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No worries about gas prices when running on human power!
For several years I've been hoping to go for an epic bike ride from my house in Lowell to my parents' house in Ann Arbor, a distance of roughly 120 miles. With my recovering hamstring preventing me from planning any running races, I thought that maybe this year I could squeeze in an all-day bike ride.
However, "real life" gets in the way as it often does and I wasn't able to put in enough training to prepare. Sure I could've pulled it off, but I figure that to do something like riding my bike across an entire state ought to be done right. For example, a decent road bike would help compared to my 6-year-old "comfort bike".
Yeah, that's what my Giant Cypress DX is called and it's since been "tricked out" with a new seat (twice), bar-end hand grips, new pedals and second-hand pedal clips, bottle rack, speedometer, rear rack, and a cheap bike computer. It has served me well over the years on the roads, mountain bike trails, and even in adventure races. But it's not a fast bike.
A few years ago I bought a 25-year-old Peugot road bike for $65 just to see what a road bike feels like. Despite being an old 10-speed I easily averaged a full 1 mph faster on my standard routes. That bike is now in need of repair so the Cypress is all I have, meaning that a 120-mile ride would take 10-12 hours including food stops whereas a nice road bike could shave a few hours off of that time.
Ready to ride despite the rain.
Instead I planned a ride that traveled 55 miles, starting near Lansing and finishing at my parents' house. Last Sunday Amanda dropped me off near Webbersville at the I-96 exit in a heavy, steady rain! I was standing in a two-inch deep puddle as I unloaded my bike from the car and got ready to go. Due to the weather I had to keep all of my gear in a dry-bag bungeed to the rack on my bike and I wore a rain jacket to stay warm. You can see what the weather was like in Amanda's video:
The first 15 miles of my ride were solo as I pedaled my way to Stockbridge where I would meet Dad. It took me about an hour despite a strong WNW crosswind on my southbound road and the steady rain blurring up my sunglasses. Believe it or not I found the glasses to be of help because they kept splashes and road grit out of my eyes, but also being polarized it really cut down the glare from the wet road.
No frogs here, yet...
Worse than the wind and the rain were the frogs - dead ones. The shoulder of the road was littered with hundreds of dead frogs! I don't know why so many were trying to cross and getting hit and why they ended up on the shoulder but I was constantly weaving my tires among the slimy amphibian bodies, not wanting to get a taste of frog leg sushi kicked up into my mouth!
Finally I made it to Stockbridge and rendez-voused with my parents. Dad's raincoat was rather heavy - it's meant for field work, not cycling - so Mom offered him the $1 "emergency poncho" that she keeps in her car. He was quite pleased although the poncho went down to his knees and he just about fell over trying to hop on his bike when the plastic caught on his seat! Mom had to trim off a foot or so of plastic and after the obligatory photo, we were on our way.
Dad and I are "waterproofed" prior to hitting the Lakelands Trail
Our route took advantage of the Lakelands Trail, a linear state park created as a Rails to Trails project. The first several miles of the trail were packed dirt that was rather rough in some areas due to horse traffic. We'd had several days of rain here in Michigan and the ground was wet but not soft. The bumpiness was pretty rough on me as Dad kept looking back wondering why I was lagging behind. I think his fresh legs had a bit more pep that mine after having ridden for an hour just to meet him!
Soon after starting down the trail the rain stopped and since the temperature was already 70 degrees even in the rain, we were plenty comfortable. It was actually splendid weather for a ride with overcast skies, a now NW breeze and warm air temps.
When my water bottle ran dry we stopped in Pinckney at a gas station to refill and we also chomped on some food: a Power Bar for Dad and some Clif Bloks for me. When planning the ride we talked about stopping here for food but we both were feeling very good and decided to just continue to our "dessert stop", a Dairy Queen in Hamburg.
For quite a while I was telling stories about the interesting politics I've been getting involved with in Lowell, only to be occasionally interrupted when Dad would point out one of "his" many projects in the area - a water tower, a subdivision, a boardwalk, and more - he's a land development civil engineer with lots of handiwork in Livingston County.
