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!

So week 2 is in the books. It had its ups and downs. I had 4 days of strong wind. One day it was 20-25 with gusts up to 30mph from the west. Of course, my ride was North, south and West with a short East leg. On most days the wind was my adversary. And it was a worthy one.

Had I been on the real ride I would have cruised as I would have been headed East with a tailwind.

But as a friend says “the wind is hills that never quit“ so I succumbed after 40 miles. The next day was better but not by much. I got in 52 miles and was going to do another 20miles but Barb talked me out of it. (It didn’t take much). The next day legs felt fresh and I got in 74 miles easily.

I said in an earlier post this ride would test my will. I did not expect it this soon. I bent but did not break. I’m still committed. But I’m playing a little catch up.

I rode with my normal group one day this week and they dropped me like a bad habit. While my legs were admittedly tired I should not have been that far behind. Then I remembered I had put on Continental 4 seasons tires. They are more puncture resistant and have a weather tread.

The offset, worse rolling resistance. Today I switched back to my Continental 4000’s and I picked up 1-1.5 mph. It doesn’t sound like much but it could mean 30-45min less on the road each day. And over 40 days could account for two full days of riding. I guess I’ll take the risk of flats. It will give me unscheduled breaks while I change out tubes if I have a flat. (Oops since I wrote this last night I got my first flat on the 4000’s but new ones arrived today)

I followed up my 74 mile ride with a 75 mile ride the next day. I received a good lesson on that ride. Because of some business issues I had to deal with (yeah I retired, sort of) I did not get on the road until 11 am. They say that “only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun”. Add bikers to that.

The sun was beating down and despite 2 qts of water and 2 qts of Gatorade I got dehydrated. I managed to limp home but it wasn’t pleasant. It reminded me of a time when Katie was 4 and she did something that caused Barb to put her in “time out”. When Barb ended the time out she asked Katie” what do you think about that”. Katie replies “well, I’ll never do that again” and she didn’t.

I agree Katie, I’ll never do that again.

She was an interesting child, in fact so good I was worried she was too serious. I once offered her money if she got a note from the teacher saying Katie was disruptive in class or some such thing. The closest we got was at a Parent teacher’s conference. We met with one of her teacher’s who complained “Katie does homework for other classes in my class”. We asked “how is her grade”. The teacher replied “She got an A”. I guess maybe Katie was bored.

The governor issued a shelter in place edict today. I thought maybe my excuse to quit was here. But he specifically said outdoor exercise like biking is encouraged. Drat. Below is a meme I liked

So what next? Well week 3 has me scheduled to put in 455 miles. I’m a little behind but am comfortable I can make them up. The wind created some virtual climbing for me but I can make this up. I have a plan.’

Oh on the subject of roadkill. Since I’m riding essentially the same routes it doesn’t make sense to do a count but I did see the one below today. Glad I didn’t hit it!

I ended the week a little behind on scheduled miles but frankly I had some brutal winds to deal with so only being 29 mile behind is not bad.

I ended week two of my pseudo Trans-America ride in Virtual Las Cruces, NM.

After my next ride i will be in Virtual Texas for the next 3 weeks. UGH!

So week two is done. Over 800 miles, more than a quarter done. But it’s going to get tougher. The AZ winds are picking up and temps will soon be approaching 90. So it will be early to bed and early to ride (ride)

So until next week. May you have smooth roads, the wind at your back and please stay safe, healthy and practice social distancing. Doing a 5 hr bike ride is a great way to do it!!

“Biker man burning out his legs out here alone. And I think it’s going to be a long long ride!” (Apologies Elton!)

