On the EVE of RAGBRAI

Greetings from Western Iowa... I am writing this while sitting in our RV after a fairly eventless trip from home in Greenville, NC to St Louis and then to Sioux City, Iowa. I have no idea what the total mileage was but I can tell you that I drove 11 straight hours my first leg and then 5 more the next day before I got to St Louis to meet up with the guys and the RV. It seems like we have driven another 8 to pick up our last guy and then 3 after that before arriving in Sioux City. Quite the trip I must say. 

Reflections

Over the last several days I have had a few minutes, if not hours, to reflect on why I am here. I even read an article that discussed various reasons why people decide to ride in this ride and could identify with several of the subjects in the article. I am sure it will be confusing for anyone who doesn’t ride or has never ridden, but looking at it from a more holistic level might help…think of it as a hunt for a Great White Whale or a climb to the top of a mountain or any other iconic trip that you’ve ever taken or heard of and you will be in the ball park.  And if you have been reading these blog entries all along you will know I am here because it is one of the few things that I have always wanted to do but just have not been able to do due to lack of time, resources, training, etc, etc. You will remember that this trip started in about March of 2014 when I listened to a guy talk about a coast – to – coast bike trip he had taken and I thought to myself that it sounded like fun and that I should really get ‘back on my bike’ and start riding. Getting on my bike was just a start and I have kept riding and riding until I arrived here the night before RAGBRAI XLIII (43). Let’s hope I can keep riding all week and end up safe and sound in Davenport, Iowa on Saturday after 460+ miles.

 As I have reflected back on my life so far during these long driving days (a few days before I left home) I often thought of people who are no longer in my life and tried to figure out what they would have said when I told them about this…I am sure there would be some good and some bad but it would all be interesting. My father, who passed away just about 10 years ago, would be his typical gruff self and question why anyone would ever set out on a trip like this. When I started riding a lot during the summers when I was in college, I was up early one day eating breakfast one the first day I wanted to ride to my summer job. I had ridden the route a couple of times over the previous weekend and knew that I could do it but he was not aware of that. All he had to say was “I don’t know why you would want to ride that thing so much… you will never get anywhere doing that.” and he basically forbid me from riding that day. (It didn’t work, I rode anyway). Well Dad, you were right so far since all of my rides have always been loop rides where I ended up right where I started. But tomorrow I will leave Sioux City, Iowa and not come back; I will pass through many small towns and essentially ride across the entire state of Iowa before ending up in Davenport on Saturday. My bike and my drive to enjoy my life will have carried me all that way and my bike will have indeed  “gotten me somewhere”. I am also sure that once I finish this ride my Dad would then proceed to question me about the whole thing in every possible detail and revel in my success. My Mom, who passed away just a few months ago, would just have sat quietly in the corner and nodded her head, but I’m certain she would have told everyone in the choir, the church, the assisted living place and her Facebook page that I was going to be in some silly ride across Iowa for who knows what reason.  My dear Sara, who passed away about 2 ½ years ago, would have chuckled and said something to the effect of “…go ahead, I’ll be right here at home cheering you on..” and then she would have jumped in the car for the road trip. Of course she would have had to fight for the front seat in the RV (car sickness) but her humor and positive outlook would have buoyed not only me but also all the guys with us. I recently found one of her favorite quotes and it is something like “It is our daily victories that pave the way to us being our greatest selves. Without the daily baby steps there will be no ground covered and no victories to be celebrated!” (Jonothan Roche).  These three important people were in my life for a long time before they all passed and as such I feel their support each and every day in everything I do and I am grateful for it.

Let's Go !

So tomorrow morning at about 6AM I will hope on my bike, dip the rear tire in the Missouri River and head east towards a quest I have had for quite some time. I already know it will be fun, just as I know it will be sweaty and hot and tiresome, but I know that I have the support of all the people who have loved me over the years to guide me along the way. Even with that.. Wish Me Luck.

Updates

I will try to post something on this blog every day but I doubt I will have the internet access and time to write, but I’ll do my best. I will be placing lots of photos on to my Facebook page that you can find even if you aren’t my “Friend” by searching for “James’s Ride to RAGBRAI” in the Search bar at the top of your page. And as a special treat for any of you who use “MapMyRide” you’ll be able to track me in near real time by using at the “live tracking” feature.

Thanks for reading and pray for a cold front! ! !

GETTING READY TO ROLL.....