Suddenly Dad said "Oops!" It turns out he completely missed the turn for Dairy Queen! We'd been distracted by the conversation and since I've never been on the trail before, I was relying on his navigation. We only went about half a mile out of our way so it wasn't too bad, and when Dairy Queen is the destination you don't lose any motivation to get there.
At the DQ Dad got a large chocolate shake and I ordered a Blizzard with M&Ms, but asked if they could use chocolate ice cream instead of vanilla. The guy at the counter suggested their "Chocolate Extreme" flavor - chocolate ice cream with hot fudge syrup, fudge brownie chunks, and pieces of hard chocolate mixed in. Awesome! Yes, I love chocolate, but I also learned that even I have limits - a large Blizzard more than filled me up, but it was worth it.
Sitting at the outdoor table at DQ my dad whipped out his Blackberry and showed off some coolness, like how he can pull up a weather radar image. Days before our ride he had mentioned this and I teased him, saying "How would that help us on the ride? Are we going to see imminent rain and decide to pedal faster?"
We'd been riding precipitation-free for hours but looking at his Blackberry the radar image showed that a ton of rain was right upon us despite the bright but overcast skies. Wouldn't you know it... five minutes later as we pulled out of the DQ parking lot some big, fat drops of water started to fall! We could only laugh at the irony and besides, we'd been soaking wet since Stockbridge.
Soon we were at the end of Lakelands Trail and heading south on back roads near US-23 on our way home. The skies never did manage to open up - occasionally it would sprinkle a bit but then stop. Since the rain was coming from the NW and we were riding south I think we were keeping ahead of the weather.
Recharged with chocolate I was feeling pretty good but Dad was starting to tire out and we took a couple of extended water breaks on the side of the road to rest the legs. With about five miles to go our quads began to cramp up - both of us at the same time! Yet fortunately a couple miles later our legs relented and allowed us to finish our ride in comfort.
All smiles after dozens of miles.
But not in style - the first thing Mom said when we pulled into the driveway was "Wow, you're muddy!" Actually I didn't think it was that bad, but Mom insisted on a "rear-end view" photo nonetheless. Dad explained how only a two mile stretch of Warren Road was to blame - the rest of the entire route was paved or puddle-less dirt.
If Mom thinks this is "muddy", wait until we go mountain biking!
Dad and I also discovered that one or both of our bike computers isn't calibrated correctly - mine had logged a couple more miles than Dad's over the same course! I used MapMyRun to determine that my Webberville-to-Stockbridge solo ride was 15.2 "mapped" miles compared to 15.4 "computed" miles so it seems mine is a bit off. However, it's hard to say for sure about the rest of the ride since our double-back for missing Hamburg can only be guessed for distance.
All told my computer showed 55.3 miles, so assuming that it's off by 0.2 every 15.4, my total distance would be 54.6 - not a major error. I'll just call it 55 miles and be content.
Soon after getting home the "Blackberry rain" arrived and it began to pour cats and dogs. Two of the dogs were mine - Haven and Beacon arrived with Amanda and her parents, as did Ryan and Megan. We all (except the dogs) went to dinner at Red Robin where it rained even harder and the restaurant even lost power for a couple seconds before the backup kicked in! Perhaps it was a good day to not be riding 120 miles after all!
Overall the ride was a total blast and surprisingly "easy" if 50+ miles can ever be deemed easy. The route was pancake flat except for a few short hills between Hamburg and Ann Arbor and traffic on the non-trail roads was never a problem. My legs were sore for the next couple days but I never felt bonky or worn out. I'm already thinking about doing this again! But not this weekend. :)
4th of July weekend I set out for the fourth time in my new inline skates; my previous three sorties carried me 7.5, 7.5, and 5 miles. I figured it was time to stretch into the double digits so I drove over to the White Pine Trail and laced up the boots.
