, it had bite marks and dog spit on one corner, but otherwise it is intact and fully functional. I didn't know who it belonged to, so I kept it safe and took it with me for a ride every now and again to keep it charged up. I had it with me on our night perm in January and it really liked all the long hours and cold miles so I knew it belonged to an experienced randonneur. Yesterday it was really in its element and enjoyed the scenery and camaraderie of the group. It pulled me over the hills, and pushed on the descents, it waived to the ducks in the stream, and the horses in the pastures, and mocked the farm dogs behind their fences. It has been good company.


Now that I know it is yours I would like to reunite you two as soon as possible. So I will keep it on the bike and get it to you when we ride together next which I hope will be soon. See you on the roads:

Dangerous Dan

I promised Dan that I would relieve him of my motivation sometime this week. Along with my motivation, Dan and Chip have returned my appreciation for the people that ride with SPP as well.

So to answer the question "Why I ride?" it is not only to get my heart rate up and burn calories, but to spend some time with some great people who share a common interest.

A slow start to a new year

So it is the last day of January, and I just totaled up my miles ridden for the Severna Park Peloton mileage challenge. It was quite an embarrassing number. I could go on and on with the excuses about how cold it has been, and the snow and ice are not exactly the conditions that I want to ride in and the list goes on and on. The truth of the matter is that I have not had the motivation that I need to get out of bed and on the bike.

Last year, I worked very hard to get in shape for the 550 mile ride through the mountains of New England in July. I had a goal. Something to work towards, and because I was registered and had solicited sponsors the help raise money for diabetes I felt that I had to ride those miles or be embarrassed in July. After the New England Classic was done, so was I. I thought it was just a "burnt out" feeling and a little bit of time off the bike and I would be right back to riding almost every day. But, the more days I didn't ride the harder it seemed to force myself to get on the bike and ride. Because I was working towards my R12, I still found myself riding some to maintain what little fitness I had left in order to ride the 200k's.

So, here we are in a new year, and I have started the month out with an all time low for me in regards to mileage. I need a goal. A target to work towards. I am not going to do the 550 mile New England Classic again, but I am considering the shorter 150 mile version. The amount of money that has to be raised is much more manageable, and I won't have to take a whole week off from work to do the ride. I have my eyes on an event that I may possibly consider. I believe registration is in April and once I have officially registered, I will let everyone know what it is. So, stay tuned, for updates.

I could use some Global Warming.

We have been stuck in a deep freeze of late, and it is beginning to get on my nerves. There is a forecast for snow this afternoon, which could make Mike's 200k tomorrow a bit more...ah...dare I say... 'epic'!

I looked back at my 2009 training log and I did a so so job of recording the temps on the days that I rode, and I recorded 22 degrees as the coldest day that I rode. Given the temps of the past couple weeks, 22 degrees would seem like a heat wave.

I mentioned Mike's 200k tomorrow. Mike, Clint and Earl will be riding the Sailing Down to Solomons 200k tomorrow. This will be the completion of Mike's R12 award. Clint is one of the founding fathers of the Severna Park Peloton, and does a great job of brain washing... ah... I mean... recruiting SPP members to ride in these long rides. Clint is SUPER supportive of everyone in the group. His latest victim.. I mean... recruit is Earl, who on this ride will be doing his first 200k.Bonne Route!

If you noticed, I changed the background of my blog. The obvious reason for the change was the forecast for snow, but after I changed it I noticed the sign on the right hand side of the page. Even though it is German it pretty much sums it up for me.... "Workin' .....DAMN."

December 200K - Nottoway Ramble

Yesterday, I completed my 12th 200k in as many months, qualifying me for my R12 award from Randonneurs USA (http://www.rusa.org/). This is a goal that I set back in February, and I cannot explain how happy I am that I have achieved it. I will post a blog entry at a later date to reflect on that achievement. For now, let me talk about the Nottoway Ramble because there is MUCH to cover.

There were a few requirements that I was looking for when I was choosing my ride for December. I wanted to ride on a dry day that was as warm as possible. Well, for those of you that have been awake for the month of December you know that pretty much the whole country has been experiencing a cold spell, and a 200k in San Tropez was not only beyond my budget, but probably would not count towards my R12. So, after days of watching weather.com's 10 day forecast I saw that Friday was going actually break into the 40's so I targeted that day. This weekend is my weekend with Emily so after re-arranging the travel plans that were already in place, I was able to make it work.

I requested to ride this perm from the owner (Ron Malinauskas) and we managed to get all the requisite paperwork done via email. He provided great support for me by way of recommending a hotel, directions from the hotel to the start, information about where to park, recommendations for lunch and map images of the route. In addition to all this, his cue sheet was excellent. It was detailed and the cue's were extremely accurate.

So after a night in the hotel (which was nice) I headed out to the start. The temp was a balmy 24 degree's, but I knew that it would warm up into the high 40's so I was not too discouraged. I was layered pretty well with my Shower Pass jacket, a couple Under Armour layers and the moisture control system. As I started out, I was bit chilly, but soon I was toasty warm pedaling  to the first control.

The first control was The General Store in Yale, VA. Well, I would be willing to bet that it was the ONLY store in Yale, VA. It was definitely a step back in time. The woman that was behind the counter was very kind and very southern. I asked for an egg sandwich on and english muffin and she said they didn't have english muffins just biscuits and toast. OH YEAH, I forgot... I am in the south, so it is biscuits with everything. I got my egg sandwich on a biscuit, sat down at the dinning room table that was in from of the store and enjoyed the warmth. After about 30 minutes there I jumped back on the bike and headed to the next control.

As I pedaled away from the store, I did a quick mental inventory of how I felt. I was fed, I had water AND some hot coffee in my insulated bottle (thanks Dave) I had been diligent up to that point in regards to my e-caps, my back, legs and toucas felt fine... so far so good.

The next control was an information control at mile 58+. I made it the information control, gathered the information, enjoyed a Snickers bar and some coffee and headed to Waverly. The route owner had mentioned am Italian place in Waverly where he likes to stop for lunch. I wasn't really hungry at the time that I arrived there, but I did need some water so I bought a bottle of water from that place and headed on my way. Again, a mental inventory showed that I was in a good place.

