“Is this Heaven?” “No it’s Iowa”

The above is a line from the movie Field of Dreams, where Shoeless Joe Jackson and Ray Kinsella have an exchange.

Well Tucson is not heaven but its darn close for cyclists. Each winter all types of riders appear in this Western town to take advantage of some outstanding cycling routes, the mountains, the elevation, and pretty swell weather. Pros train here as do high ranked amateurs, local enthusiasts, and of course old hacks like myself. But we all share one commonality, we love to bike.

Today I took advantage of a perfect day to ride “the Loop”. Tucson has created an extensive network of bike paths and the portion I rode today was 53 miles. I rode with another older rider, Chris Dansdill, but frankly he is a much stronger rider (and 120 pounds lighter) than me. But we knocked out the K ride averaging about 16mph and it was enjoyable but certainly tiring. I set 30 personal records on stretches we rode, so clearly Chris pushed me to a higher level of performance. For that I thank, AND, curse him. But I did beat him on effort as I averaged 130 watts to his 90 watts.

In my last post I posed the question why would someone like me take on a 3000+ mile TransAmerica ride. After some consideration I came up with a few of the following reasons.

1. Having been an athlete and fitness enthusiast my adult life I find there are few things I can do better than in the past. So of course since I have never ridden across the U.S. this will be a personal best achievement.
2. At this age I finally have the time and financial resources to take on this type of ride.
3. My “use by date” is rapidly approaching and my window for doing this is closing.
4. This will be more of a mental test than a physical test. I am confident that I have the physical capacity to do this, but mentally it will be a challenge. This will test my mental discipline.
5. I will escape the voices in my head. We all have self talk and trust me when you retire you have more time to be inside your own head. I had a friend on the east coast who was always taking on different challenges. I asked someone why and they said, “I think John is running from the voices in his head”. Seems right, little time for that when riding 70 miles a day.
6. I take some perverse pleasure knowing that I am probably in the 1% of people my age that are crazy enough to take on this kind of journey.

Also I have read several books recently about people who have taken on singular challenges. “One Man’s Wilderness” by Dick Proenneke, “The Long Way” by Bernard Moitessier, “A World of My Own” by Robin Knox, are all books that depict the efforts of men who took on adventures. I certainly do not compare to what they have done, but they did inspire me to step outside my comfort zone and off the couch to prove something to myself.

So there it is, my reasoning for doing this ride. Truly, “running from the voices in my head” may be the single most reason. As someone once said ” don’t go up there without adult supervision”.

BTW, Below is the logo my daughter made for my blog, It ROCKS !!! Not only is she smart (PhD) and beautiful, but she is creative. Thanks Katie!! I love you honey.

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More to come leading up to my ride

Below is my ride today and stats. This week I got 158 miles in