Almost three hours later I arrived back at the car after covering 33.4 miles! I felt great - yes, I was definitely tired, and my heart rate had been 150-170 (that's above "easy run" range for me) the whole way - but I was nowhere near toasted. My quads felt a bit crampy over the last half hour but not painful. Before setting out I was confident that I could finish 30+ miles, but I never thought I'd cover it in 2:58 and still have some pep left over.
Last Sunday I talked Amanda into joining me on the White Pine Trail again, but instead of skates she was riding her bike. The night before she kept telling me "I think I only want to go to Rockford" (that's an 8 mile round trip) and I assured her that we'd just go until she got tired then turn around since it's uphill going north and downhill back south.
After riding and skating for an hour I asked her to check her bike computer and it read 10 miles, but we hadn't turned around yet! I knew that Amanda had been selling herself short the night before. We continued on since Amanda felt OK still, but within a couple miles she wanted to turn around. I pressed her on for another mile since then we could say we did a marathon.
And we did, going 26.8 miles in 2:31 although strangely I felt more tired than after my 33-miler. Amanda totally bonked at the two-hour mark and we inched along for about 10 minutes until her system finally rebooted and we cruised back to the car.
As impressive as it felt to be skating along at 11 mph for 2-3 hours, it blows me away that elite runners would've dusted me! I skated a 2:30 marathon and folks out there can run that same distance in less time. Wow.
I swear my life has a soundtrack... there's always a song in my head for everything I do. In fact, every morning I wake up with a seemingly random song broadcasting on my brainwaves! Early on in today's bike ride I thought to myself "How nice that there's no traffic on these country roads" and in an instant John Denver's song was playing in my head the rest of the way.
This is why I never feel compelled to iPod-ize my workouts - don't get me wrong, I love jamming to tunes on the run once in a while - but even without an iPod there's usually a song in my head anyway. It reminds me of Andy Dufresne in Shawshank Redemption when he tells Red about enduring solitary by remembering the music he had played over the loudspeakers to get him thrown in there: "That's the beauty of music. They can't take that away from you."
After a speed workout on Friday and a moderate 6-miler on Saturday, I was going to take it easy today with a 1-2 hour bike ride. As part of enforcing my plan I pressurized my tires to just 60 psi instead of the usual 75 psi I use for flying along pavement - that way if I tried to go fast, I'd get frustrated by the mushy tires sapping energy. I also brought the camera along to remind me to stop and shoot the roses.
Or lambs, as it turned out! I was cruising along one of those melodious country roads when I spotted these woolen kids grazing. The wet brakes on my bike squealed to a halt and every single lamb pricked its ears in my direction - how cute! Unfortunately by the time I got my camera out of its double-ziploc bag waterproofing they'd all resumed breakfast, but it was still a cool scene.
Finally I stopped to check the time and to my surprise 1.5 hours had gone by! I was feeling so good that it seemed like I'd been on the road for just half an hour. I had told Amanda that I'd be gone 1-2 hours and now I'm looking at 3 hours if I turned around right then. I called her up and we made some plans - I would continue on for a 3-hour-ish ride into town and she'd come pick me up and we'd go out to lunch.
Back on my bike, five minutes later Amanda calls me back. "Aren't you getting rained on?" Sorry honey, it's just cloudy. Turns out she was in Meijer and the metal roof was echoing a downpour throughout the store. Well guess what? Two minutes after hanging up, the sky opened up and I got soaked. Amanda cursed me! ;)
My only directional plan had been to ride south for a while, then return home. With no pre-defined ending point now, I simply wandered south and west for a while until I realized that I had no clue where I was! To make matters worse, there were signs of alien activity... Crop circles! Actually it looks like the work of a willy willy spawned by yesterday's violent storm front that downed several tree limbs. See the cloud bank at the top of that photo? A minute after snapping the shot I got rained on again, just as I got the camera back into its protective baggie.
