Dearest Blog Reader;
I hope that this finds you doing well. It leaves my typing
fingers a little sore. I upped the training rides for the Cover Indiana ride this
past week. 50 miles at a 15 mph clip a week ago Saturday; 75 miles yesterday at
only 14 miles per hour, plus assorted 15 milers after work. I have no idea if
that is good or not; if I will be able to complete six consecutive 60 mile
rides. It does give me pause. The poet
in me thinks that the first down stroke on that Sunday morning in May will be
the hardest. The realist in me says “are you crazy? The 10,000th through
the 10,000,000th will be much harder.” In the end, I am pretty sure
that I will be better off if I don’t take both of them with me. I choose either
the poet or the realist and stop dithering.
The 75 mile trip is just a little longer than the longest
leg of the Cover Indiana tour. It has been very cool to have this big goal for
the 1st week of May. It is what got me out yesterday; the sky was
gray and overcast. In places on my ride, the clouds came down to the ground and
I was riding in the fog and light mist. It is a goal that convinced me to
wonder “where do you go for 75 miles?” It is a goal that delighted me to find
that you can go from my door to my daughter’s door in 76 miles. So I went the
extra mile to catch up with Grace, eat a wonderful pasta lunch and an get the opportunity
to warm up as my body cooled down. It is a goal where I confused March 16th
low 40 degree weather with May 6th 68 degree weather, so I did not
wear enough warm weather gear and felt like an ice cube the last 10 miles with
the 14 mph wind cutting through me.
While my legs were pretty tired at the end of both rides, I
am more concerned about how I am going to hold my head up out over my
handlebars for the 360 miles this May. You wouldn’t think that it would be a
huge challenge. I don’t have a freakishly large head. I manage to walk around
all day long without propping my head up. I don’t have to take 5 minute breaks
every hour to lay my head on a pillow or let my chin slump to my chest. I have
had pretty good luck at keeping my head erect all day long. However, it appears
that different forces are exerted on the noodle when leaning forward on a bike
for 3.5 or 5.5 hours while riding the back roads of central Indiana
My fifty miler did give me a certain amount of confidence
that I can make the entire route in six weeks. Actually, it was not the 50
miles. It was the 32 mile mark. I had been following the same route as previous
rides. In the past, at the 32 mile mark, I would have been getting to the end
of my rope. I couldn’t go any further. However, last week, I felt really good
at 32 miles. Hope is at the end of the tunnel. I was confident that I will
survive the first day of the six day journey.
The confidence that was garnered at the 32 mile mark was
lost at the 73 mile mark yesterday. I was three miles from home. The best I
could muster on my bike with a 14 mile 41 degree cross wind was a paltry 12
miles per hour. I was coming up on the 500 S – SR 9 cross road. I had to stop;
look both ways; do the story problem. If a semi-truck leaves that spot 300
yards away at 55 mph and the tired biker leaves his spot at 2 mph, will they
meet? Thankfully, I was so tired that the truck was past before I could write
out the answer. In that moment, I wondered how and doubted that I was going to
make it those last three miles. How am I going to make it 360 miles in May? So
the chicken crossed the road; trudged on home, changed out of its bike shoes
and slowly put one foot in front of another into the house; goal accomplished.
My other training is going fantastic. I am currently
sustaining a pint a day ice cream habit; no problem at all. My head is not
getting heavy. My legs are feeling good. My spoon hand is getting fit and
toned. I am so ready, to eat the ice cream that you are bringing to meet me on
the road. I am ready, to spend and evening with you and yours on an early May
evening with the flowers and future of summer opening up to us. I am ready to
write every evening about all of those things you want me to write.
I hope that your training is going well.
Take care,
Roger
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