The ride from Waverly to the 2nd control, again was uneventful. I did notice that most of the roads that I was on were tar and chip and seemed to rattle quite a bit. I did notice that my shoulders were getting a bit sore, and I attributed that to both lack of riding prior to this ride and the vibration of the road surface taking its toll. I arrived at the 3rd control, which is at mile 82+. It was a small store that was operated by a woman that did not speak very good english. It was about lunch time so I asked if they sold sandwich and all they had were frozen sandwiches that could be microwaved. I chose the philly cheese steak sandwich and added some chips and a coke. I lingered at the store for a good while, struck up a conversation with the ice cream delivery man who happened to be from Salisbury Beach, MA originally so we talked Patriots, Red Sox and Celtics for a while.

Before heading out to the next control I made a slight wardrobe adjustment. Knowing that the difference in temperature would be about 25 degrees, I knew that as the ride wore on I would be sweaty and my layers would not be able to keep up with wicking the moisture away from my body. So I brought along fresh moisture control system and an additional Under Armour base layer (all packed in a zip loc bag, in the pocket of my Shower pass jacket) After making the adjustment, I felt warm and dry, almost like this was the start of the ride. Mental inventory.... getting fatigued and ready to be done, but feeling good.

Well, that feeling changed rather quickly as I was headed to the next control. At about mile 85+ I see up ahead a dog that was laying on its front porch decides that it wants to take a run at me. The front yard that he is in is not the big, so by the time I get to his house, he is already in the road waiting for me and barking. Well, I accelerate to try to out run him and he is barking a way that you just know if he gets a chance... he would like nothing more than take a bite out of you. I manage to get past him and then I have a decision to make... the road bears right or goes straight...I can't slow up and look at the cue sheet or I will be minus one ankle... I chose to go straight... I chose poorly. After making the decision to go straight there was a speed bump in the road that I managed to bunny hop, but in doing so one of my snickers bars came out of my bento box. CRAP... I have lost chocolate. The dog did not chase me too long, but it was like he knew I would be back. He didn't meander back to his yard, he laid down by the sign at the intersection waiting for me. So, after stopping and thinking this through (here I am trying to out smart a f*%#in dog) the plan was to ride back to the intersection on the extreme far right hand side of the road and head back from where I came and then after the dog settles down again, ride past him again and bear right this time like I was suppose to. Well, things worked out better than I expected... kind of... I headed up the road, and the dog figured this time he would lead me a little bit more, which allowed me to slow enough to take the left hand turn that I need to take to put me on the road I needed to be on. I pedaled pretty fast, and was pretty proud of the way that worked out. I didn't hear any barking, a quick look over my left shoulder I could see the dog. Well, that was because he was in my blind spot just over my right shoulder... and when he finally barked, it scared the crap out of me and I about fell off my bike. I looked to my right and there was Cujo. At that point the dog looked HUGE. I could have sworn that I was looking eye to eye with him. I accelerated a little bit and he gave up the chase. Mental inventory... Not as good as it was before.

Over the next 20 miles or so, there were SEVERAL dog encounters. With the first encounter still fresh in my mind, I was VERY aware of any barking that I heard. In this area, the majority of the houses are farm houses with really long driveways. With me watching for ANY movement heading towards the road, I was pretty much able to pick up my speed as soon and I saw the dogs head my way, and none of them go very close.

However, there was one dog that almost put me over the edge. At just about mile 100 I saw a truck coming down a real long driveway heading to the road I am on, with a dog running along the drivers side. A wonderful... this guy is bringing the dog to the road, so much for my head start. As the truck turned on the road headed towards me, the dog was still chasing but now along the passengers side on the side of the road. Well, I tried to position myself so the truck would be between me and the dog and maybe the dog would miss me entirely. HA HA HA... you think that would happen? Not a chance. The dog saw me... went to all stop turned around and began the chase. This dog was fast and just would not stop chasing. I looked back one time and saw that the gap had opened a bit and I figured he has begun to give up, so I slowed a bit... he kept right on coming and was getting closer. I was winded and felt the twinge in my thigh of an impending cramp... I can't very well stop and chew and ecap at this point, so I slowed down and just figured if he catches up to me, I deal with it when it happens. I had my water bottle in hand if I needed it. After slowing up a little I looked back and saw that his tongue was hanging out of his mouth and that he had slowed a bit too, so I pushed for one last time and was able to discourage him enough to quit chasing. Now, because of the first incident with Cujo, I had become acutely aware of my next cue on the cue sheet. I knew that at mile 104.4 I had to take a left. I know that this encounter started at about 100+ mile mark and it couldn't have been too much more than a mile before the next cue, so I figure that this dog chased me for nearly 3 miles... which doesn't seem like much, that is unless your the one being chased. I made the left hand turn at mile 104.4 and did another mental inventory ... really BAD! I have ridden with riders who do not want to dogs to chase them because they are afraid they will get hit. I yelled "STAY" and "NO" and "GO HOME" like they do... to no avail. I have even seen riders almost get hit themselves to try to prevent a chasing dog from getting hit. I am not proud to say it, but at about mile 102 I was praying for a car to come along and either hit the dog or hit me.

To make my mental state even worse leading up to the marathon with the dog, my Garmin was showing "Low Batteries". I know why this happened, and I am pretty ticked at myself for letting it happen. I used the back light in the morning at the start of the ride while it was dark, and my intention was to stop when it was light to turn that off so each time I hit the joystick on the Garmin to change displays it wouldn't use the back light. Well, as I was riding, with the big gloves on, I was able to turn the headlight to flashing and the helmet light off, but the gloves are too bulky for configuring the light on the Garmin. So it finally died very close to the end (mile 116 according to the Garmin file). It tried to turn it on along the way to mark the points along the way, similar to what I did in July, and at a couple spots that worked, however the spot that I wanted it to work the most (the final information control), I turned on the power, but forgot to turn on the timer, so it did not register that. I did get the last few hundred yards to register the time that I finished.

So, yes, I finished. The R12 is complete and I now can take a month or 2 off from these 200k rides. After the 130 + mile ride I met Amanda and Emily at Chik-fil-A in Virginia Beach. We got our meals to go and Emily and I headed back up to Maryland. We got home just after midnight. That made for a very long day.

Garmin details:

NEGLECT....

In a word, that pretty much sums it up. I have neglected my bikes, my blogging and watching what I eat. If I neglected my job as much as I have neglected the things listed above, I would be without a job. If neglected a pet in this way, I am sure I would be visited by the SPCA, and if I neglected my relationships on the same level as the other things I have neglected, I would be a very lonely person.

