Big Ride - Week 1 stats

As some may know, I use this great site www.myclinglog.com to keep my riding stats. It does things like averages, total miles ridden a month/week, and so on. So here's some interesting info about week 1 of The Big Ride:

• Total Ride time was 27 hours 37 minutes and 39 seconds
• Total number of rides: 6
• Total miles ridden: 508.89
• Average speed was 15.63 mph

No wonder I'm beat and looking at getting 9-10 hours of sleep tonight. Hope everyone is enjoying the blog. I'm still working on the photos, should be coming soon.

Big Ride - Day 7 - Sandpoint, ID to Thompson Falls, ID

We finished our first week! We also crossed into a new state: Montana!

It was a pretty rough day. I woke up and didn't really want to ride. I was slow to get packed up, get breakfast, and that resulted in being one of the last out of camp. The beginning ride was gorgeous of course. Idaho really has some of the best scenery I've ever seen. The mountains, lakes, rivers, and valleys look like they are right out of a painting.

About 20 miles into the trip my left leg was starting to ache. The only way I could sum up the pain is that it was similar to shin splints, but this time it was all in the left side of my calf and back of my knee.

22 miles in I realized that it must be my seat height. I removed my seat post on our rest day to see if my rack was making it crack and must have put it in a little high. After two tweaks and icing at the next rest stop (half way point) I was starting to feel good. The rest stop was also a blast since me, Austin, Ed, Rachel, Chad, Greg, and Simon sat around over an hour just relaxing and joking around. I actually passed out for about 5 minutes on the picnic table since I was beat from only getting 7 hours of sleep. Yes, I now realize it takes 8 hours to do this ride comfortably, and probably 9 if you want to really perform.

Anyway, after some caffeine we were back on the road. Rest stops were every 20 miles, with water fill ups every 10. That worked out great seeing as the day started to hit the 100+ degree mark. The last 20-30 miles of the trip went pretty fast as I was loaded on caffeine and looking to get a shower ASAP. When I finally got into Thompson Falls, MT it was about 120 degrees F.

Some other highlights:

• Early morning 1 mile pace line drills with Austin and Ed
• Welcome to Montana sign
• 1-2 hour rest stop to joke around and relax
• Ruffles are awesome for salt
• Redbull and caffeine cure everything
• Ice cream bars at 3rd rest stop (thanks Ed!)
• Pouring ice water on our heads for instant cool down.
• Ice towel at last water stop... brilliant idea Mark!
• Never realizing I could bike like that in 100+ heat.

Final Ride Stats

Mileage:

91.67 miles

Time:

5:47'00

Avg Speed:

15.8 mph

Max Speed:

33.6 mph

Big Ride - Day 6 - Spokane, WA to Sandpoint, ID

We crossed over our first state. We're out of Washington and in Idaho for the day before starting a long trek across Montana. Yesterday's rest day was perfect and woke up feeling fresh and ready to go. Some of that went away as the cue sheet was confusing and some thought the Letty, Rachel, and Cati were lost, so I sprinted to try and track them down. Turns out they weren't lost and I didn't have to do around 22-25mph to catch them. Oh well, it was a fun way to start the day. I met up with the regular I ride with at the first SAG stop where we made our PB&J sandwiches and the luxury of some ice cold Reese's peanut butter cups. I continued on down the road and ended up riding with Noah and Doug. While riding along Diamond Lake, Noah got the great idea to stop and dip out feet in. That was the most refreshing stop ever on this trip so far. Many thanks to the gentleman who let us go in his back yard and use his pier to take pictures of the lake and enjoy the water.

The 2nd SAG stop was in the middle of the Rodeo parade where I ate some pizza for lunch. I hidden PB&J was in one of the SAG cars that weren't at this stop. Not the best pizza but I was starving only have eaten a clif bar since breakfast. We rode out as a big group and crossed into Idaho. Lots of pictures were taken in front of the welcome sign.

Once in Idaho we found some tough climbs as we biked along some river. The road and river made for some gorgeous pictures.

Finally we got into camp. I quickly set up my tent and changed as we were planning to hit up the river beach to go swimming. The water felt great and we got yelled at for breaking almost all the rules: no diving off the dock, no swimming beyond the logs, no shoving each other in, etc.

Afterwards it was back to camp for dinner and a pleasant surprise: it was Clifford's 69th birthday, so we had cake and ice cream. Now it's time to shower and hit the hay as tomorrow looks like a 100 degree day and another 80+ miles.