Well week one is in the books. Truthfully, the start is much harder than I thought. 450+ miles week one. Hell there were times I did that in a month. I’m in virtual Mesa tonight taking a well deserved rest. Actually, today’s 72 miles wasn’t too awful. Had a tailwind for part of the day at least and legs felt good. Drank a lot of OJ and did Raisin Bran for breakfast. Maybe that’s a key. I’ll let you know after tomorrow’s 70+miles. It’s supposed to be colder so conditions may be good for a long ride😎

So what are my first week observations? Well there are pros and cons when it comes to the pseudo ride. I’ll start with the con’s

1. Solo riding can suck. No drafting and no companionship. Lots of lonely hours.

2. You are not required to get up early each day to start (if not forced to ride with a group it’s easy to hit the snooze or sleep in)

3. With Bob, Bobby, Robert, Rob, Crick, and Dentz in my head, I out number Cybil by a long shot and each voice wants his turn. 7 hrs a day alone on a bike gives you a lot of time in your head. I can’t seem to outride the voices (yet).

3. The solo ride has no support vehicle or supplies so in this instance I’m self supported.

4. No matter which route I take, I will always have a headwind at some point as my rides are out and back or a loop

5. No day long tailwinds or descents.

6. Many routes are repeated or have similar legs. It becomes kind of a ground hog’s day. Ride repeat, ride repeat. At least I don’t have that damn Sonny and Cher song in my head

7. I do have a damn ear worm. Phil Collins Su-Sussudio. (Pseudio). Damn Pseudo Ride.

8. The lowest altitude I will be riding at is 3300 feet and the thin air, sun and Az heat will bake you and dehydrate you if you are not careful

9. You miss out on seeing a large swath of the country and it’s regional flavor. This is a big disappointment for sure.

But there are advantages. The pros are:

1 you sleep in your own bed every night

2. You don’t have to carry lots of extra gear

3. You know the routes and can pick and choose based on the weather conditions and knowing the routes makes them seem a bit shorter.

3 AZ will likely have little rain, or at worst sporadic.

4. It’s easier to break up the day rides because you can return home for a mid day break and can ride later in the day/evening

5. You can mix the miles up and not be stuck to the rigid schedule of the actual ride since it’s not a hotel to hotel ride. As long as the weekly total is achieved I feel I have met expectations.

6. You can plan your own meals around your personal likes and needs (though you cook them your self).

7. All your bike tools are here and help is just a call to the wife away.

8. You can choose your starting time as long as you put in the miles.

9. You have access to a washing machine and all your riding kit.

10. And last but not least. This is a great way to practice social distancing!

So all in all I think the pluses and minuses balance out to a certain degree. The pseudo ride certainly falls way short on the experience scale, but given no other option, it’s a worthy substitute.

And what have I learned?

As I thought, this is really going to test me and my will power . It would be pretty damn easy to say “oh I did 60 miles today, I’ll make up the other 10-15 later”. Once you get behind I’m afraid catching up will be discouraging and difficult so I need to stay on pace.

I need way more Chamois Butt’r than what I have. After 7 days of 5-7 hours in the saddle my a$$ is sore and I don’t see it getting better. I have found neosporin applied each evening helps. I need to stay on schedule the best I can.

This damn blog is driving me to keep grinding away and doing the miles. I hate to have say I’m a quitter. Making this public provides the leverage I need to keep going.

I was way to optimistic on my speed. I expected to ride at about 15mph on average. It’s actually coming in more like 13 mph. Riding 30 to 50 miles every other day and you can burn it. Riding 65-90mile EVERY day takes it toll on your legs.

I also have learned that bee swarms don’t yield to bikers. jack rabbits had a bad week, and I am seeing the occasional road kill rattle snake.

Finally, I know once you get past a certain point you will stay committed. Many years ago I vowed to exercise at least 40 min a day. I made it 370 days before illness broke my string. This meant running on 4 continents, some days rising at 5 am to run or going for a run in Tokyo at 11pm after arriving from the states. Once past a certain point you will do what is needed to keep the streak alive.