So, now that I am aware of the neglect, and have confessed it here on the blog, I am working on a plan to pay sufficient attention to my riding, blogging and eating. I did ride on Sunday with Mike. We did a lap around river, which amounted to 30 miles. This is the first time we had ridden together in a while. As we started out I asked him if he wanted to hear the list of excuses I was using to stay off the bike, or if he wanted to hear the truth. He knew what the truth was. I have been lazy. Sure, I could blame it on work because I am very busy at work getting ready to do a datacenter virtualization project. I could blame the cold weather, because it has been unseasonable cold over the past couple weeks, but that is why I have Under Armour cold gear. On Sunday, when Mike and I rode, it was in the 30's and VERY windy, yet I was sweating when I got home, and did not feel cold during the ride. So, bottom line... I have been neglectful.

Moving on, the ride on Sunday was a struggle. I started from the house, which means that I get to climb UP Deep Creek Ave to start the ride. My legs and lungs were hurting and I had only ridden four tenths of a mile. As I was riding to meet Mike, the headwind was strong enough that I had to pedal down hill to maintain speed. That is VERY frustrating. I was telling myself that I did not want to ride around the river, I would propose to Mike that we just do an abbreviated ride due to the wind. Well, before I could mention my plan to Mike, he had already planned which direction we should go around the river to optimize the wind direction with the hills that we would face. OK, so I just shut my mouth and went along for the ride. This is the reason that it is always better to ride WITH someone. I had already talked myself out of riding around the river, but I did not want to be the "lightweight" who couldn't handle the wind. I am glad that I rode around the river.

Looking ahead, I have scheduled my 12th 200k for Friday December 10th. I will be riding in Windsor, VA which I hope will prove to be just a degree or two warmer than here in Maryland. There will be a ride report following that ride, and I am sure I will do an entry to re-cap my  twelve 200k's. So, stay tuned.

Below is my Garmin info from Sunday's ride. You will notice that the heart rate looks a little funky. I think that my heart rate monitor needs a new battery OR I need a new heart. As we were climbing the hill on Veteran's Highway I looked down and saw that my heart rate reading in my Garmin read 0.0. When we crested the hill (and I could breath again) I told Mike that either my heart rate monitor was malfunctioning, or my heart stopped on the hill. SInce I was still pedalling, I assume it was just the battery on my monitor.

Flatbread 200k

On November 6th, I set out with fellow SPP member Chip Adams to ride the "check out" ride for the Flatbread 200k brevet that would take place on November 13th.

Just for clarification, a "brevet" is a scheduled ride, and is only available to be ridden on the date and time scheduled, where as a "permanent" route, is a ride that a rider can make arrangements with the route owner to ride at any time. A "check out" ride follows the route of the brevet to ensure accuracy of the cue sheet, the conditions of the roads and to work around any unforeseen obstacles. The "check out" ride is typically done a week in advance to allow the organizer to make any changes that need to made before the actual brevet.

At 7:20, Chip and I rolled out under partly cloudy skies and cool temperatures and a bit of wind. I was nervous about this ride, as I am about most of them, because I would be riding with Chip knowing that would be the pacesetter, and it would be considerably slower than what Chip normally would be at. The Flatbread 200k is a popular ride with SPP but I had never ridden the course, so my eyes on the cue sheet would help to find any discrepancies or vague instructions that may get the riders off course.

The first control, was an information control at a wooden bridge at the 8 mile mark. As we made the right turn on to the road that the bridge was on, we saw the big sign "Bridge Closed". This is why there is a "check out" ride. The bridge was just a 1/10 of a mile down the road, so we rode down to check it out. On the near side of the bridge, there were 2 jersey barriers, but there was enough of a gap between them for cyclists to get their bike through. The top of the wooden bridge was fully intact and the timbers were in good shape, so the bridge was safe to cross. The real obstacle was on the other side of the bridge. On that side there were 2 jersey barriers that were right up next to each other, allowing for no chance of a bike going between them. Chip and I contemplated the situation for a while (Chip knows the area very well, so he did a lot of contemplating... I enjoyed the scenery) and then lifted our bikes over the barriers, and continued on the route. I know this weighed on Chip's mind for a while, knowing that to avoid the bridge would require an extensive course redesign.

We pressed on to a coffee shop in Milford called Dolce. This coffee shop served as a control during last years Flatbread, but was not an "official" control this year. I found out that Chip like a good coffee shop, and I have to say that this was a VERY good one. We ordered our coffee and goodies, and sat in the coffee shop to enjoy them. After a nice break, we continued on the route.

The next stop was a convenience store in Slaughter Beach. I found out that part of the "check out" ride was to let the control points know that there would be about 40 - 50 cyclist coming into their establishment asking the clerks to sign their control cards and probably wanting to use the rest room, purchase water, Gatorade and so on. After we did that, we crossed the street to check out the view of the beach. Apparently, Slaughter Beach is where the Atlantic Ocean and the Delaware Bay meet. It was pretty, but a little windy and cool.

The next control was in Milton, at Bodies Market. The previous control had no public restrooms, so fortunately, Milton was just 11 miles up the road. As we arrived at the Market, Chip went in to get his control card signed and I stayed with the bikes. This was the first place that I did not feel real comfortable leaving the bikes unattended. I later went in, got my control card signed and asked to use the rest room. The rest room was in the coin operated laundry next door, and was not much of a rest room. I am a guy, so my standards for rest rooms are not all that high. I knew however, that there would be ladies riding the brevet, so I let Chip know that the rest rooms were not that great. We tossed around the possibility of finding another control. As I wheeled my bike off the sidewalk, I felt that unmistakable feeling of a mushy tire. I had a flat. That sealed the deal, we considered that a bad omen. After changing the flat, we set out to find another control.

We slowly tooled around Milton and found a nice espresso bar. We went in, Chip talked to the person behind the counter, I checked out the facilities and we were both happy with the choice to change the control to the espresso bar.

The next control was a gas station in Bridgeville. Now the weekend prior to the "check out" ride, SPP did an Ocean City ride from Stevensville, MD to Ocean City and back over the course of the weekend. On the return trip on Sunday, we stopped at a place called Jimmy's, which just happened to be in Bridgeville. Now I make it a rule on the 200k's to NOT do many bonus miles, but I happily added 3 bonus miles for lunch at Jimmy's. Having been there just the weekend before, we knew what we wanted so menu's and time to think about what to get was not needed. Our waitress came, took our orders, delivered our food. We ate, paid the check and we were on the road again in just over a half an hour.