Now I had to find my way to town so whenever I hit an intersection I rode either north or west, depending on how ridable the road looked. I hopped onto a nice westbound road but a mile later it turned south with no intersections for a few more miles. Ack! Finally I got on a westerly course and found myself staring at quite a hill. Luckily it wasn't too bad at my slow pace; in fact, this was typical of about a dozen large hills that I climbed - and descended - during the ride. According to MapMyRide my route involved almost 2000 feet of climbing - not bad for Michigan!
Going down those hills was fun and fast, but the raindrops really sting at high speed! Yeah, those raindrops - the last hour of my ride was in a steady rain. I was completely soaked, but it was 67 degrees and I felt great - perfect riding conditions if you ask me! I finally came to a road name that I recognized and called Amanda to look up my location on Google Maps. She told me that it was six miles to a familiar intersection, and from there I was "really close" to the airport. She emphasized that it wasn't far at all, so I figured I'd meet her at the airport viewing area and assumed it was 8-9 miles away.
10 miles later I was wondering what the heck Amanda had told me! Turns out that Amanda had thought I was at the familiar intersection, which was six miles from the airport. So instead of 8-9 miles I actually needed 12 miles to reach the rendezvous point. Less than a mile from the finish the road was blocked by geese! Two families with adolescent goslings (about half the size of their parents; the fuzz was shedding from their necks) were thinking about making a crossing. They ran back to the shoulder as I used the oncoming lane to get around them. I slowed down to watch them when suddenly one of the parents hissed loudly and started running at me! I accelerated and got outta there! :)
At long last I met up with Amanda and changed into some dry clothes before getting refueled at Pizza Hut. My planned 1-2 hour ride became a 3-hour affair (including phone call and photo stops) where I covered 35 miles! All told I averaged about 13 mph if I subtract out the stopping. Surprisingly I still feel great! Apparently last week's 50-miler with my dad has recalibrated my cycling endurance. Nevertheless, I'll go easy on my legs when I run tomorrow.
Alas, I was not a Detroit Tigers ballplayer this weekend, even if it would've meant sitting on the bench as we got swept by the division rivals. Instead I rode a different type of pine, rolling along the White Pine Trail on my bicycle with Amanda and my parents.
My dad and I have long been planning to do a 50-mile ride on this trail, and Saturday was finally the day. Initially I was hoping to ride the entire 92-mile trail to achieve one of my "wouldn't it be cool?" goals for 2007; however, complications involving car repairs altered my plans and I opted for the logistically simpler plan of just riding 50. Not that riding 50 miles is ever simple...
In fact it was only 49 miles, but my dad and I aren't ones to nitpick. :) Mom and Dad drove to our house, loaded up my bike, and the three of us drove to the trailhead in Big Rapids where Dad and I began our journey. Since it had rained all morning we brought along our raincoats but seeing clear skies in the north, we chanced leaving them in the car. I was well stocked with 4 liters of water (planning to give my bottle to Dad, since he brought just one) and tons of munchies.
Three of those liters were in my Salomon Raid Race 200 (bought two years ago for my first adventure race) that I converted into a hydration pack. In contrast my dad went old school, wearing a vintage REI knapsack with felt-lined leather shoulder straps, a wedding gift from 1974! Aside from the handy waist-belt pouches, my pack didn't seem any superior to his - both were lightweight, comfortable, breathable, and durable. Impressive!
The first mile was easy pedaling - all paved. That soon gave way to a dirt two-track for the next, oh, 30+ miles that had been softened by the morning's rain. While some sections were harder-packed than others, the soft dirt just sucked the kinetic energy right out of our tires, much the way EMAS slows down aircraft that overrun a runway. Both of our rides were hybrid bikes with relatively narrow tires that the soft ground swallowed up. We kept wishing for some good old 2" mountain bike tires and I finally tried to emulate those fat knobbies by lowering my tire pressure from 70 to 45 psi. It helped quite a bit, but we'd already ridden 20 miles at the higher pressure so the benefit was minimal.