I did have an interesting encounter. On one ride I came upon a group that was on a tour of Southern Az. I chatted with the coordinator a bit about my TransAmerica ride. Later one of his group riders and I caught up and chatted. He asked if I knew who I was talking to. I said no and he said it was Lon Halderman. He is the first man to ride across America in 10 days. Lon is in the ultra cycling Hall of Fame. Wide World is Sports did a week long segment on him. Below is a link to his bio. If you want to learn about a true cycling legend and his accomplishments it’s a good read. To put this in perspective. Lon averaged over 240 miles a day on his TransAmerica ride. I hope to average about 1/4 of that.

It’s interesting who you can meet on the road

Ultracycling Hall of Fame – Lon Haldeman

So with week 1 in the books I’m beginning to plan week 2. I’ll be taking it one day at a time. Wish me luck.

Til next time. Smooth roads and the wind at your back. Stay safe and healthy. Biking is a great way to social distance😉

Ok. The ride is officially off. I was ahead of the curve on this when I decided to cancel. ( it’s often been said I’m ahead of the curve). The coordinators did the right thing and cancelled the trip AND we got full refunds and will receive a special edition cycling jersey.

Larry Love and his partner Chuck were great. They took a bit of a financial bath but Larry said there are a lot of small businesses that are in worse shape. He’a a class act. This was their last year. He did say that if the CV-19 thing gets under control they would consider an October Trans- America ride.

I guess if anyone is interested in the business let me know and I’ll put you in contact with Larry.

This blog will be a 3 part harmony. One part biking, one part CV-19 observations and one part humor (we can all use a little right now)

BIKING

On the biking front I continue to ride and train. We are seeing a lot of folks on the road riding out here. With everything closed I guess it’s a good healthy option. Weather has been darn near perfect for riding but the heat is coming soon.

I heard someone say the social distancing and self quarantine will result in a lot of pregnancies and divorces. Well, I won’t be in the former group and maybe it’s just a coincidence I have upped my miles substantially this past week with many 2 a day rides😎. I want to stay out of the latter group for sure!

This past week I logged a decent number of miles including one 82 mile day. with a fair amount of ascent feet (for me). Below is my Strava chart for the week.

I’m still planning my pseudo Trans-America ride. We will see how this plays out but I’m feeling pretty good right now.

CV-19

On the Coronavirus front, we are living through an unprecedented event for many. Frankly, it’s felt eerie here in Green Valley. Snow birds (what we call our winter visitors) are leaving early for their homes and most business is shut down. Like many states, restaurants, bars, and places where people typically congregate are closed.

My best description is how I felt during the eclipse a couple of years ago. I came off the river from fishing and there was a strange sense I could not explain. Everything felt off. Then I remembered it was the eclipse. The whole countryside was shadowed and it was a bit unnerving. I remember how weird it felt driving home sort of an out of body experience

Here are a few of my thoughts on CV-19

We Americans are pretty resilient and many of us older folks have been though significant events in our lives. Here are a few during my lifetime

We have also endured epidemics such as AIDS (which has killed 32million) , Ebola, SARS. Just to name a few. I guess I should throw in polio, measles, mumps and chickenpox, and the Hong Kong Flu of 1968 which killed 1 million and then there is the bird flu scare as well.

I have lived through the Korean War, Cuban Missle Crisis, Both Kennedy assassinations, Vietnam War, MLK assassination, Hyper-inflation under Regan, Black Monday (the stock market crash of 1987), the Gulf War, Y2K, the dot-com bubble, the attack on the Twin Towers, the Gulf War, the Sub-Prime crisis which paralyzed the financial markets and required bailouts, the bear market of 2007-2009.

I’m certain there are other events I’m missing but the underlying theme here is that when faced with crisis. the American people have Come Together and we have Gotten By With a Little Help From Our Friends (you knew that was coming). In the end we came out stronger and better in most all cases and learned from it.

Now I’m sure that recently you have witnessed both good and bad behavior in response to CV-19. People are hoarding items, buying more guns and ammo and engaging in reckless behavior (see spring break 2020). They are angry that they can’t go out to eat or congregate. They don’t like impositions, they are entirely self focused. But trust me, if things get out of hand and this virus grows exponentially, we could in the extreme see Marshall law. This will be a hell of a lot more limiting of personal freedoms than what we are experiencing now. But I don’t believe for a moment it will come to that.