The next leg was the finally leg, but was 40 miles to the end. It was also the part of the ride that would present the worst of the wind. We each took turns riding in front to block the wind, but I was behind Chip a lot more than he was behind me.

We finished the ride in just under 11 hours and just before dark. Chip annotated the changes that needed to be made to the cue sheet and we called it a day. I made arrangements to help Chip the following Saturday with getting riders checked in and just anywhere that I could be of help.

On November 13th, I met Chip and Chris (another Chris) and Bill Beck at the brevet starting point at 5:45 a.m. Bill told us there were about 46 riders that had pre-registered online and other would be registering at the start. As it turned out, there were 71 riders at that started the brevet, which is one of the most highly attended brevets in this area.

Just after the riders started, I hoped in the car and headed to the bridge that was out. On the check out ride, Chip and I had decided that one of us would be at the bridge when the riders got there and provide assistance getting the bikes over the barrier. I know that this was especially helpful to those riding a tandem. Trying to lift a tandem over the barrier without any help would not positively add to the riding experience.

Of the 71 riders, 12 were from Severna Park Peloton. Clint and Dan, two very strong riders from SPP joined forces on a tandem along with Randy, Matt and Dave set a course record,  finishing in 6 hours 48 minutes. All of the 71 riders who started finished with in the time limit and enjoyed pizza and soda from Good Guys Sports Bar, which was the final control.

It was a beautiful day, and a well planned event and I look forward to doing  it again next year.

Here is a link to some photo's
Flatbread Photo's

My garmin info from the "check out" ride

Sailing Down to Solomons - October's 200k

Ok... I know I am severly delinquent in blogging. The past month has included travel to New York, Chicago, Virginia Beach and a crazy time with our new laptops. Trying to juggle work, travel and family has taken my full attention... and the blogging has suffered. Things have settled down to a dull roar now, so I am hopeful to keep this up to date.

On Sunday morning I rode The Sailing Down to Solomons perm for my October 200k. This was the third time I had ridden this particular route, but my first time riding it solo. I asked Crista (the route owner) for a 6:00 a.m. start time, and as usual she accomodated me by handling all the paperwork via email. (That may not sound like a big deal, but some route owners will NOT provide the "goodies" via email for some reason).


Bike preperations were done on Saturday. Chain cleaned, lubed etc. Clothes were laid out. Nutrition 'stuff' was ready to go. I had also made arrangements to implement the controversial moisture control program on this ride. Let's just say that I was "poised' to keep myself dry, but the sucess of the ride did not fully "depend" on it.

The ride down to Solomons was fairly uneventful. I set a comfortable pace (for me) and was planning on the ride taking me 12 hours. I had advertised in an email to SPP, that if anyone wanted to join me... it would be a leisurely paced ride. At about mile 37 or so, I stopped at a Wawa and grabbed some water to top off my camel back and pick up something to nibble on.

After the Wawa stop, I pedeled to the turnaround control in Solomons. For those of you that have ridden this ride before, the route has changed slightly, and the cue sheet brings you into Solomons right down to the water for an information control. The route owner had mentioned that it added something to the ride, and I have to agree. It is a quaint little place that I am glad I rode through. After collecting the information that I needed for the control card I stopped at Woodburn's Market for a cup of coffee and a piece of coffee cake. I actually sat down outside the market and enjoyed my coffee, watching people go in and out of the store.

Just a few more miles from the market and I would be at the halfway point. I was ahead of my 12 hour schedule even with the 2 stops, so I figured I was doing fine. I rode to a little store that is at the 80 mile point. I grabbed a package of cheese and crackers (they diudn't have any Klondyke Bars) and a coke and sat on the picnic tables in the front of the store. After enjoying my gedunk there, I headed to to the next control. An SPP favorite, Sweet Sue's in North Beach.

At Sweet Sue's I ordered a Chicken Caesar wrap, which was made exactly how I ordered it. I sat at one of the tables outside Sweet Sue's enjoying the beautiful day and watching all the people that were doing the same. I think I spent about 40 minutes at Sweet Sues before heading to the next information control and ultimately to the final control in Crofton.

I have to admit that this ride is not my favorite. There is the traffic on Rte 2/4 that you have to contend with (which is really not THAT big of an issue, because the shoulder is wide enough it's like you have your own lane). Mostly though,it is the last 30 miles or so of this ride that make it not one of my favorites. The route takes you through the back roads of Calvert and Anne Arundel counties.These roads are a seemingly never ending line of little uphills and little downhills. Don't get me wrong, I prefer small uphills to big uphills, but it is very difficult to get into any cadence rhythm over these miles and they just seem to drag on.

I shouldn't complain. Sailing Down to Solomons is a staple for most of us that are working on getting our R-12 awards. Driving 20 minutes to the start as opposed to 2 1/2 hours is a HUGE benefit. That equates to two more hours of sleep.

After the ride, Mike and I met at Gina's Cantina for a root beer to celebrate the completion of 10 - 200k rides. It was nice to have someone there to celebrate with at the end. If everything stays on track, three of us (Dan, Mike and myself) will complete our R-12's in December. Due to scheduling conflicts, it doesn't look like we will all be riding the same route, but I am quite sure we will all share a root beer at some point to celebrate.

Lesson learned...

#1 - Ok, this is the leson learned you are all waiting to hear about. Moisture control. Incontinence pads. They work, and they work REALLY well. I only used 2 and I put them both on my stomach. The sticky back keeps them in place stuck to your base layer. For those of you who know me,  know that I sweat a lot. Typically I sweat through my jersey and wind vest by the end of the ride. On this ride, my shoudlers and chest sweated through, but my stomach was dry. On my wind vest, on my jersey and on my base layer. All of the sweat was absorbed by the pads. I definately see the benefit of using them to keep yourself dry and warm in the colder weather. . Say what you want...but they work and I will use them again.

#2 - Ride your ride. I find that these rides are much more enjoyable when I ride within myself. I told Mike that I am not good at these long ride, I am slow. He assured me that those are two differnt things. I can be good at these ride and be slow at them. My hat is off to people who can do these ride in less than 7 or 8 or even less than 9 hours. I am just not one of those people.

#3 - If you want great weather for a week or so, order a winter cycling jacket. I recieved my Shower Pass Elite 2.0 on Saturday, and will probably not get a chance to try it out for another week or so because the tropics have somehow come to Maryland.
 
