Pedaling The Distance

So the plan for this morning is to go for a nice long bike ride before it manages to get too hot outside. There is also the chance of thunderstorms showing up this afternoon as they have been the past few days, weeks actually. Riding in the wind is bad enough, but riding in the wind, rain, thunder and lightening is really crappy and takes the cake.

So we will see how it goes. As I write today's entry it is already pushing 10 AM and I probably should have been out of the house by 6 or 7, 8 AM at the latest to get a ride in without as much heat and much less traffic to deal with. Most of the time that is the biggest fear for me - the cars full of people texting, looking at their navigation, eating, sparking the kids - basically doing anything and everything other than paying attention to the road and the general direction of the heavy machine they are controlling down the road.

One little swerve into a biker, jogger or pedestrian and they would be fine. The biker, jogger or pedestrians life would be 360 degrees different than it had ever been before. This is of course making the assumption that they were not killed during the impact.

Yea a little bit, OK a lot on the dark side of things for first thing on a Saturday morning but it's also reality and you can be aware if it and know what to watch for or you can bury your head in the sand and assume "that won't happen to me, that only happens to the other guy". The preference is that it happens to no one but the fact remains that it does.

I write this as a reminder to myself to stay alert and always prepare for that which you were unprepared for. Doing so with good visual and audio alertness and knowing how to react to things that are both unexpected and out of your control for the most part if not entirely.

With that it's time to finish getting ready and get my butt out in the road for today's ride. I plan to try a few new areas that include a fairly crazy climb that I have not been brave enough to attempt yet. If I choose this route for today and do not make it to the top that is OK, it is still progression, exercises and a challenge leading to the improvement of my abilities on the road bike.

Heat, Wind, Lightening, Downpours & Thunder

Today I am happy, OK ECSTATIC to announce that I finally went for a ride that ended up being just over 1/2 century and I am super jazzed about it to say the least. I had to work my ass off to be able to do the entire route and for some reason my legs start to "bonk" or "give-out" every-single-time right at the 30 or 31 mile mark, not sure why that is?

I bet I am not eating enough "good stuff" while I am out there and that is the point that my body says "had enough" of this crap! I really need to start bringing along a small sandwich with me or something. The granola bars or the little chews just don't do it for me compared to something like a sandwich would.

I also really need to figure out a way to bring more water or get my bottles refilled along the route. I was able to fill them up today at the local gas station along the route which was really cool. But leaving the bike sitting outside while doing so was less than ideal or cool as you can imagine. Same thing when I need to take a piss and have to leave the bike outside the door. It would be cake for someone to just grab it and run. Thankfully that has not happened and will not happen to me anytime soon or ever for that matter.

Oh and I should mention so it's not assumed that I hit 50 miles and stopped. End the end my Garmin 1000 ended up stating 51.2 miles and over 1740 feet of elevation climbing / changes.

Edge

I wanted to also mention quickly that one feature on my Edge that I used today was to send Cicely an invite to watch my ride in real-time on a map on her computer, iPhone, iPad and so on. She tells me, and I believe her, that she absolutely loved being able to do that. She did not worry as much about me being in trouble or something worse going on because she always knew where I was and where I was headed in the blink of an eye. To be honest it made me feel good as well knowing that she was sorta there with me the entire time as well.

So yea, even thought I keep kicking around the idea of getting something other than the bike computer I have now. I would not want to lose that feature now that I know she likes it and so do I knowing that she can check up on me and stuff. Heck for all that I know the new device has that as well under their website - if so, that would be helpful as well in making a decision whether or not to get a new bike computer or stick with the top-of-the-line one that I have now and wait for the engineers to put out a dam software upgrade - come on people it's VERY annoying!

iPhone

So with my gear in the bag under the seat I figured it would stay fairly dry. Maybe a little bit of moisture would get in there but nothing to worry about. Well I was 100% wrong with that assumption because my iPhone 5 was soaked when I came home today as was everything else in that bag and on my bike - including me.

While it was a really good ride, I sure hope that my iPhone is OK and will function tomorrow after laying in a bed of rice all night to suck the moisture out of it. At the moment it even has a blurry camera image because of the water in it. That will really suck because my everyday photo will get screwed up if I cant take it because of the camera. Heck, maybe I will do it anyway just because it's "part of that day" and would help me to remember the day. 

Pizza

So when I got home I was ready to get dried off, take a nice hot shower and sit my ass on the couch for a couple hours. That was not the case - Cicely's step-mom Kay and her Dad, Dan brought over some great pizza from a place called The Pizza Factory. It was really good pizza and I am surprised that we have never had it before.

The only real downside to having pizza after a ride like today is that I will now be that much thirstier tonight post-ride. The park I went to and took a piss at has water fountains but as luck would have it they were not turned on (kinda strange don't you think) - so with the lack of water I decided to carry on and once down the other side of one of my climbs I will swing by the gas station and fill up my water bottles and see if they care or not.

If you are curious, they do not care - I think the only way they would is if individuals going in to get water started filling up their bottles with soda or something. Not only would that ruin it for everyone, but we may then be required to pay for it or something and then transfer it to our bottles - yea that is not a good idea for many reasons so lets not ruin it ladies and gents!

Anyway

I am going to end the post for today. I am beat and I really need to get out and wipe down the bike and make sure there is not water in the places it is not supposed to be. I rode for over 10 miles in the rain and I was drenched. So my guess is that the bike needs a little TLC as well so it is ready for me to take her out next time for another pedal, hopefully in more appropriate weather though.

I hope that your Saturday was a good as mine was. I was not thinking or considering that I would be doing that many miles today, much less in the crazy weather I did them in. Next time I should plan a little better and figure out where to get water. OK I really have to sign off now. I am falling asleep while typing and the sentences are a little hard to follow. 

Photo: In celebration and remembrance of my achievement today I had to make today's photo not only generic (wet iPhone remember) but I wanted it to signify today's kick-ass accomplishment by none other than yours truly. Other than that, I am exhausted people and cant keep my eyes open. I hope the post makes sense anyhow because I know for sure I have been typing while dozing off a few times already.