The weather held up for us terrifically. Temps hovered in the 60s while the sky remained overcast yet without rain - very comfortable! Every 45 minutes or so we'd stop and have a snack. By the end of our ride we'd consumed four energy bars, one bag of dried fruit trail mix, and half a bag of Combos - I later calculated our pit stops to have totaled about 1000 calories for each of us! I swear we burned it all, too.
We were amazed at how far down the trail we could see in some places. The trail is a former train track - straight and flat - and at times we could see two miles ahead of us! It was weird to see a road intersection way in the distance, ride for five minutes and look up to feel as though we didn't get any closer! 33 miles along the trail we spot this pink thing in the distance - minutes passed before we were able to confirm our guess that it was Amanda, who had ridden up to meet us from Grand Rapids. She had to pedal 16 miles to reach us!
Now our group was 50% larger as the three of us slogged through some loose gravel on the two-track. All of this soft terrain was wearing on Amanda's legs and she had one goal in mind: pavement! Half an hour later we finally hit Russell Road, which marks the point where the rest of the trail south is paved. Ahhh! Our average speed jumped a few MPH as cruised along the blacktop. Another 30 minutes and we reached the town of Rockford, our temporary finish line.
In Rockford we met my mom, who had ridden the four miles up from Grand Rapids to meet us all for lunch. We found a pizza restaurant situated in a 100-year-old house that was cramped, but the food was served quickly and it really hit the spot. That pizza joint has the world's smallest bathroom - imagine fitting a toilet, sink, and towel dispenser in a space the size of an outhouse!
Loaded up on food, we walked around the Rockford dam for 15 minutes to digest a bit before hopping back on our bikes for the 4-mile ride to our awaiting parked cars. A mile into the ride it began to rain and quite honestly I welcomed it - after 4 hours of cranking the pedals and getting sprayed with sand and pebbles, the rain felt refreshing! At the very end Dad and I sprinted ahead to see how high of a max speed we could hit on his bicycle computer - he reached 24 mph while I was still gaining on him. It felt fast but then again, Olympic sprinters can run that speed!
We got so carried away we almost missed the parking lot! Dad and I racked up 49 miles, which was his longest ride since a 100-miler in his youth on Belle Isle. This matched my longest - last June I rode the same section of trail but in reverse, going solo from Grand Rapids to Big Rapids. Amanda notched an impressive 32 miles, topping her longest lifetime ride of 28 miles that she did last year, also on this trail. Mom finished at 8 miles, which isn't bad considering that her longest ride in ages was 9 miles a couple months ago. Who wants to go again? :)
Bike
Today did not go as planned, but it turned out very well. Due to a minor achilles injury that caused me to skip my race this weekend, I geared up myself and my bike this morning for our first ride of the year, planning to roll along some country roads for about three hours. All was going well for the first half hour - beautiful clear skies and 60 degree temperature that was rising quickly - when things suddenly fell apart, literally. I'm pedaling along a flat stretch when I hear a loud SNAP followed by the clinks of metal pieces falling on the pavement. My seat broke off!! Luckily I didn't fall; a triathlete friend of mine once broke his arm falling due to a seat failure.
I phoned Amanda, who had to abandon her walk less than five minutes after starting to come rescue me. While waiting for her I managed to ride about two miles closer, during which time I learned two things about cycling with no seat: 1) your calves get really tired if you keep the standard position of centering the balls of your feet over the pedals, so I centered my arches on the pedals instead; and 2) the bike gets quite unstable descending steep hills. I'm not sure why for #2, but I guess it's due to a forward center of gravity putting too much weight on the front wheel?
Hike
So much for my long run ride. Amanda still wanted to get her workout in so I joined her on a local trail for a hike. We stopped home to drop off the bike and we decided to take Haven with us. She loved the trails but we had to keep her on leash about 95% of the time since portions of the trail are near 55 mph roads and because there are lots of folks (and their dogs) sharing the trails. Legally all dogs must be on leash there but the vast majority of the ones I see are unleashed, and Haven never causes problems but with her muddy paws I didn't want to offend anyone and give unleashed dogs a bad name.
