Preparing to
go
We start pedaling on June 16. Before that day, however, there are a few
things to do. On January 28, my 60th
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.
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.