Character building

Most think of the physical challenge in endurance efforts. But there is also a mental challenge on some days. Wednesday was one of those days. I had checked the wind forecast on Tuesday night knowing that Wednesday was supposed to be windy. The forecast called for light winds until later in the day. But it was apparent at 7 am that the winds would be high at an early hour. I left at 8 into the teeth of the wind. As there no good routes to head south into the wind for a long distance and then enjoy a tailwind all the way home, I elected to just ride back and forth, south and north. The longest stretch into the wind was 12 miles, taking more than an hour. It was definitely a mental challenge into the wind. At times, I was slowed to 8 mph on the flat. The worst was the crosswinds. With 3 miles to go, it knocked me off the road surface. Fortunately, I was able to get the brakes on and a foot on the ground before going down a grassy hillside. When I got home, the local weather station 2 miles from the house was registering a wind of 24 mph with a high gust of 48 mph. Cyclists laugh on such days saying it builds character. Does it? I don't know, but I had enough of the wind yesterday.

Hard Effort

I am not a bike racer. At least not this year. It takes a different type of training than preparing for long distance tours. I have started to incorporate more interval efforts in my training, including some climbing repeats.

I did join a racing club in February. The COBRAS is a close-knit group of riders. COBRAS stands for Colorado Bike Racing Association for Seniors. I enjoy riding with them on the weekends and helping out at the 7 ride time trial series that the club sponsor. On Sunday, they had a practice time trial for the coming weekend's Lookout Mountain Hill Climb. This ride is a 4.56 mile, 1300 foot ascent. I went hard from the start, tiring some in the last 1/4 mile or so of the ascent. My time was 30:23. When I got home, I checked last year's times for the 55-64 age group. My time would have been 36th of 44 riders had I participated last year and 5th of 10 within our club. Hard to believe that the winning time in the age group was 21 minutes. Still, I thought I had accomplished much and that times would improve with more hard efforts like this one. The picture is from the ascent of Lookout Mountain.

The Route

This trip travels through nine states, touching Kentucky only for a few miles after leaving Tennessee and crossing into Missouri. If I find a way, I hope to cross into Arkansas from Memphis on our rest day, adding another state to the list. All but two states will be new for me on a bicycle. When I finish, I will have travelled through more than two-thirds of the country on a bicycle. Maybe someday I will have reached all 50 states.

May 11, New Orleans to Gonzales, LA, 61 miles

May 12, St. Francisville, LA, 55 miles

May 13, Natchez, MS, 65 miles

May 14, Vicksburg, MS, 90 miles

May 15, Greenville, MS, 100 miles

May 16, Clarksdale, MS, 82 miles

May 17, Senatobia, MS, 62 miles

May 18, Memphis, TN, 64 miles

May 19, rest day in Memphis

May 20, Ripley, TN, 79 miles

May 21, Union City, TN, 69 miles

May 22, Cape Girardeau, MO, 91 miles

May 23, St. Genevieve, MO, 67 miles

May 24, St. Louis, MO, 84 miles

May 25, rest day in St. Louis

May 26, Louisiana, MO, 105 miles

May 27, Hannibal, MO, 35 miles

May 28, Keokuk, IA, 60 miles

May 29, Galesburg, IL, 96 miles

May 30, Moline, IL, 93 miles

May 31, Galena, IL, 62 miles

June 1, Prairie du Chien, WI, 71 miles

June 2, La Crosse, WI, 66 miles

June 3, Red Wing, MN, 100 miles

June 4, Eagan, MN 61 miles

Getting ready for another adventure

I have always had a passion for fitness. It started at an early age. We had track and field in grade school. My mother was of Finnish heritage. She told me of the great Finnish running tradition when she was a young girl and how the runners would tour the Finnish communities in the US. That sparked an interest in long distance running for me. If I could run injury-free now, I would still be running. But cycling is a great substitute.

In order to keep up an interest in fitness, I have to set goals. This year, I will be riding from New Orleans to Minneapolis beginning on May 11 and ending June 4. The ride basically follows the Mississippi River. It should be a great ride. There are only 13 riders on the tour. My roommate will be John Hicks, who I have been with on two previous tours. John lives in Northern Ireland and with the current embargo on air travel from Europe due to the volcanic ash plume, I am really praying that he will be able to come to America.

