Preparing to go

We start pedaling on June 16.  Before that day, however, there are a few things to do.  On January 28, my 60^th birthday and an auspicious day for such a commitment, the deposit was paid.  The rest of the bill was due on April 8, 70 days before the big day.  Just as the people who had paid deposits before April 1 were paying the balance due, America by Bicycle dropped the price by $250 for people who had not paid a deposit and did not drop it for those who had.  You place your bet and you take your chances.

On June 9, I will commit my treasured bike to the tender mercies of FedEx.  It won't be easy.  On June 12 at 8am, I will get on a train from Denver to Sacramento  and arrive on June 13.  After a 9-hour layover, at midnight on June 13, I will get on another train from Sacramento to Portland.  After a 3-hour layover on June 14, I'll be on a bus to Astoria, which will stop at about 8:30pm very near the hotel where my treasured bike awaits.  By the way, the hotel, the Holiday Inn Express in Astoria, has a reservation policy that is draconian.  Make a reservation, even months ahead, and you will never see your money again.  They insist on a deposit, by which they mean the entire bill, in advance, at the time of the reservation and with no canceling allowed after that moment. 

Speaking of my treasured bike, let me be more specific.  It's a Colnago EPQ with a Campagnolo Record 11 group.  That's a carbon road bike, which was certainly not intended to be a touring bike.  That means no concessions to racks because the carbon frame, fragile compared to metal frames, might be damaged by the load.  Light, strong, cheap --- pick one.  When I picked carbon, I picked light at the expense of strength and price and got what I paid for.  I took it home in February and have ridden only 900 miles so far because of a snowy spring.  Even after 900 miles on the bike, I still marvel at how smooth and light it is.  It's a joy.

I have another tour in mind, a grander tour,  although supported, that requires strength above all.   A carbon frame would not survive --- steel or titanium is called for and I don't know about aluminum.  Tour d'Afrique is a company in Toronto.  The tour at the top of my list is this one.  Follow this link and let it sink in so a trip across the US will have a context.  The rest of my list is this company's other tours. 

But the Colnago is not a touring bike so I have a luggage problem even on a credit-card tour with support vehicles.  The luggage that makes this a problem is mainly clothing.  It's too hard to stuff a raincoat into a seat bag.  It would be nice to take a camera and a phone but the seat bag may not be big enough for them.  A gorilla pod may be useful but how can I carry it?  There will be some long days so a little food would be good because it's a long way between towns in the west.  No matter how good the reasons for the luggage, carrying luggage on a carbon bike is a problem.  Fortunately, the number of days of iffy weather is small, I have jersey pockets, and I'm willing to carry a light load in a small, light backpack.  The one that I chose stuffs into a pocket in itself and has a mesh back panel.  It's small, it's light, it's screaming yellow (a safety feature), and it can hold 15 liters.

A carbon bike requires a special tool.  The special tool is a torque wrench.  They're not cheap, either, but it's better than damaging the frame.  I bought one because I should know how to do certain basic things and a torque wrench is often required.  The group requires a cassette lock ring tool, too.  America by Bicycle's mechanic can be expected to assemble the bikes in Astoria but I should learn how to take care of my new bike just as took care of my 30-year old Eddy Merckx, a steel bike of a different era.  I have a can of degreaser, a bottle of chain lubricant, and a bunch of rags.  Maybe those things will be supplied but I have no reason to presume.  I have four tubes and a patch kit, which I hope will be enough.  I will bring two spare tires because there is a small chance of fatal tire damage and because I expect to wear out a set on the trip anyway.  A few spare spokes are in the bag, too.  Something else that has to be watched is the chain.  For that, I have a handy chain test tool and a spare link.  Campagnolo cassettes are an expensive motive to minimize the damage of a worn chain.

A voice of experience, Joel, said that a Best Western loyalty card was a good idea so I got one.  I won't be surprised to see quite a few Best Western hotels when I receive the tour packet. 

So, collecting stuff is almost done and packing is being considered.  Once I've collected the stuff and the bags to pack it in, maybe I'll have to reconsider the stuff.  What's left?  Hmm...  Ah, yes, training.  Training is left.  Winter's icy breath can still be felt but training has to happen.

