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.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
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:
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:
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, August 23, 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, July 23, 2010
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
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
Sunday, July 18, 2010
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
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.
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.
Garmin data below
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