The End of the Summer....

I figured it was about time to 'blog' about what's been going on with my riding as summer winds down so here's a few updates for your reading pleasure...

HINCAPIE GRAN FONDO

A few weeks ago I rode in the Hincapie Gran Fondo that is an annual ride that George Hincapie sponsors in the Greenville, SC area to support the local “Meals on Wheels” program. Wikipedia (the reliable source that it is) defines a Gran Fondo as “…a type of long-distance road bicycle race, in which riders are individually chip timed and have the right of way at all intersections.” .  The Hincapie GF did indeed have timing chips for each rider and that was a first for me. Practically everyone crowded the start line in order to minimize their time and that was a little unnerving but once the ride started, everyone got pretty much spread out and the fun began. Riders could pick from three separate rides: an 80 mile ride that included four mountain peaks, a 50 mile ride with two peaks and a 15 mile ride. I chose to ride the 50 mile event because the 80 was too tough for me and the 15 was too short.

All of the rides left from the George Hincapie’s hotel (Hotel Domestique) that is a little north of Travelers Rest, SC and then went up into the mountains. The 50 mile ride passed thru Tryon and Saluda, NC before coming back into SC along the Greenville reservoir and returning to the hotel. It was quite a ride since there were several very famous professional cyclists there including Christian VandeVelde, Cadel Evans and many others that have ridden in big races around the world. And then there was me and several hundred rank amateurs hoping for some type of glory. I kept thinking:  If I could pass one of those guys just once….but alas, I just managed to pass a few people and even some on the climbs :) . 

Overall it was a great ride. I worked hard to get up the hills and really enjoyed the downhills. The rest stops were good and most of the riders I rode with were lots of fun to be around. The winning male time in the 50 mile ride was about 2:20 and my time was 4:18, finishing darn close to the bottom of the group (463 out of 577)…oh well, I still finished better than the people who did not ride, so I am happy with that!

The party afterward was a lot of fun and the food was great. After about an hour of watching riders come in, eating my fill and a few ‘post ride beers’ it was time to head back, begin the recuperation and begin planning on how I could finish higher than #463 next year! If you ride you should consider signing up for the ride next year, I can even get you a discount on the registration fee if you would like!

MOUNTAINS TO COAST

About two weeks before the Hincapie GF I decided that I needed to finish the CycleNC “Mountains to Coast” ride that I rode in during late September. You may remember from my last blog that I decided to quit the ride after 4 rainy days since they were only going to be followed by 3 more rainy days as the ride was scheduled to go right into Joaquin (the hurricane that brought the flooding to the lower part of SC). After 4 days I had just about enough of cold and rainy riding along with sleeping on the floor of stinky gymnasiums with mildewy clothes – so I went home Wednesday afternoon after my fourth riding day. The ride went on the next day, in the rain, to Lumberton and then the organizing group wisely canceled the tour that evening. They decided that the hurricane and weather was just too much to continue riding towards and that it would be better just to call it quits.

My decision to leave after four days was a good one but it bothered me that I didn’t finish the ride so I decided to work towards finishing the ride, even if I was a month or so late. So on Thursday the 15th I did a one way drop off of a car to get myself to Southern Pines and then rode about 65 miles, along the same route as the “Mountains to Coast” ride to Lumberton. It was a really great ride and day and I enjoyed the hours by myself and with the occasional dog. I did have to ask for directions once or twice as I missed a turn or two. (What is it about the counties in NC not putting up road signs with the names of their roads?) After I got to Lumberton I ate a big meal at the nearby Cracker Barrel (thanks Uncle Randy) and then I left Lumberton and went to Clemson for Homecoming that weekend. I was technically done with the 2015 Mountains to Coast ride but still did not feel like I deserved to wear the t-shirt. So, the week after the Hincapie GF I did the one way car drop again and rode from Lumberton to Oak Island. The total distance of the route was intended to be ~130 miles over two days. I looked closely at the maps and thought that I could shorten the routes a little and also that if I rode straight thru the first overnight town that I could also end up riding a little less mileage overall. So I set out on for a ride on Thursday that was supposed to be about 85 miles. Unfortunately I had to loop back to pick up my water bottle after my first stop, then I took a wrong turn (or two) and got some bad directions so I ended up riding ~110 miles with the last ~30 into a fairly consistent headwind along a busy two lane highway. Ugh. After a rough night of soreness I cut out a few turns of the route for Friday and quickly rode ~25 miles to the beach. (I broke it up that way so I would optimize my Thursday daylight time and give me time to get back to Greenville on Friday after a shorter ride.) Both days were lots of fun despite the mistakes I made and I enjoyed the majority of the time on the bike. I met a couple of guys who started riding in western Virginia and had been riding for 8 days, I saw lots of fun dogs, ate at a couple of interesting diners and had great weather the whole time. AND NOW, I can say that I have ridden from the “Mountains to the Coast” in NC. I can also say that I have ridden across TWO states (Iowa and NC) in the same summer.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Our weekly Monday and Thursday night rides have ended now that Daylight Saving Time is over, so the only regular rides I will be doing will be the occasional ride on Saturday or Sunday as long as it is not tooooo cold. My winter plan is to mount my old road bike on to my trainer and ride it at least during the weeks that I do not ride outside. If I can fight the boredom while I am on it I will try for at least two days a week. Next year as spring begins I hope to start riding my heavier (ie: slower) hybrid bike with the intention of getting used to it more and carrying more weight on the bike with the goal of doing some short multiple day touring rides carrying clothes and ‘stuff’ sometime over the summer. There are a number of great trails in the country that I would really like to ride and my road bike just is not suited for carrying any weight at all. I will continue to ride the one and two day rides and may even try the Mountains to Coast ride again or another similar cross state ride, but the goal for 2016 is to ease into ‘touring cycling’ while carrying enough stuff so that I can stay gone for a few days. 
One of the lessons I learned about myself during the last two days of riding is that I need to learn to appreciate the journey more than seek the destination. More often than not I find myself riding past interesting stuff just so I can get to where I’m going – I need to figure out how to switch that all around in order to enjoy touring to the maximum effect.