I will pass 2,000 training miles for the year on today's ride. I think that I am as fit as I have been for any of the tours in the past 6 years. I adopted a different approach this year. It is more structured with harder efforts and seems to have paid off with better fitness.

Cheers,

Tom

Final day to Abilene, KS

I really enjoyed this ride. After a few problems with sore knees during the first week, everything went smoothly. I was the most relaxed of any ride (5) that I have done. The Crossroads Cycling staff was tremendous as usual. All of the riders were very complimentary of the staff. From left to right in the photo, Adam (Tracy's nephew), Tracy, me, Margaret, and Mack. This was Margaret's tenth tour and Mack's fifth tour as staff. They make everything seamless for the riders. Thanks also to Tracy's parents, Red and Sally, who helped out through Santa Fe. I also enjoyed my part-time role on the staff.

I rode the last day with my XC05 riding partner, Jim Heller. It was great to team up with him again. We are only one state apart and should do this more often, as with Jim and Deb Whitfill. The wind was out of the south again today. We had 22 miles heading due east and averaged 16.9 mph through that point. By the SAG at 30 miles, the average was up to 17.9 mph. By the end of the day at 62 miles, the average speed was 19.3 mph and could have been 20+ had we chosen to push the pace. We love the Kansas south wind!

While I enjoy the scenery and marvel at how expansive and varied that America is, the best part of the rides is meeting other people who share my passion for cycling. This year's group was fantastic. It was smaller than the typical group and enabled us to connect with each other to a greater extent. Thank all of you for making it a great tour.

I ended the ride by calling Robin from the Abilene town limit. She was just leaving the Eisenhower museum. Three minutes later we were hugging and kissing. It seems hard to believe that it had been 26 days since we had been together. Thank you again, Robin, for being so patient during my absence and letting me go on another trip.

We left Abilene the next morning and spent the day driving to the Mt. Rushmore area, a drive of some 700 miles. We will spend 3 days here seeing the sights. The drive here was terrific, seeing more of America. It was back to life in the fast lane, after 3 weeks in the slow lane. Still, Robin and I had lots of time to marvel at more of America and catch up on everything.

Thanks for following along on my latest adventure. Hope that you lived it vicariously through me. Until the next time...

Tom

Great Bend to McPherson

After yesterday's great tailwind, the forecast was for a south wind of 20 to 25 mph and we were heading east. A crosswind that strong could be dangerous for us. Fortunately, the wind was not that strong. After the SAG at 31.5 miles, the wind seemed to be out of the SSW. Our speeds picked up noticeably. The ride was mostly flat with a few small hills to climb. I rode with Tom and Bob for the first 25 miles, stopped to take pictures of other riders, and then rode in to the SAG with a large group.

I was in between groups after the SAG with no inclination to catch anyone for quite awhile. I finally did, rode ahead again, and then stopped for more rider pictures. It took me quite awhile to catch back up this time, all the way to McPherson's town limits. It was a fun day with equal parts of easy and hard riding. Here are some photos of my riding buddies, Hank, and Tom and Bob. I am meeting some 2005 XC riders this afternoon: Jim Heller and Jim and Deb Whitfill.

Getting out of Dodge City quickly

It was quick because we had a great tailwind today. The ride was effortless all day long. I averaged 19 mph and the average heartbeat was only 92. Many riders pressed on hard to the hotel just to see how fast the day could be. Yesterday, I rode at the front and today I rode at the back for over 60 miles. No hurry when the effort is so little. I did pass some lunching riders in Larned. Sadly, the restaurant I stopped at 4 years ago was for lease and closed.

George and I stopped at Pawnee Rock, a lookout point along the old Santa Fe trail. It was an important vista in the mostly otherwise featureless plains. I took a few snaps there.

People have interesting bikes. Champ has a seat that looks like a shark bit off the front half of it. It is designed for male anatomical comfort and he swears by it. Champ also rides with pedals that we all used in the 50s and 60s. He generates adequate power, much to my surprise. His bike in Los Angeles looked brand new when I unpacked it. It was not new; his bike store had cleaned it so well that it looked brand new. Harry has custom made handlebars with the Spiderman theme on them. Someone said that the bars cost $2,000. One of his wheels is Campy carbon and costs $3,000, or more than many bikes on this tour. The full bike is well over $10,000. Harry rides with a stuffed dog on the bars and a small aquarium with fake fish under the seat. I am finally getting used to his Liverpool accent although I still do miss some words.

Just two more days of riding for me.

Cheers,

Tom