Big ride this weekend. Stay tuned... I promise to blog about it.
 
Here is the Garmin info:

Eastern Shore Reversed...again.

For those of you wondering if I am still alive... I assure you I am. Here is the report from my Spetember 200k.

As some of you may remeber, last month for my 200k I did the Eastern Shore reversed route. Let's just say that the flats were more challenging than I expected. So this month I was determind to exact my revenge.


I planned to leave at 4:00 a.m on Sunday morning for a 7:00 a.m. start in Wallops Island. I was a little nervous that this route may get the best of me again due to poor preperation on my part. I spent the day Saturday in Cambridge taking pictures and cheering on our SPP particpants in the Chesapeake Man triathlon, and arrived home later than I had planned. Which meant that preperations for the 200k would be hurried. A quick look at weather. com showed a high of 71 for the day, 30% chance of showers and 12 - 15 mph winds out of the N/NE. I managed to get the bike in the car, floor pump, lube, clothes, helmet, sport beans, ecaps and gu chomps. I threw in my wind vest, rain jacket and arm warmers in as well and would make the decision on what to wear when I got there.



Sunday morning rolled around and I was out the door at 4:00 a.m. As I traveled down to Wallops Island on Route 50 I am noticing that all the flags are straight out from the wind, and although I do not have real good spacial awareness, I knew from the direction that I was driving in, that I would have that wind directly in my face for the last half of the ride, something that I didn't have to deal with too much last month. I thought to myself that this could be bad.



I arrived at the starting point with enough time to check weather. com again, just to get the finally idea of waht to expect. It showed that the temp would reach a high of 73 and that between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. it would be partly cloudy. After 12, it would be cloudy and the showers were forecast for 3 p.m. and later. With the chance of getting caught in rain, I rolled up my rain jacket and put it in the pocket of my wind vest. As a last minute decision I put my arm warmers on, knowing that if I got overheated I could easily roll them down or peel them off and store them very easily.



I got my right of passage recipt at 7:06 and I dwadled around with last minute preps and rolled out at 7:23. I had a GREAT tailwind as I started, I thought to myself that is most people experience headwinds no matter which direction they ride on the Eastern Shore, then there has to be someone who is experiencing tailwinds if they are riding in the opposite direction of the first guy, right. Well, I hoped to be that guy that was blessed with tailwinds both ways. Now, knowing that I am not THAT lucky, I did have a plan for this ride. I was going to do my best to keep my cadence down in the 75 - 80 range, which would save me 10 - 15 revolutions per minute, over a 10 hour ride would save me 6,000 to 7,500 revolutions. I figured my legs would thank me for that when I was fighting the headwinds to get back to the car.



I made it to the first control, which is an information control, feeling great. The next control is at mile 23 ish and I made it there feeling great also. Nothing much to say about the controls... you go in, buy what you need, ask the clerk to initial your card, they look at you funny, then they survey the card like it was some legally binding document that you were asking them to initial. They finally initial it and you are on your way.



It is about 40 miles from this control to the next control so I made sure that the camel back, and water bottles were filled and away I went. I am feeling great, ecaps every half hour, chomps and sport beans every hour, drinking water to stay hydrated AND I have a tailwaind. I could very easily have deviated from the plan and cranked up the cadence to 90 and gotten to the halfway point a little faster than I did, but I knew that on the way back I would need to dip into the suitcase of pain, and I wanted my legs to be as fresh as possible, so I took it easy to the halfway point.



I reached the halway control in 4 hours and 40 minutes. I got a random bag of pretzels, a coke (thanks again for that discovery Chip) and enjoyed that for 20 minutes and left that control at 12:23, 5 hours from when I started.



As I headed back, looking at my heading on my Garmin, it was NE. I no longer had a tailwind. It was a direct headwind and it wasn't as bad as I thought at first. I did my best to get into a good aero-dynamic position to lessen my profile in the wind. For those of you that know me, I am about as aero-dynamic as a brick, and even though I was in the drops, I felt like I was holding a piece of plywood into the wind. 75 rpm... that was what I kept saying to myself.



The route from the 2nd control to the halway control use about the same route. Seaside Rd. Stay on Seaside Rd forever. (which makes it a little more embarising that last month I missed a turn and did bonus miles.) Well, this time as I was headed out to the halfway control, I made it a point to find a landmark at that turn, so that on the way back, I wouldn't miss it again. A blue rubber pool. Left at the blue rubber pool. That was all I had to remeber.



As I pedaled back towards the next control, the headwind seemed to get stronger... or was I getting more tired? I passed the spot where I needed to take a break last month. Wow, that came up pretty quickly... only a couple more miles to the blue rubber pool. It was amazing to me, how much quicker the landmarks were coming up this time. I guess being hydrated and eating on the bike will do that for ya, huh? Well there it was... the blue rubber pool. I remember how I felt last month when I got to that pool and how much different I felt this time. I rolled into the control and spotted my ice cream freezer again. I bought my Klondike bar and coke and enjoyed them outside the control.



Up to this point there had been no rain, but looking at the sky I knew that it would be raining soon. I finished my ice cream and coke, filled the water bottles and headed to the finish. It was at mile 106 that I felt like the wind had really gotten stronger, or that I was just done and it was just me being more tired. In either case, it was a struggle to push through it. It was a race agianst the rain. Having to push through this wind was bad enough, having to do it with rain whacking you in the face would really suck. I was detrermined to beat the rain.



About a mile from the finish, it started misting, and looking of into the distance I could see the rain was coming. I pulled into the Royal Farns parking lot, which is the finish and got the bike into the car and the sky opened up and it downpoured. I later realized that by bringing my rain jacket I pretty much gaurenteed that it would not rain. Had I left it at the car... it would have rained the whole day. I was glad I missed the rain, and I was glad to be done. Garmin showed ellapsed time as 9:58 minutes, but because I didn't start right at 7:00 a.m. my recorded time will be at the 10.5 hour mark. Who cares, the point is I did not let the course get the best of me this time.... even though it tried to beat me down with the wind, I was prepared and I finished my 200k for September.



A couple of notable things to mention... riding this route solo allowed me to ride my ride. It would have been tempting to rush to the halfway point with the tailwind and had I been with someone who wanted to do that I probably would have followed. I remember riding in Ashland in January... Mike and I passed a guy that seemed to be going very slowly. Mike asked me "Does he know something that we don't"? Aparently he did, because I also remember that he was sitting in Ashland Tea and Coffee shop when we arrived. Fast is not always better, at least not for me.