The profile of the 50 mile ride

George Hincapie and his son Enzo

PHOTOS

I recently drove thru the Mt Pisgah area on a nice day and took a few photos of the scenery I passed on the first day of the Mountains to Coast ride. Here are a few of those: 

The sign as we began our ride up Mt Pisgah

 

What goes unsaid here is that the grade is now ~10% and will continue that way until you crest the hill....ouch.

 

 AND…

So, that’s about it for this edition of the blog. Hopefully you have noticed that I have changed the name from “Ride to RAGBRAI” to “From the Couch to RAGBRAI and Beyond”. The web address will stay the same but I felt it was more appropriate to add the “Beyond” since I am continuing to ride and blog. I hope that you are enjoying this and if so please let me know. I would also like to know what I could do in order to make it a more enjoyable read for you so send in your ideas and questions and I’ll see if I can address them in the next edition….until then – ‘get on your bike and ride’.

“Mountains to Coast” Ride by CycleNC

How Was It? 

As I just finished many of the segments of the “Mountains to Coast” ride I figured I would write a quick report on how it went and the fun (and not so fun) experiences that I had along the way. As a bit of background, the Mountains to Coast ride is an annual ride that covers most of the state of North Carolina from the ‘mountains to the coast’. It organized by Cycle NC, which is part of North Carolina Amateur Sports. In 1997, North Carolina Amateur Sports, the North Carolina Division of Tourism, the North Carolina Department of Transportation and Capitol Broadcasting Company discussed the idea of starting a fully supported cross-state bicycle tour in North Carolina.  Two years later in 1999, the Cycle North Carolina Mountains to Coast fall ride began its inaugural trek across the State of North Carolina.  Since then, CNC has attracted participants from all 50 States and 8+ Countries, stopped overnight in 95 North Carolina towns, traveled more than 4,900 miles on the scenic backroads of the state and passed through more than 600 North Carolina communities. Cycle North Carolina has been voted "Best Biking in America" by the League of American Bicyclists and selected as one of the best events in the United States.  This year the ride began in Waynesville, NC (just a bit west and south of Asheville) and was scheduled to finish in Oak Island on the coast.

I got to Waynesville by taking a rainy bus ride on Saturday and once I was there I quickly found an indoor camping spot in the Waynesville Community Center. “Indoor” camping is a nice term for a bunch of people sleeping on the floor of a gymnasium or other wide open space. I chose indoor because it was raining in Waynesville (see the theme yet?) and I was not thrilled about setting up a tent in the rain much less sleeping in it. I put my mat and sleeping bag on the floor beside an interesting old guy and among a bunch of other older guys. I would later read that the average age of this ride was 56 years old… kinda cool. 

A Typical "Indoor" Camping Arrangement

The first day of the ride started out in the rain and promised to be a real fun time with a brutal climb over Mt Pisgah where the last four miles of the climb were going to be at an average of 10% grade. Once I got into that part of the climb I had to stop twice and just stand beside my bike in order to rest my legs a little and to catch my breath. I made a conscious decision on both of those occasions NOT to take even one step up hill – “I may stop and rest but I’m not going to walk my bike” was my thought process. I later posted that I used every gear on my bike except W(alk) and F(all). Once I cleared the top of that climb it was a quick scoot downhill for a few miles followed by a couple of much smaller hills before stopping in Hendersonville for our first overnight. Since it was still raining I choose the indoor camping option again and setup my little area in order to get some sleep overnight. During the ride that day I missed the lunch rest stop and therefore ended up eating only about 3 or 4 bananas and few other snacks during the whole ride. As a result I was famished and sought out a family restaurant for lunch / dinner. I ate the fried chicken dinner and when the waitress asked me if I would like anything else I ordered a hamburger steak dinner and ate that also. I told you I was hungry. The ride covered only 61.5 miles but had 3,866 feet of climbing and I finished it in about 4 hours and 30 minutes at about 13.2mph for the average speed over the whole route. These were themes that were going to follow me for a while.