I was lucky enough to spend the last two weeks at a friend’s beach house with several friends and ride almost every day with one or more of them. As of this week I have ridden almost 3,000 miles in about one year getting ready for my big ride (and enjoying myself most of the time J ) I am still essentially on my training schedule with a few weeks lacking for total miles but getting on my bike at least three days each week and even lately riding ten out of thirteen days and EIGHT DAYS IN A ROW. While these rides at the beach have been relatively short (20 – 25 miles) they have been fairly windy which should be good experience for what I’ll be facing in Iowa.

Lena "Leaning" at the Beach...

BIKE

I recently had my bike tuned up which included a through cleaning (which is almost for naught now) and a new chain. According to the mechanic, we ‘flat land riders’ tend to wear out our chains more than others since we have constant pressure on our chain the whole time we are riding - sure. And I have a new "rough road" rear tire on my backup wheels so that I can use it if I choose to ride on the optional ‘gravel loop’ on Day 2 of the ride. I am really looking forward to that segment since it will be the first ever gravel segment in RAGBRAI.

PACKING

I have packed a tote full of ‘stuff’ that I might need and am in the process of organizing my cycling clothes so that I can minimize the amount of luggage that I will be carrying. Nonetheless…it will still be a lot of stuff.

RIDING

As for riding my bike I rode today and am planning to ride on Saturday and the following Monday and then taking the rest of the week off. I will be heading west on Thursday the 16^th to meet up with my friends in St Louis and then on to Sioux City, Iowa for the start of the ride on Sunday the 19^th. We will be riding from Sunday through Saturday when we end up in Davenport on the Mississippi River. See: http://ragbrai.com/routemaps/2015-route-maps/ for more details on the route.

AND KEEPING YOU UP-TO-DATE

I plan to write a blog posting each day of the ride to talk about the highlights of the day and share a couple photos….that is if the internet service holds up each evening, I’m sure that it will be tough to get a good signal in many of the smaller towns but I’ll try because I know the tens of readers I have will on the edge of their seats waiting to here what’s happening. I will also create a separate FaceBook page and post the blog there with more photos as the days roll on. You should be able to find the FaceBook page by looking for “James’s Ride to RAGBRAI” in FaceBook. AND, as if that is not enough, you can follow me in near real time if you have a “MapMyRide” account and follow me using my username of “JMGARD58”. Then you will need to click on their “Live Tracking” option and you will be able to see me as I ride the roads of Iowa.

That is about it for this week at the beach…

see you in Iowa! ! !

Hey James - Where HAVE You Been ? ?

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted but hey, I’m busy. No really; I am, but that’s for another blog at another time (“Oh Noooooo….not another one!?!?!” yes, I can hear you.) Over the last couple of weeks I’ve made some positive progress and had a few setbacks…but all-in-all I think I’m on a good enough schedule to ride RAGBRAI in just about a month from now and that’s a good thing since my jersey just came today ! ! !

The 2015 RAGBRAI jersey and wrist/bike bands.

So; lets talk a little about my riding schedule, what rides I’ve taken recently and maybe toss in some ‘updates’ on some of the previous topics…how’s that sound?

Ride Schedule

I’ve ramped up my riding schedule so that I have been riding an average of three days a week and have recently gotten up to four days a week. Since RAGBRAI is a SEVEN day ride I’m planning to really increase my days/week in about two weeks when I go to the beach with several friends. A few of them ride and I’m hoping that I can get at least one to ride with me each day for EIGHT straight days. I doubt the rides will be long since there’s only one road to ride on but at least I’ll be getting consecutive seat days and that will be a big help as far as getting my butt ‘in shape’ for RAGBRAI. Lots of people have suggested that is a good plan so I’m staying with it.

Recent Rides

Display from my MapMyRide app at the end of my "Birthday Ride"

After a while it gets kind of boring riding the same route all the time or even in the same county so I’ve branched out to a few other areas to ride in and made a couple of ‘solo rides’ also. My first big solo ride was for my birthday in late May, I decided that I should go out early for a ‘self supported’ ride of 57 miles to commemorate my 57^th birthday. A self supported ride is one where you either carry everything you’ll need or stop at stores to buy it…there’s no super-stocked Rest Stops such as at the ones that you’ll find at larger organized rides. So I filled both my water bottles, made myself a peanut butter and honey sandwich and grabbed a banana and headed for the door – albeit 45 minutes behind my desired start time of 7am. I wrote down a few turns that would take me along one of the routes that the local club used recently but changed it slightly to match my mileage objective. All was going well until after a fun store stop at about mile 25. I missed a turn and ended up several miles off my route before I knew it. At that point I was headed towards a 75 mile ride but I managed to use Siri to help me plot a course back home and reached there at about 1pm after close to 66 miles and very sunburned. Lesson #1: use the sunblock, even when you know you’ll be back “soon”. 