When I was thinking about this last fall, I thought about riding 3000 miles this year before June.  That would have been easier last winter when there was much less snow but we can't complain about more water out here in the high desert.  This year, I've logged only 1500 miles.  Right now, outside my door, is some snow that's melting fast, snow that could be the last of the season.  The forecast for the next seven days shows highs in the range of 54°–72°. 

But what exactly should I do when the weather is good?  I rode quite a bit last year (4000 miles) until I broke my collarbone and wrist on August 29.  Now, 8 months later, my collarbone is still not healed.  My best hope is what the orthopedist calls a delayed union, which is better than the previous  non-union.  Some motions and loads remind me that something's not right but, otherwise, I have no symptoms.  That's why I decided not to have  the surgery required to screw the two broken ends together.)  X-rays, however, show only the beginning of calcification of the tissue that stabilizes the broken ends.  I've been hoping that the mild stress on the area caused by cycling would stimulate further calcification but I won't know what's happening until September.

For deciding what to do, I rely on the heart monitor built into my new, marvelous Garmin Edge 810.  For February, March, and the first half of April, I saw a pattern of perceived effort and heart rate.  My usual training route is so well known to me that I know every bump and have many checkpoints.  Training using a heart rate monitor depends on knowing one's maximum heart rate.  It can be estimated with a definite confidence interval or it can be measured in a lab.  My treadmill test says 155, which seems low.  Perhaps doing it on a treadmill lowered it.  The estimate → 206.9 - (0.67 * age) = 166 ± 7 (where 7 = standard deviation) for age = 60.

Until last week, my heart rate, on a long hill on my usual route at the end of a 30 mile ride that I use as a daily time trial, would top out at about 130.  At that point, I was sucking air, my legs hurt, and I wanted very much to slow down.  Beginning last week and continuing afterward, I was still sucking air, my legs did not hurt, I did not want to stop, and my heart rate was 140–146.  I've noticed other discontinuous changes while training.  This one is the most striking.  I suspect a raising of my lactate threshold, which might explain why my legs didn't hurt.

I've been building a base of miles but I am still too slow, especially on hills.  Anyone can drop me on a hill.  I bomb down a pass with nearly anyone but uphills kill.  The obvious solution that will deliver the biggest bang for the buck is to lose about a half-ton.  Recently I took a trip and had to carry my family's 45-pound bag.  (It was a good thing that the bag had wheels.)  How much faster would I be without that bag on the bike?  It will take longer than I hoped but, meanwhile, I can do intervals.  I expect intervals to have the effect that I observed last week.  I'm betting that more of the same will have more than one desired effect. 

Some of the training isn't riding the bike.  After reading about the overuse injuries on last summer's ride, I started investigating.  The results are that I do exercises on my basement floor and in doorways to strengthen certain muscles that are neglected when riding.  These other muscles should be strong to stabilize the hips and upper body against the considerable forces generated by the legs.  If they're neglected, so the argument goes, overuse injuries may result and the probability goes up with overuse.  The case is made in the first half of Tom Danielson's Core Advantage.  Bicycling Magazine's are good, too: Core Values, Core, Sitting Disease.  The area that I have most woefully neglected is the plank and the transverse plank.  The suggestion is to do these for 60 seconds/rep but I can manage only 20 seconds each.  I'm also betting that these exercises will be reasonable measures to prevent overuse injuries and to ride more comfortably all day.

 

There's a cold wind blowing from the north. Winter comes again.

I went south for a change to Hess hill, a 3-mile grind up a hill of about 6%. It's better than the bike path. On the way home, there was some typical Colorado spring weather --- stinging rain for a few minutes with a temperature drop of 5--10 degrees and a stiff north wind followed by sunny skies and clear sailing.

This was a long one. Forty miles to the top of Lookout Mountain (including some wrong turns). Barely made it home before sunset.

If this weather continues, I'll have my miles racked up by June. It's an iffy if, though. The arrangements are made now. The die is cast, the course is set, and the momentum is irresistible. The beginning is all over but the training.