Arm warmers.... I think that they were the best choice I made all day. It was cool enough to wear them most of morning and when it got warmee I just rolled them down to my wrists. As I headed back, and the weather got worse, there were sections of cooler spots and I could pull them up or roll them down as I needed.



I made a mental note on the last few miles, that I did not come in contact with one driver that was in any way rude or obviously perturbed by my presence on the roads. I was not crowded by any cars and many of the oncoming drivers were nice enough to wave.

The Wall, Bay Ridge and Around the River

On Saturday I got up early and took a short ride just to stretch my legs a bit. It had been a week since I had ridden, and both Emily and Bev expressed their desire for me to take a bike ride. I guess I was getting a little "cranky".

I would have to agree with them. A week off the bike is too long and with work getting very busy, and dealing with incompetent, ineffective, poor planning vendors (can you feel the stress in my words) is not making my job any easier. After my Saturday ride, Emily noted a marked improvement in my attitude... I guess it really does help.

On Sunday, I set out alone to take a nice long ride to... I didn't know. All I knew was that I needed time on the bike, and time to think. I also knew that I was going to do "the wall". I did that and felt pretty good doing it. It is .25 miles, I am not sure of the grade but the last half of it is very steep. I was standing to pedal, not really to get any extra momentum, but because it felt like if I leaned back on the seat I would have tipped backwards. I hit the lap counter on the Garmin and I averaged 8.8 mph up the wall.

On my way to the wall I say Clif go by, one of the SPP riders that I have ridden with quite a bit. He looked like he was on a mission as well, so we exchanged greetings and headed in opposite directions.

After the wall, I headed into Annapolis. Feeling invigorated by having conquered the wall I did a few more of the more fun hills on the way into Annapolis. Once in Annapolis, I made a quick sweep of the coffee shops, but did not see any bikes that I recognized, so I continued out to Bay Ridge.

I rode out to Thomas Point Park and enjoyed a nice snack and water break over looking the Bay and Thomas Point Lighthouse. There were quite a few fisherman on the point trying their luck. I made a mental note of what a nice spot that would be to get a picture of the lighthouse at sunrise. The park opens at 8:00, so it would have to be a clandestine operation. I guess I could try to get permission... but as I always say, It's easier to get forgiveness then it is to get permission.

After Bay Ridge I headed back to City Dock, headed up Main St. and decided that my legs were feeling good enough to go home the long way, around the Severn River. I stopped at Naval Bagels on Taylor Ave and enjoyed an onion bagel with garlic cream cheese (I really want to be anti social) and a cup of coffee. That was my last stop before reaching home.

Bev was on her way to church. I had church on my bicycle. If you have never done it, try riding (or walking) at sunrise, and see the beautiful clouds, water, sunrise, deer, squirels, rabbits foxes etc and see if you do not become more keenly aware of God's presence.

While bev was at church, I did my best to destroy some of God's creation. We have some trees on the side of the yard that have been over taken by grapevines. It had gotten so bad that the trunk of the grapevine was as large ar the trunk of the trees (about 1.5 to 2 inches around)  So I spent the day pulling, tugging, ripping, hanging from, and damn near swinging from these vines until I was able to get as many of them out of the tree as I could. I know when I was done, I stood back and admired my work. It was very quiet and very still and I was pretty sure I heard the trees say Thank You. I checked them out this morning and they already look better.

I am off to New York for work this week. I have my bike in the car. It will be nice to ride in a different area and check out different places. I will keep you posted.

Here is the Garmin info from yesterdays ride:

A little about nothing

Just a couple pictures I came across that I wanted to share.

This is the sign at the top of Crawford Notch that we climbed during the New England Classic. I was more interested in the sign behind it. 13% grade for 3/4 mile.

Another is one that I found on the website of the owner of the Permanent that I did on Saturday. (Ride report to follow, I promise). For those who are not aware, randonnuering is an endurance cycling sport. You can get the details http://www.rusa.org/

Have a great day.

OK... so I am a little over-due

I apologize for my delinquency in regards to keeping the blog up to date. I could go through the long list of reasons (read excuses) why I have not had time to do a blog, but I won't bore you with that. Suffice it to say that I will try to do better moving forward.

The month of July was just a crazy month in regards to riding the bike. There was that whole New England Classic thing. Thank you to everyone that supported me on that ride. I do not only mean financial support, although that was especially nice, but also in regards to words or encouragment before the ride, comments on the blog during the ride, and congratulations after the ride. I did meet my fundraising goal, and for some unknown reason, I have plans of doing the ride again next year. Please send me all your good fundraising ideas now so I can start earlier than I did this year.

If you are keeping track of the training log, you will see a rather large drop off in total miles for the month of August. Again, I could give you the list of excuses... but you don't want to hear them, so I am considering August a recovery month. I still have a 200k to do this month to keep the R-12 alive. That will be 8 of them, and we are planning for a 300k (atually about 325K ride in September from Port Jervis, NY to Cape May, NJ. If anyone is interested, we are in need of a driver to help us with the Logistics of this ride.

Back to work.

Over to Dover

On Tuesday I took a "personal" day from work to ride my 200k for July. This would be the 7th 200k I have ridden this year and in each of the previous 6 I have learned something. Well, the 7th on would not disappoint me. I learned a lot during this ride.

Over to Dover is a 204k permanent that is described as "A gentle ride north through picturesque farmland and over old stone bridges with one BIG hill just before lunch". Since it is a popular perm with others that I ride with, I coordinated all the paperwork with the owner, and set out at 6:30 in the morning.

I had a very lackadaisical attitude towards this ride. I have done a lot of riding this month, and this ride would put me over 1,000 miles for July. My legs are feeling the effects of that, and like I told one of the SPP riders on Saturday, "I have 13.5 hours to do the ride, I may just take that long."

The first "mistake" I made on this ride was to plan it the morning after flying my daughter home to Virginia Beach. The flight was suppose to depart at 7:15, but did not leave until 8:30, which meant that I did not get home from the airport until 9:00 to start getting things together for the ride. I scrambled around, got the bike in the car, got the food and snacks that I needed together, plugged the Garmin into the laptop to charge, clothes to ride in and change into after the ride all ready to go for the morning and then I was in bed.