 

In early June I decided that I needed to up my single ride mileage so I signed up for the “Jamestown Gran Fondo” ride near Jamestown, Va. I have no idea what “Gran Fondo” means in this context (I previously thought it meant that the ride would be timed and awards would be given out for the fastest riders but that wasn’t the case with this ride) but it was going to be a well supported 100 mile ride so I figured it was for me…my previous long ride was just a few days ago with the errant birthday ride that turned into 65 and I’ve done a few 62 mile rides (aka “Metric Century”) so this was a substantial increase for my mileage. We got a real early start at 7:30 and headed out for our first rest stop at 30 miles. The roads were great and the people riding along with us were lots of fun too. Right after that stop the people that were riding “only” 62 miles peeled off on their route and we found ourselves out in the countryside essentially alone. The second stop was at about 60 miles and was a welcome pause in the day. I looked at a nearby sign as we pedaled away and saw that it read: “Jamestown 44 miles”….ouch, we HAD to ride 100 to get back home! There were two more stops and they both were lifesavers as the temperature was beginning to rise. Despite about 5 miles of newly chipped sealed road (makes a mess of everything) the roads on the route were great! I finished the whole 100 miles in about 6 HOURS and 14 minutes….let that sink in – almost a full work day on a bike. Amazingly enough my average speed of 16mph  was one of the highest I’ve had in a long ride…much of it due to having a good coach and a good pace line from Maryland to ride with. Needless to say I was a virtual ‘wreck’ for a few days afterward and got dropped on my regular Monday night ride and the Thursday night ride after that. Here’s hoping I’ve recovered enough to ride sometime this weekend and/or not to get dropped on the next Monday ride!

Updates?

  ·  I think that part of my suffering after my 100 mile ride had something to do with not following my eating and hydration ideas as well as I should have..so I’m going to do a little more research into that and see what I can do to offset (or better yet – preclude) such a negative effect next time.

  ·  Several months ago I noticed that my bike wasn’t riding as easily as it originally did. Apparently I had gotten some degreaser and/or water into the bearings of my wheels and caused the bearings to need replacement. I remember ‘loose bearing’ wheels from my skateboard days and remembered that ‘sealed bearings’ replaced them as a better alternative. So I set off in search of some good sealed bearing wheels… Lesson #2: Buy good wheels when you buy your bike. I would have spent a lot less had I bought one model higher (with the sealed bearing wheels) than I have now but at least I have a spare set of wheels to take with me to Iowa.

  ·  Since it’s now gotten “North Carolina Hot” (IE: More Humid than Hell Itself) I am struggling with lots of sweat rolling into my eyes while I ride. Unfortunately I have yet to figure out how to mitigate that and it is becoming an issue as I have a hard time seeing sometimes and have to slow down in order to try and wipe my brow off and get the sweat out of my eyes. I would appreciate hearing from any of you who have been able to solve this and let me know how you did it!!!

Bye for Now….

That is about all for this posting…keep up the comments, emails and encouragement and please let me know of any ideas you might have for future topics. And Thanks for Reading!!!

WHAT TO EAT (AND HOW?) ? ? ?

This week’s entry will be about eating while riding and what menu / selection might be the best idea for me. In trying to figure this out I tried to do a little experimentation during my rides and also a little research on the InterWeb. Well, we all know how that InterWeb research goes: I received countless pieces of advice and it varied from the overly specific – ‘eat what works best for you’ ( ;) ), to the very helpful and then to the normal interWeb response of ‘eat this, you’re an idiot, my team is better, Hillary did it and I hate you’.  In all seriousness I did receive some very good input and I hope to crystalize it for you in this posting. 