Day Two started out raining also as did Day Three. By now they are all a blur and I ended up taking advantage of the indoor camping in order to stay somewhat dry each of the nights I was on the ride. The rain fell almost constantly the whole time I was on my bike and had only slight moments of ‘no rain’ just a few times a day. Day two went from Hendersonville to Shelby and included one of the most fun segments on the whole ride. As we rode into the town of Saluda, NC I sought out a diner in order not to repeat the mistakes of the day before. I sat down and had a very nice breakfast before proceeding on and ridding down the “Saluda Grade” which is a very smooth and wide road segment that allowed me to go just about as fast as I would ever want and pass several people along the way (despite the steady rain.) Many more ups and downs followed that fun segment and as I rode into Shelby day 2 would be over after 76.6 miles with 4,219’ of climbing. I finished the ride in about 5:45 at an average speed of 13.3 mph.

Day 3 was more of the same as we rode from Shelby to Concord. This route was very poorly chosen in that we spent about 35 miles of the entire 80 miles riding in and around the Charlotte Metro area. Charlotte is a very congested place that is populated by a large segment of drivers that could not care less about cyclists. Lots of horn blowing and flipping off makes for a nerve racking time on the bike and I was happy once I finished the 80 miles and pedaled into the Concord Arena. Although we were fairly far from the mountains with their long single climbs for the day we were now finding ourselves working very hard to ride up the rolling hills of the Piedmont area of NC. My totals for the day were 3,412’ of climbing, 6+ hours on the bike and averaging about 13 mph. And all in the rain. 

My Wet Bike After Three Straight Rainy Riding Days

Day 4 was actually a nice riding day and I found myself needing my sunglasses as we crossed from the Piedmont section of NC into the Sandhills section. More rolling hills with a higher chance of them being really long left me sore and very tired as we rolled through Pinehurst and into Southern Pines. The day’s totals were 81 miles, 3,886’ of climbing and just under 6 hours of riding. It was about that time that I decided to check the weather and see if I could figure out something about the Nor’ Easter / Hurricane that had been bringing us all the rain during the week.  Several riders had already checked out of the ride and once I saw that Thursday was going to be a very rainy ride into Lumberton followed by a rainy Friday ride I decided to ‘call it a ride’ and catch a ride back to Greenville. I am ashamed to admit that I actually left the ride earlier than planned but somewhat vindicated by the email  that I received from the ride management stating that Thursday (Day 5) would be the last day of the ride since the coordinators were becoming so wary of the nearby storm. So technically I will only need to finish riding one segment and after that I can proudly wear my “Cylce NC” t-shirtJ.  

The totals for my four days of riding show that I rode 299 miles with 15,383’ feet of climbing. All that work took me about 22 hours on my bike and I ended up averaging 13.4mph, which is considerably less than I ride around here…turns out that going uphill actually slows me down!

That’s about it for the Mountains to the Coast ride. It was very well run and laid out (with the exception of the Charlotte piece) with lots of challenging hills, downhills and flats. The accommodations were great and I met quite a few interesting people. You should go! ! !

What's Next?

Next up on my schedule is the Hincapie Gran Fondo ride on October 24. It starts just north of Greenville, SC and rides up into the mountains for about 50 miles. If you are interested in riding in it you should hurry up to the website (GranFondoHincapie.com) and register. You can even use my discount code of “FriendsofJames15” and get a good discount off of the registration fee. 

I really hope you enjoy reading these ramblings and look forward to hearing your comments about them…until then, take care and be careful!  

FROM the COUCH to IOWA…. and BEYOND

How'd I Get Here? ?

 In some ways I started my journey to Iowa way back in the late ‘70’s when I first read about RAGBRAI.  Since then I have always wanted to ride in that annual ride across Iowa but I was not a real active rider so I never could work up the courage to go. It wasn’t until March of 2014 when I saw a presentation about a California to Georgia bike ride that I decided in earnest that I really needed to get off my couch and ride across Iowa.