The morning of the ride came, I left the house, arrived at the Roy Rogers in Frederick with a few minutes to spare. So far so good. Figuring that I had plenty of time for this ride, I went into the Roy Rogers, which is the first control, ordered some breakfast potatoes (carbs are good, right?) so I could use that reciept for mt right of passage. It was 6:32. I got my control card signed and made my way back to the car, where I then took the bike out, put the rack pack on the bike, got the cycling shoes on, reflective gear, healmet, gloves, glasses etc. I did not leave the parking lot until about 6:50. 20 minutes wasted.

The ride started out great... the first few miles were very scenic and the roads had virtually no traffic on them. The air was cool, and after the past few weeks of hazy hot and humid weather, I enjoyed being just a little chilly as I rode. The terrain was hillier than I expected, but it wasn't hard to climb hill, but more of annoying undulations that prevented me from getting into any kind of pedaling rhythm.

At about mile 29 or so, my Garmin beeped. Low Batteries!!! Oh Crap (that is not what I REALLY said, but my Mom reads this blog, so I will not repeat what I really said) I plugged that in last night so it would charge. It was dead the other morning when I rode also... maybe the battery is bad? Why is it doing this? Well, I had another hundred miles to try to figure out in my head why the Garmin didn't cahrge. That didn't change the fact that it, at some point in the not too distant future, was going to die.

Now, some people use the Garmin to navigate during these perms, I am not one of those people. I had my cue sheet on my handle bars with my new cue sheet holder, so I knew that I would be able to finish with no problem. The Garmin finally went belly up around mile 42 or so, just before the second control stop. As I was pondering the "Why" of the dead battery, I am 99% sure that I determined the cause. At work we just got new laptops, and if you know anything about changing laptops or desktops you know that try as you may, you never get the new one "exactly" the same as the old one. You forget that you set the screen resolution from this to that because of this one program that runs better with that resolution. Or, you forget to prevent your laptop from hibernating so it can charge your Garmin overnight! Yeah, I think that is what did it, and the bad part is, that I heard the Garmin beep when the laptop hibernated, and I didn't give it a second thought.

My next thought was how to get the Garmin charged while on the ride. Maybe I would see a Staples, or even better a small computer repair shop that might have the proper cable to charge it for 1/2 hour. For those of you who have ridden this ride... you can stop laughing now. For those of you who have never been from Frederick, MD to Dover, PA... let me just say it is RRRRRRRRural. I gave up those thought when I asked at the first control if there was a computer repair shop anywhere near by and the lady told me there was a Verizon store on my way to Gettysburg. I would have to live without the Garmin... how bad could it be.

Have you ever heard the old expression, "You don't really miss something until it's gone"? Well, I realized that I rely on the Garmin a lot more that I realized. For me, the biggest thing that I missed about the Garin was not seeing the time. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but I have found that taking 1 e-cap every half hour, is critical to keep me hydrated and from not cramping up on the bike. In the heat of the day, I sometimes bump that up to every 20 minutes, but without having the Garmin on in front of me, I lost track of time... missed a few ecaps here and there, and I felt the effects. That feeling was cumulative and by the end of the ride, I was not feeling that great.

The Garmin is critical for measuring distance between turns also. Fortunately, most of the turns were at stop signs or at "T" intersections so they were easy to spot. There was one spot where I turned right and climbed a hill. I was suppose to take a right in .3 miles, but I was so glad to be at the top of the hill, and my mind was somewhere else I cruised right past the turn, down the other side of the hill and THEN realized I missed my turn. I had to turn around and climb the hill I just came down to make the turn. These are called "bonus" miles, and I try to avoid them at all costs. That happened to me one other spot, but I think over all, the bonus miles probably did not add up to more than 2 miles. Not that bad.

There were other challenges that I had to deal with. The hills. Like I said before, the hills were not too bad, but they were more of an annoyance. The "one big hill" that is advertised before lunch was formidable and was no fun climbing. and climbing it the other way after lunch was not as bad. Plus you had the nice "screaming" downhill to enjoy.

I also learned that when you ride on fresh asphalt (when I say fresh I mean, I passed the roller truck that was rolling over the top of it) your tires pick up a certain amount of stickiness, which is wonderful for helping glass stick to them and puncture your tubes. You guessed it, that is what happened to me. I came off the asphalt, and within a mile I had not just one flat, but BOTH tires were flat. I guess if I had to find the positive in this situation it would be that there was a nice shade tree with grass underneath it to sit down and change my tire under.

As with everything that I did with this ride, I took my time changing the tires. At all of the controls I sat and people watched for a little while and at lunch I lingered a little too long probably, but the little whole in the wall restaurant was a nice place to rest. I rode slow because I was in no rush. I had no reason to have to ride fast. There was no impending bad weather. There was no traffic on the road, as a matter of fact I drafed a tractor for the entire length of Possum Hollow Rd. I was not riding with anyone else that I was holding up. I just rode at my own pace.

Despite the minor issues that I had on the ride, I did thoroughly enjoy it. It seems also with each ride I have my faith in humanity restored just a bit. As I pulled into the parking lot at the final control I was walking my bike past my car and I noticed that the hazard light were flashing. Oh great, did the alarm go off and the lights kept flashing? How long have they been on? I finished up in the restaurant and came out and tried to start the car.... nothing! Ok, so I opened the hood in hopes that someone would maybe stop and see if I needed assistance. Heck, about 20 miles from the finish I dropped my water bottle... stopped, got off the bike and the only car I had seen in a few miles stopped and asked if I needed help. I guess I looked like I needed help. So no more than a couple minutes after I put my hood up, a truck with a towing trailer pulled up to tow the car right next to me. He gave me a jump and did not charge me anything for it. After telling him how many miles I had ridden he told me it was his pleasure. See that, there are good people in this world.

Not sure what I am going to do for the August 200k. I know that I am going to rest ly legs now for a while.

Thanks for reading.

Back into the swing of things

So I am back into the daily routine, if you can call it that. My body is wreck from the ride, lack of sleep and trying to re-acclimate myself to getting up early to ride... and going to work.