We are also seeing good,responsible behavior. People are sharing, being kind and thoughtful, helping the elderly and assisting in many ways. Our public servants,first responders, medical staff, fire fighters, National Guard, Military and many others are doing great work as are the staffs of many supermarkets who are keeping the shelves stocked. And this is just to name a few. At times like this there are many unsung heroes who rise up when things get tough.

Now is a time to unite and bring the CV-19 to a halt. We have that capability. Social distancing (I’m well practiced) wash hands, sure I can do that. Self quarantine. If need be I can cocoon. All these have proven effective in slowing the transmission of the disease.

So, let’s be sensible. The life you save may be your own. Remember what Winston Churchill said during WW2

I think Spike Lee has it right

I‘ll close with a little humor from some memes I have seen

How are the Starship Enterprise and Toilet Paper similar? Both circle Uranus looking for Klingon’s

Ok. If any of these offended you, I apologize. CV-19 is not a laughing matter for sure. But as the Reader’s Digest used to say “Laughter is the Best Medicine.

Til next time smooth roads and the wind at your back. Stay healthy and be wise. DO THE RIGHT THING

Alright, it’s come down to this. It looks like I have to cancel my trip. The group has had several cancellations and I have a short window to get a refund.

I hate having to make an adult decision but the prudent thing will be to defer this trip until next year.

My concerns are varied. 1. Will we be able to get accommodations? 2. Will restaurants be available? 3. What if I come down with the virus in some remote place and 4. What if Barb comes down with it while I’m on the road. Lots of unknowns and unpredictable situations.

I spoke with the ride coordinator and he was great. I was hoping to roll this trip forward until next year but he said this is their last year and he is retiring.

So what to do? Barb says cancel, and I should probably take her advice for a change. Man how I hate to do this (cancel, not the advice thing) after all I have put in to it physically and economically.

What to do? What to do?

I called a good friend who was an E-Room Physician and currently specializes in longevity. He said that given my age and history of heart disease it would be foolish to continue with the ride. He gave a scenario. Say 75m people are infected, 10% serious enough to be quite ill, that’s 7.5m. 10% of those require hospitalization or 750,000 and 10% of those need ventilators or 75,000. He said there are not enough beds or ventilators. Also said at my age I would probably be at the end of the list. Ok. That may be worst case, or maybe not. It’s unknown at this point.

He said I should listen to my wife ( he said this not knowing she already told me to cancel.)

This indecision’s buggin’ me (esta indecisión me molesta)- From the song’s lyrics

I was noodling around a couple of ideas and here is what I’m thinking.

I’ve done the prep work.

My friends have thrown the party,

I’ve started this damn blog.

I said I was committed and I am.

Tony Robbins says “If you are committed, there is always a way”.

I think I have a way!! Kind of…..

I have the daily schedule for the ride with mileages between stops and the daily elevations.

Could I do a pseudo-Trans America ride here in Az? We have plenty of hills and mountains and lots of roads. Maybe I simply ride the mileage over a 48 day period and call it good. I’ll do the 3030 miles come hell or high water. (Maybe)

Damn it, I’ve trained and I’m ready. Plus I have this flipping blog to keep writing for. Sadly, it won’t be as picturesque and it will challenge my writing skills to keep it interesting. What do you think? Is this a fair substitute?

I am so disappointed having to cancel a bucket list item but life throws us curve balls and we have to adjust. It could be a lot worse.

Looking on the bright side once I have done the distance I will be in great shape to take on a trip next year. I’ll be another year older but age is just a number. And it could be a sequel, Big Bad Bob

So referring back to the Clash I ask you opinion:

Should I stay or should I go now?

Adios for now from a dejected cyclist. May the roads be smooth, the wind at your back and please stay healthy!