 

It seems that the big deal about eating; especially on long, multiple day rides, is to be sure to eat well enough so that you can ride the next day. On single day rides I’ve found that I can eat a small breakfast, a banana or two, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and maybe a cookie or two and get by for the day. BUT if I eat that way on a long ride it turns out that I am fairly worthless the next day and can not even think about riding… Lesson #1: Eat Today to Ride Tomorrow. It’s something I have heard bike racing announcers and other ‘experts’ talk about – make sure you are not over-depleting your resources during the day and make sure you’re eating well enough so that you’ll be able to ride tomorrow (and the next days). When I first rode in a 62 mile ride I was absolutely spent the next day. Once I started thinking about keeping more food in me during the first day I found that I could ride the second day and now I’m able to ride 62 miles on a Saturday and 45 on a Sunday without much pain and at about the same pace.  I have always enjoyed a big meal after the long rides (or any ride for that matter) but I’ve noticed that if I eat a little better during the day and eat a ‘better’ meal at night that I feel better on my bike the next day. The key is not to run your ‘tank’ empty.

 Other ‘good’ advice centered around a protein rich menu but with good balance amongst the other food groups in order to keep the daily intake well balanced. Those of you who know me know that I have no idea what a balanced meal or daily menu is. I tend to eat lots of meats (protein?) and few if any vegetables outside the ‘green beans, corn, etc.’ group.  My post-ride meals are generally the biggest thing I can find plus dessert washed down with lots of nice beer…maybe that has something to do with the ‘worthless’ feeling that I have had on the day after long rides? Lesson #2: All Things in Moderation. So in order to ride multiple days in a row I’ll need to continue to develop an idea of a good ‘post ride’ meal and learn some about ‘balancing’ meals.

Another prevalent point that was made was that it is important to eat more continuously rather than in three big meals. You should try to carry some high protein snacks with you and consume those between meal stops and also make sure to take full advantage of any ‘stocked’ rest stops where the ride organizers provide snacks. Lots of riders said that they carried small bags of peanuts, other nuts and/or sunflower seeds as an easy snack. A good suggestion was to pick up a banana and a granola bar and keep them in a pocket until you have ridden another substantial distance and then eat them. This is obviously easier on the organized rides than the solo rides without rest stops. Many riders suggested that they lay out courses that include gas stations and convenience marts along the way and carry some cash to buy what they need there. I have tended to lean towards the banana and orange slices at the rest stops and also carried a banana with me for between the stops so I need to figure out how to carry a little more.  Lesson #3: Keep it coming. You are using quite a bit of energy pedaling all the time so you should try and levelize your fuel intake to match that level, especially if you plan on riding tomorrow.

Although I have written mostly about food so far it is a given that the same rules apply for hydration. Many of us already know to drink before we are thirsty and to make sure you do not drink so much that my Grandmother’s Monkey does not get on your back. (She used to caution us about drinking too much water during the hot South Carolina days by saying “…don’t let the monkey get on your back…”. I have no idea where she kept that monkey but he sure did keep me in line!) So far I have been fine with carrying just water on my bike and drinking small amounts of a sport drink at the breaks and after the ride. Too much of those things tend to create issues for me so I have already learned that moderation is the key for me when it comes to sports drinks. I do realize I will need to up my intake of those as the days get hotter but I will still tend to drink less of them than just plain water. Lesson #4: Always listen to your Grandmother.

All this talk (writing) about food may have you wondering…”How do you actually eat on a bike?” Well, I tend to eat bigger things at the stops and save the smaller things for eating while riding. Even so, it is taking time but I am learning how to open packages without crashing, to avoid whole bananas and go for the ones that are already sliced in half since they are easier to peel and to keep my balance while I try to grab stuff from my pockets. If I am riding with a group I will pull aside from the group and/or drop to the back of the group since I still tend to wobble when getting stuff from my pockets and also while eating. Lesson #5: Don’t wreck, it hurts.

How does that all sound? Fairly logical and intuitive? Really screwed up and a recipe for a disaster? I think it is that way with this as a lot of things in life…once you think about it, it just makes sense. Then again, maybe it doesn’t. I do plan to keep reading and posting questions and trying to figure out a plan for me. And I would appreciate you putting your thoughts in the comments section below and let me know what you think. Thanks in advance!

How’s the Riding Going?

As of today it is 75 days until RAGBRAI and I think I am doing well with my riding. I took most of this week off in order to go driving in the mountains with some friends over the weekend but I managed to get a few good weeks in before hand. I rode 143 miles last week and 163 during the first week of April. I will be riding at least two days a week from now until the RAGBRAI ride with adding the occasional third and fourth day in when possible. Once June rolls around I plan to try to ride seven straight days in early June and then again in late June / early July in order to make sure I can get on my bike that many days in a row!

NEXT WEEK

That is about all for this posting…keep up the comments, emails and encouragement and please let me know of any ideas you might have for future topics. Thanks for Reading!!!