I have felt very tired this past week, and I am sure it is a combination of many factors conspiring to make me feel that way. The check has come due for what I put my body through last week. I trained for that ride, and I am thankful for every mile that I rode in preparation for the ride. It paid off, but I had never done that many miles in such a short period of time. So, I mortgaged some energy last week and I am making the payments this week. Not to mention the fact that I think I only got 3 "good" nights sleep during the week. I swear that on 2 of the nights I got more dehydrated laying in bed than I did on that days ride. Then, after the ride, I think that driving straight home was not the wisest choice. I was fine while I was driving, but that made for a very long day. Saturday was the party at Eddie & Tracy's which we did not get home from until midnight.

I have done some riding.... a couple of "wild" days with the peloton. Man they go fast. Monday was not so bad, because it was mosey Monday, but Wednesday was wicked (which is why we call it "Wicked Wednesday") I tried to keep up as much as I could, but Chip was shot of a canon and all I saw was the blinky blinky of their tail lights. We had a new rider with us, so Clint stayed back with him and I hung out somewhere in the middle.

I have missed having Mike to ride to work with. It is lonely riding alone, but more importantly, it is WAY too easy to turn the alarm off and sleep in a little longer when there is no one is expecting to meet you to ride into work together. Next week I will probably be riding with the peloton for most days. Our annual meetings at work are being held in Oregon, so I will adjust my hours just a bit to accommodate those extra users in a different time zone.

Emily is here this week, and she is doing her Phys. Ed class over the summer, so I know that her and I will be either walking/jogging or bicycle riding over the weekend. It is suppose to be 8,000 degrees this weekend, so I am hoping that I can pry her out of bed and get her out there early.

Enjoy the weekend... those of you in the heat... stay cool and stay hydrated!

Garmin data from Wicked Wednesday

Day 7... the push to the finish

The final day! The push to the finish. I laid in bed on Friday morning visualizing what it would be like to pull into the parking lot at Chomerics in Woburn, where this whole things started.

I got up and took a quick shower (even after taking a shower last night and knowing that I am going to do nothing but sweat all day, I still need a shower in the morning. It is part of the wake up process.) put on my bike shorts and a tee-shirt and brought my laptop case and fan down to the gear truck. There was a definitively different "buzz" around the truck this morning. Everyone was anticipating the return to home and normalcy. Riders who had, for whatever reason, that had stop riding throughout the week were back in bike gear ready to ride the final day. The riders who were normally barely awake on the other 6 days were bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to go. Breakfast seemed to rival one of the competitive eating  contests. Not so much the amount of food eaten, but the speed at which everyone seemed to plow through their food. Then it was back to the room, get the rest of your gear on the gear truck, get your bike ready to go, and start pedaling.

If you look at the elevation profile in the Garmin details below, you will see that at the beginning of the day, there were still a few climbs that we had to do before heading down to Woburn. These started almost immediately, and they were those l o n g never ending uphills, that are not very steep, just never seem to end. The five of us put our heads down, got into a good pedaling rhythm and made our way over the top. after about 3 or 4 of these climbs came the fruit of our labor... the best downhill of the ride. The road had been newly surfaced, the downhill was more gradual that the ones in the mountains, the road serpentined slightly,  and there was very little traffic. Before I knew it, we were at the first rest stop.

The rest stops on the last day were different as well. There was no sitting down and lounging. You got in, got what you needed, got rid of what you didn't need and then hit the road again. I made a quick pit stop, ate some watermelon and some granola, filled the water bottles, drank some gatorade and away we went.

The second rest stop was more of the same...get in get out and be done. There was a route change from previous years just ahead, so the volunteers did their best to get our attention and let us know to pay attention to the road markings. The next rest stop was different this year also... it stopped at an ice cream stand. So my ride between rest stop two and three was, for the most part, an ongoing conversation with myslef on the pro's and con's of getting a milk shake at the last rest stop. It has taken me months to tweak my eating habits while doing long rides on the bike. I have tried liquid protein, Gu gels, sport beans and the like, and I finally have it down well enough that I do not dehydrate of bonk while I am riding. Do I really want to mess with that formula at the last rest stop before the end of this big ride?

As we pulled into the parking lot of the third checkpoint, the volunteers had set up tents to the right, to provide us with shade during the stop, and the ice cream stand was to the left. As we pulled in, Rolland, Mike, Joe, Steve and Barb all headed to the right, but for some reason my bike just wouldn't turn that way. It headed right to the ice cream stand. I ordered my coffee milk shake and enjoyed it under the shade of the tents. It was alright, but it was not like Storm Bros. here in Annapolis, but it was OK.

We had 17 miles to go to the finish, and I figured that Rolland would start smelling home cooking and really start spinning the wheels to get back, especially on the flat terrain. Surprisingly, we kept a very comfortable pace and we all stayed together reasonably well, and before I knew it we were making the right onto Dragon Ct. Another 500 yards or so, and we would be done. We rode side by side, because Dragon Ct. Is basically a driveway into an industrial park area, congratulated each other and i thanked Rolland for being a great diesel engine. We crossed into the Chomerics parking lot to cow bells, applause, whistles and cheers.

 As we were cooling down, we began gathering our stuff off of the gear truck, packing bikes into the cars, taking pictures and changing out of sweaty bike clothes into drier more comfortable clothes. As I was walking around doing this, I had just about each one of the volunteers come up to me, congratulate me for finishing the ride, and thanking me for the money that I raised to help to find a cure to diabetes. I also had several of the riders, who I had not ridden with but knew that this was my first year riding, approach me, congratulate me and ask me if I would be back to do the ride again next year.

That is not really a question that I could answer only minutes after finishing the ride this year. According to the Garmin data, I rode 569 miles, climed 23,000 + feet through 4 states over the course of 7 days. That was not easy, but I have to say that the hardest part was raising the money. That seemed to be the consensus with all of the riders that i spoke to. My donors were awesome, and gave above and beyond what I EVER would have expected them to give. Friends, family, co-workers and even former in-laws all chipped in to help me reach my goal. I could not expect them to do that every year, so if I do decide to ride again, the fund raising will be approached in an entirely different manner.

I left the parking lot in Woburn with a feeling of accomplishment. I headed back to Maryland and arrived home at around 1:00 a.m. on Saturday morning. When I pulled into the garage I was greeted by this banner that Courtney, Bev and Donna made for me. I am so loved.

Garmin data below

Mission Accomplished

I finished the New England Classic today. 7 days, 4 states, 550 + miles.

I am driving back to Maryland tonight, so this is a VERY brief blog entry. I promise a full report of the last day of riding tomorrow, and a wrap up blog with an overall ride report before the weekend is over.