Final Ride Stats

Mileage:

84.50 miles

Time:

5:36'56

Avg Speed:

15.0 mph

Max Speed:

30.6 mph

Big Ride - Day 5 - Spokane (Rest Day)

Loooots of food. Up at 7am-ish and hit up a breakfast buffet. Had some tea which was a first in a few months. Went to REI for the first time. Some cool stuff, debated asking when the rock climbing wall would be open, but then realized my legs would never get me up a wall. Back to the dorm and it was nap time. More food at David's pizza. Got to the library finally to update/fix the blog. Uploaded a ton of pictures to Flickr and realized I hit my limit for the month. Looks like I'll have to figure out a new way to host and post thumbnails. Back to the dorms for some chain cleaning with everyone. Then off to get more food and visit my first Sonic. The burger was "eh" but the Reese's Sonic Blast was great. Traded massages with Rachel and never realized how knotted my back gets. Did some laundry, stretched, and hit the couch to get some sleep. It was back to the 5am schedule in the morning.

Big Ride - Day 4 - Odessa to Spokane

One of the most fun riding days so far. Left in a big group riding with Greg, Chad, Noah, Austin, Ed, Ruben, and Steven.

Highlights included:

• "Musical Day"
• Singing any song that came to mind and doing a good rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody as we headed down the road
• Coming up with ideas for the first ever Country Cat - an Ally Cat style race that will occur during one of our more boring riding days. We'll have to do something crazy at each SAG stop before getting sign off from Nick, Mark, or Dan and continue on our way.
• Great brunch in Davenport
• Welcome to Reardan sign that we turned into Welcome to Rear
• Meeting another group of riders biking across the country
• A joke of a "9 mile climb"
• Great tailwinds
• Gorgeous views as we rolled into Spokane along the river and up some steep late day climbs
• David's pizza and talking to the manager about cycling for almost an hour
• Pita Pit and junk food for dinner #3 around 11pm
• Prank planning and hanging out in the lounge with everyone till around 2am

Big Ride - Day 3 - Vantage to Odessa

Great ride from Vantage to the the high school field where we camped out in Odessa, WA.

Not enough time to blog about the day so I'll have to get to it later. Lots of pictures... lots of "scrub land" and rode with Rocketman Steven most of the day.

Stats were lost while chowing down at Subway with Bob and Steven. Average was around 15.6-15.8 mph

Big Ride - Day 2 - Easton to Vantage

Felt great with 8 hours of sleep. Woke up 4:15am hungry, but decided to sleep another 45 min and wait for breakfast. Woke up again at 5am fresh and ready to ride. Packed up camp and then got some bagels w/ cream cheese for breakfast. 46 degrees out was might cold. Last minute clothing change from fleece and pants to riding gear and I was off. I was one of the last 3 out of camp and quickly caught up to people. By the time we hit some serious climbs I was with Noah, Simon, 3 girls from DC. Hit the down hill and passed Kevin, Steph, and Patty Harm. Got scared by logging truck parked on the side of the road as we went downhill into a turn. Road on and off with Noah, Cati, and simon for a while into rest stop along the hills/rest stop. I pulled off on a side road to see if there was an outlook by some hay stacks and a barn but no luck. Got to the rest stop and took some pictures with everyone. Took off again. Eventually the roads became mundane and took off with Noah. Rolled into rest stop by Red Dragon (?). Found out there was an electronics store near by and got a real camera... cell phone pics weren't doing it. That delay kept me from catching Noah, Simon, Ruben, and Steven. Found the 3 DC girls at a star bucks as I head back out but quickly lost them as we hit the long, low grade climb. Rode the rest of the way alone. The 10 mile downhill into camp was AWESOME. I pedalled hard to get my mph above 40, getting around 42-43 before turning into some nasty side winds that blew me a little too much on the road, so I kept it at about 30-35mph.

Got into camp and set up the tent. Got lunch at Blustery's with Bob, Ruben, Steven, and Noah. Came back and made some calls to friends and family. It was great hearing from them and how proud they were about what I'm doing. Sometimes I really forget how impressive this trip is... to me it's become just like a vacation to Hawaii, but longer... and more fun... and more peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. After the calls Ruben, Noah, Steven, Simon, and Nick (mechanic) headed down to the Columbia river where we dove off the pier and just shot the shit. Came back to shower and get dinner again at Blustery's... they are nice enough to make us free dinner AND breakfast. Dinner was great and we celebrated Steven's birthday... who will now be called "rocket man".

Side Story: Steven was riding today w/ no shirt and only a camelback on. He has tan lines like he's a superhero that flies around with a jetpack... hence the new nickname: Rocketman.

After dinner I headed back to camp to catch up on the blog and write down today's events. All around a great day, great weather, and great ride. Can't wait to see what's in store tomorrow.

Stats:

distance:

76.64

avg:

17.4

max:

42.5

time:

4:23'01