Week 3 in the Books. I met an interesting character in the road this week.

Well here I am updating my blog after my weeks last ride. Initially, I thought the pseudo ride may not be as challenging as the real thing but I’m beginning to believe they are similar in effort. I have been constantly fighting 15-20 mph winds with gusts which sometimes hit 25-30 mph. It can be brutal going into them and pure joy riding downwind.

A typical day has me into headwinds for at least 1/4 of the ride and crosswinds or Waaiers, as my Belgian friend calls them, for another 1/4 to 1/2. I believe this more than compensates for the lack of hill climbing I would do on the real ride. Plus I’m certain some days the prevailing wind would be a tailwind. Damn a 20 mph tail wind would make a century ride a walk in the park.

A friend sent me an article on wind riding. Below is an excerpt on how it compares to hill climbing

How Does Riding Into A Headwind Compare To Riding Uphill?

Each 5 km/h increase in headwind is equivalent to a gradient increase of around 0.57%. I’ve measured this by keeping the power at 180w and reviewing the speed lost by the headwind/gradient variables. Once again you can see how much effort it takes to ride into a headwind. Whilst I thought the equivalent gradient might be a bit more than this, it does hammer home the point of how hard you are working.

This is another question often debated when out riding. We’ve all been there, thinking, “that headwind was awful today, like riding up a 10% hill”. But was it?

So while not a 10% gradient it does make a big difference and increases the difficulty substantially.

Here is a link to the entire article. If you want to know about the various aspects of riding in the wind. It’s pretty good.

https://www.yellowjersey.co.uk/the-draft/how-much-difference-does-a-headwind-make-when-cycling/

THE WEEK IN REVIEW

So I finished week 3 pretty much on schedule. 1,327 miles. This is roughly 44% of my total miles. Though I have ridden 21 straight days and am feeling the need for a day off. We’ll see how I feel tomorrow. Right, I’m thinking rest and recovery is important.

With the exception of saddle sores and the never ceasing wind it has not been too bad. Challenging yes, exhausting some days yes. But I am bending my will to make my body respond. This is not Everest or swimming the English Channel or the Iditarod, but it’s my challenge. I’m happy thus far but have 4 weeks to go

I said I met an interesting character this week. I came across Wilson from the movie Castaway in which he co-starred with Tom Hanks.

We had a nice chat. I asked what he was doing in the desert and he told me he was originally from Tucson

He said “ you see I was traveling with the University of Arizona Women’s volleyball team to Hawaii for a match with the University there. On the weekend the girls went to the beach to play volleyball on their day off. An errant spike sent me into the Pacific and the wind blew me out to sea”. “Wow, I said, what happened next?” He said “ I drifted for quite a while and ended up on the island where they were shooting Castaway. Tom Hanks saw me and said I would be a great addition to the movie cast. We hit it off and became friends. It was fate.” “How was it working with Tom?”I asked. He said “Tom was a class act, and though I did not have a speaking role, I was a good listener.”

“But finally I tired of the humidity and long days in front of the camera and no speaking part so I headed back out to sea.” “What then?”I asked. He said “well the currents took me to San Francisco and I got a ride to Tucson with some students traveling to the UofA in a VW mini bus and that’s how I made it back to the desert”. “Are you glad to be back?” I asked. He said “ well I’ve fallen on hard times. I’ve been kicked around quite a bit and right now I’m homeless. Plus while the dry desert air is good for my lumbago it has been tough on my skin. It’s like dry leather. But I do love the Sonoran Desert in the Spring”. I told him it was nice chatting but I had to get back on the bike as I had a lot of miles ahead of me. But I had a question I had been wondering about. “Is Wilson your real name?” He said. “No actually it’s Spaulding, but the director thought that name had negative connotations because that was the name of Judge Smails booger eating nephew on CaddyShack so they went with Wilson”.

We said our good byes and I rode off. I swore at that moment I would never again accept a peyote button from one of the tribal people before my next ride.

(The preceding is a work of fiction and an oxygen starved brain. No drugs were involved and no Volleyballs were left to suffer in the desert.)

So there you have it. 3 weeks in and still going. By the end of next week I’ll be halfway there (virtually)

Til then. Smooth road and may the wind be at you back. Keep an eye out for interesting characters on the road too!