There have been many rides, and many different experiences, you can say we have a history. Here is a few favorites for the highlight reel.
1. Finishing 4th place our 2nd year--only to realize that James had vomited all over my back.
2. Breaking a chain, only to be rescued by other bikers with a tool (note to self, put a chain tool in bag).
3. Riding a massive downhill only to get the wheel ride into a frozen rut. As I steered it out it failed, at 28 M.P.H.
4. The ride where I bonked so hard I could not pedal any longer. James Volunteered to captain so we switched seats. I was so exhausted and disoriented that I could not hold on to the handle bars and coordinate with James' pedaling, so I fell off.
5. Riding the two-track where the off road trucks had packed fallen snow into ice and we slid down the hill on our sides still clipped into our tandem-now-bobsled.
6. Last year's race we flatted with 15 minutes to the start of the race. Flatted 2 minutes into the race and flatted again 10 minutes later.
7. Last Saturday the Barry County Road Commission graded the roads churning up the gravel to a nice 2-3 inch layer of fluffy sand and dirt and stones like riding a scree field of glacial till on the beach in winter we were filthy. The effort it took felt like we were like riding in glue--smiles all around.
7. The bike got so filthy that the drive train was coated and the chain broke at mile 10. (Previously placed chain tool as missing from bag!) Which made for a long walk until a good Samaritan stopped and gave us a lift back to our car in Hastings, from the middle of nowhere.
So Barry Roubaix and I have some history. The question of the day is what kind of ride would it be?
It is supposed to get really cold this weekend thanks to a Canadian Arctic air mass that is coming. (No offense meant to any potential Canadian readers out there, but I feel like this gets written to the closet, so if you object, do reply!) So we figured it would be really cold and snow is probably coming--better get a ride in while you can, or end up on the trainer (a.k.a. soul drainer).
The ride began with the temps around 40 degrees, perfect! The gravel was hard and smooth, what a difference a week makes back here! In the shady spots the snow pack was more like polished ice. We occasionally broke traction briefly in the rear whilst climbing, but such moments were rare and do little to get the heart rate moving.
Where it gets more interesting is in the low sections where water often gathers and ruts that are frozen make for a rough ride. (see #3 above as to why I care.) We generally took our time more and just took it pretty easy on most downhills.
The first 2 track was where the chain broke last weekend and we rode it very gingerly, keeping light and constant pressure on the chain. We did not have to dismount and it went just fine! The next stretch included some downhills on chip-sealed pavement. We hit speeds around 35 MPH for most of it! The next 2 track was much rougher. When the thaw came the off road rednecks really tore it up. There were many new ruts that made for some interesting moments and, several of the deeper puddles were just frozen solid. we dismounted twice for ice, so as to keep our clavicles intact.
After the 2 track we were on gravel for the rest of the ride and we were beginning to see clear tracks of another bike or two out there.
I began to think of other Sea-to Sea riders who were out training. They are invisible to me, but I know that they are out there, just like these other riders. It is encouraging to take part of something as big as Sea to Sea and think about the impact that it can have on the world. However, as the hills continued to roll at us hard I stopped all beautiful thoughts of Sea to Sea and began to wonder when we find the car. The course changed this year and this is the first time that we made it past the 10 mile mark on the new route, so we were still getting our bearings on the new layout.
Then I began to get discouraged. This is hard. Really hard. Both James and I were cramping up after the 2 hour mark. We certainly were not being very smart in terms of nutrition--and now it was time to pay.
We made it back to the car. And we greedily drank our recovery Gatorade, but were still famished. So we rolled into downtown Hastings and got a burger before driving home. More training. It needs to happen.
Here is a link to the Garmin site where you can see where we were.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/263776340
Thanks for reading.
~ Mark
If you would like to send us some encouragement we would love for you to donate to Sea to Sea for either myself or James
No comments:
Post a Comment