DAILY BLOG

Jared and I approached the 100-mile mark for the first time this year, finishing up at 95.5 miles. Other than almost being swallowed by a couple Grand Canyon sized potholes in Keene, NH, we had an uneventful ride.

A 100 mile ride is known as a “century” in bike lingo.

Those 95 miles were the most I have ridden in a day since 1989, and they helped reaffirm my belief that riding long distances on a bicycle is a greater mental challenge than a physical challenge. There are mental undulations during any ride in which you are on the bike for several hours. Fatigue of a training ride can lead to doubt about being able to handle demands of a full cross-country tour. So, I am really going to ride this long day-after-day-after-day? The key is hanging in and remaining persistent during the low moments. Then, once those downer moments pass, then bicycling becomes a joy again.

I guess I should not be surprised at those rollercoaster moments on the bike, since that’s certainly what real life is like. The key is remaining firm in Jesus Christ during those inevitable low points and not giving in to the temptation to give up or lose faith in the Lord.

7 pounds. That’s my weight loss goal before the tour begins. It doesn’t sound like much, but, boy, it has proven elusive for me thus far. Clearly, training for a cross-country bike tour at 42 years of age is much different than when I was a spry age of 20. Back then, I remember being able to lose 7 pounds in a snap—all the while eating junk food around the clock. Since February, I have been stuck on essentially the same weight even though I’ve more than doubled my training regimen. Where is the justice?, me wonders.

Weight can become an obsession for bicycle riders—Carbon fiber this, titanium that—all in an effort to shave a few hundred or even a dozen grams off of the weight of their bicycle. And I suppose that’s part of the issue for me. I have an ultra light bicycle, so I figure I better back that up. It does little good, after all, to have a carbon fiber frame if I can “pinch in inch.”

Besides the light bike guilt factor, a second motivation for me are the mountains we will face in California, central Arizona, and especially Colorado. (Check out those red mountain icons on the early part of our tour schedule). Any extra weight I have on me is the equivalent of strapping on a 5-10 pound weight on my back and carrying it with me up the mountains.

When I see my son Jared (who has a body fat percentage of probably 3%!) glide up hills around here with the greatest of ease, I get that extra motivation to avoid the carbs when I am off the bike until I reach my weight goal. I’ve got 65 more days to do it!

One of the challenges I have had this spring is trying to determine, given a limited budget, the appropriate amount of spare parts and equipment that we will need on route when/if things go wrong or when equipment (e.g., tires, chains) naturally wears out. With four of us riding, there are just so many variables.

How many flat tires should we plan on? Will a puncture ruin just the tube or the tire as well? Consider the likely scenario of one of us hitting a pothole somewhere along the way. Will we just need to true the wheel? Or will we need to fix broken spokes as well? Or could the rim break and permanently ruin the wheel? Will we need to replace brake pads? What about a spare chain? You get the idea.

Just how many of these nasty things are
we going to have over 2,500 miles?

For bicycle tours that have an open or flexible schedule, these issues are a little easier to deal with—simply take a spare tire/ tube, a couple spokes, and a spare chain, and for anything more serious, simply find the nearest bicycle store on route and let them fix it. However, because we have a fixed 28-day schedule with several events already planned along the way, we have little or no margin for error. If we assume nothing is going to go wrong, then we could find ourselves off the the bike, looking desperately for a bike store in the middle of the Arizona desert or else spending a fortune on an overnight Fedex shipment of a new part. But at the same time, we can’t take along everything nor could we afford accounting for every eventuality.

Perhaps another apparent victim of Rt. 62 West
(did I mention it is the worst road in the history of western civilization?)

I am relying on my experience from my two cross-country bicycle tours earlier in my life, advice from other bicyclists, and long hours of research on the web. But in the end, deciding on equipment to bring along is proving to be an exercise of weighing pocketbook concerns along side scenario management—and praying for wisdom each step of the way.

We rode out of state for the first time, passing into New Hampshire for a few miles, before returning home.

New Hampshire has no income tax, yet has great roads for bicycling…
How in the world do they pull that off?

In all, we bicycled 70 miles on that route, which is the most we’ve gone so far this year. Our goal is to continue to increase our distance each week, hitting the 100 mile mark by mid-May.

We are suckers for milestones. Our first 70 mile ride.

Jared, showing off his new cycling sunglasses.

Since it has been a couple weeks since I last posted, I thought I’d update you on the training. Spring has finally arrived over the past week, and we’ve been able to ride outside nearly everyday. As such, Jared and I have started to get in some longer rides—trying to go at least 30 miles a day and several in the 50-60 range. But trying to schedule these workouts during a busy work and school week may be the biggest struggle of all.

A sunny day!

The bike tour is clearly shaping up to be a true “family thing”, not just a “dad thing”. Jared is just 15 years old, but he is proving to be up to the challenge of riding the complete 2,500 miles this summer. I hate to admit it, but I have a strong feeling he’ll be beating me up those major summits in Colorado. Justy (14 yrs.) and Jordan (17 yrs.) may not be planning to ride the full distance across the country like Jared and I (they expect to ride about 1/2 the time), but they are riding very strong. They are usually riding at least 20 miles per day, and we make for a great 4-rider paceline when we go out as a foursome.

Just between you and me, I have personally been very impressed at the level of progression that each of the boys have made in their riding abilities over the past few weeks and months. (Ok, that was clearly a “proud dad” sort of comment.)

“Uh, Justy, don’t look behind you but…”

Jordan, enjoying the ride

Today, we discovered the absolute worst road in the history of western civilization. Rt. 62 West into the neighboring town of Barre proved to be worse than any roads I remember when I visited the developing country of Haiti. Potholes for 8 miles, some bent on swallowing bikers whole (watch out Justy!), others just trying to mangle our rims (watch out Shimano!). A mountain biker might enjoy it, but that section was a road cyclist’s nightmare. However, we survived and found one road that we will never ever ride on again.

One of the smoother sections of Rt. 62 West. We decided not to show you the worst
parts of the road as they would have surely deserved a PG-13 or R rating!

One the struggles of the preparation for the bike tour is finding enough time in the day for long distance training. A 20-25 mile ride is easy to squeeze into the afternoons, but trying to go 50 or more miles during a weekday is hardly possible, given everything else going on in our lives. This week, however, the boys are on spring break, so we have had more flexibility than usual. Today, the weather cooperated, so we decided to ride at least 50 miles—a good early spring milestone as we build up towards 100-120 miles. We almost made it. However, because of a dentist appointment I had to get the kids to, we were only able to fit in 44 miles. But we felt good afterwards, so we feel like we are on track for June.

WARNING: Looking directly into Rich’s sunglasses can cause retina burns!

The 50 degree weather was short-lived, however. By the next morning we were greeted with an April snow shower:

Back to the indoor trainers