I started by pulling out my old ‘touring’ road bike, cleaning it up and taking it for a few rides along a local bike trail. I had been riding my hybrid on that trail and around town for a few years but really felt that my road bike would be a better choice to ‘get in shape’ with. I rode it more and more and met a few people in my town that I could ride with on a regular basis. I then came up with a plan to ride the old bike until it broke and at that point I would make a decision about riding for the future – if I was enjoying it I would buy a new bike and keep riding, if I wasn’t enjoying it then I would just put the old road bike back into the basement and keep riding the hybrid around town. I rode in a couple of 30 – 60 mile charity rides with the old bike before I finally had a flat…I was enjoying riding so much that I considered the flat to be a sign that I should buy a new bike.

I had been doing a considerable amount of research into what kind of bike I would purchase and had made up my mind that I needed an ‘endurance bike’ – one that is setup for us ‘older guys’ to ride longer rides but not necessarily fast. That led me to three or four different manufacturers and I ended up choosing a Specialized Roubaix due to its promise to absorb much of the vibration that normally comes from rough roads. I wanted to make sure that I was as comfortable as possible on the longer rides and it seemed to be the smoothest of the ones that I test rode.

Once I got my new bike fit to me I immediately started to ride a little faster and was much more comfortable over the longer rides. I rode more and more of those and started to learn how to eat for the single and (more importantly) multiple day rides. It took a while but I sorted out timing and meal size issues and got myself comfortable with eating during rides and even on my bike.

At this point I started looking into how to train for week long rides and setup a training schedule that would take me through the months before RAGBRAI and get me up to about 200 - 300 miles a week. I was more concerned with trying to ride multiple days in a row so I took advantage of my friends during an annual ‘beach trip’ to ride 12 out of 14 days during our time at the beach in order to ‘toughen up’ my butt. That trip was right before RAGBRAI so once I got all my clothes washed and packed I was ready to hit the road for Western Iowa!

RAGBRAI was a great experience! We rode six days in a row in some of the best weather one could ask for in Iowa in July and had a great time. The sight of 12,000 people doing their best on bikes each day was truly humbling. The opportunity to meet people from all over the country and hear their stories was enjoyable to say the least. The hills of Iowa were cruel but that just made getting over them that much better. I felt the support of many, many friends every day and am grateful that they were always free with their words of encouragement. You should ride RAGBRAI if you’re ever so inclined, you won’t regret it – but you won’t have better weather than I did!!

 

Where You Going Now James?!?!?

So many of you have asked about my next plan? What’s after Iowa? What will you do for the rest of the summer? Since RAGBRAI I have continued to ride in the weekly rides here in Greenville and have kept up that pace as much as possible. My next two ‘big’ rides are the CycleNC “Mountains to Coast” ride that starts on Sunday the 27^th of September and the “Hincapie Gran Fondo” that is on Saturday, October 24^th. The “Mountains to Coast” ride is similar to RAGBRAI in that it is a multi-day ride that crosses the state (this time North Carolina) but is much smaller in that it limits registration to about 1,500 riders. This year it starts in Waynesville, which is in western NC near Asheville and ends in Oak Island, which is in southeastern NC. Unfortunately I will not ride the last day of the ride since it’s on a Saturday and I have a previously scheduled event that day. (So, in the future I will say “I rode IN the “Mountains to Coast” ride, not that “I rode the “Mountains to Coast” ride). It should be a great ride despite the tremendous elevation (for me) climbs during the first couple of days but I’m sure I can ride them if I just take the day’s ride as a series of ‘short’ 15 – 20 mile rides with nice breaks in between. The Hincapie “Gran Fondo” is a one day ride that is similar to a race but really isn’t. It’s a fundraiser that George Hincapie does in order to raise money for the Greenville, SC “Meals on Wheels” program and it has three very challenging options: a 15 mile ‘easy’ ride, a 50 mile ‘medium’ ride and an 80 mile ‘no way I’m doing that’ ride. Needless to say I’m signed up for the 50 mile ride. It has two major climbs: one up and into Saluda, NC and another around Callahan Mountain. I rode the Callahan Mountain piece and part of the Saluda climb a couple weeks ago and thought my lungs were going to explode. I do hope that the training I’ve been doing for the Cycle NC ride and riding it will help me some, but I’m sure it’ll be a fun day nonetheless.

 

The "Medio" 50 Mile Route for the Hincapie Gran Fondo

 

So, that’s about it for now. That’s a quick recap of how I got to Iowa and where I am now. As the days have started to cool off and shorten our weeknight rides will become Saturday or Sunday rides and hopefully I can keep up with them and continue to pick up a few longer rides every now and then.
What’s in store for 2016? Well, I’m thinking about becoming a ‘touring rider’…stay tuned for that long drawn out story! ! ! And as always, thanks for reading and thanks for commenting… I really appreciate hearing from you and hope you’re enjoying my ramblings! ! ! !