Amanda took so many photos that we were making slow progress around the 4.5 mile loop. We wanted to get home in time to watch a Detroit Tigers game - a rare opportunity to see them on a air-broadcast channel. Halfway around the loop we decided I should run the 2 miles back to the car and pick up Amanda at the north parking lot (we started at the south lot).
Run
Haven came with me and we ran at a quick pace up and down the sandy, leafy hills. We passed a few other people and dogs but Haven was so tired by this point that she was in no mood to be the social butterfly that she usually is. 14 minutes later we were back at the car (after having to jump over a 2-foot long hognose snake!) The run was tiring and felt great - my achilles felt a bit tight but nothing near as bad as last week. Still, I'm glad (in a common-sense sort of way) that I passed on the 10-mile race yesterday.
Fetch
Once we got home we traded Haven for Beacon and drove to the river where I played fetch with him for half an hour while Amanda drove out to Subway to fetch our dinner. Beacon needed his turn getting some fun exercise and he really loved it, screaming as he waited for me to throw the next stick. He finally started getting tired just as Amanda returned and we all went home for dinner.
Icing on the cake: we got to watch the Tigers beat the White Sox in a 12-inning thriller complete with two-outs-bottom-of-the-9th home run heroics!
Triathlons are probably the most popular multi-sport event out there. I've never tried one, although I have completed a few adventure races. One thing that has intrigued me over the years is that most triathletes I know are cyclists who converted to triathlons, or for whom cycling is their strongest discipline. There are a few runners who dabble in triathlons but I don't know many swimmers gravitating to the sport.
Why? At first I assumed that the meticulousness required of cyclists to maintain their bikes is an attitude well-suited to triathlons - you have to keep lots of gear in order. Maybe this is why most adventure racers seem to hail from backgrounds in either mountain biking or rustic camping.
Seeking a better explanation, I started by comparing the lengths of disciplines involved with triathlons, specifically the iron-distance variety: 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run. Is running a marathon equivalent to swimming less than a tenth of that distance? Let's examine a hypothetical situation...
Three buddies are training regularly for Ironman Hawaii. Each has a background as a single-sport athlete in each discipline. Sam is a Swimmer, Bob is a Biker, and Rick is a Runner. As a result, each is 10% faster than average in their specialty; in the other two disciplines they are average. In theory, they should each finish at the same time, right? Let's look at the results for the 2006 Ironman in Kona.
First up was the swim leg - average time was 1:16, which is when Bob and Rick came out of the water. Sam was 10% faster, so he finished at about 1:08.
Next was the bike leg - average time was 5:47, good for Sam and Rick. Bob's 10% advantage has him finishing in 5:12.
Finally the run leg - average time was 4:10, which is what Sam and Bob ran. Rick was 10% faster and finished in 3:45.
(We'll assume that all three of them were average in transition times at 4:30 per transition, 9 minutes total.)
You can probably see where this is going... Bob was the first of the buddies to finish, crossing the line at 10:47 and putting him 4.6% ahead of the average overall finishing time of 11:18. Rick finished 10 minutes later at 10:57, 3.1% above average overall. Then "straggled" in Sam at 11:14, his swimming prowess placing him just 0.6% above average overall.
No wonder most triathletes are primarily cyclists - they get the most bang for the buck! Swimmers get the shaft. For this reason some have proposed re-scaling the distances so that each discipline takes a similar amount of time, based on single-sport athletes' records for each. This has been called an "equilateral triathlon". For comparison, a traditional iron-distance swim/bike/run is 2.4/112.0/26.2 (in miles) while an "equilateral" iron-distance triathlon would sport distances of 7.5/60.0/26.2, where a world-class single-sport athlete could finish their respective discipline in just over 2 hours. Quite a difference!
However, is that really a fair comparison? What's more difficult: swimming 2 hours, cycling 2 hours, or running 2 hours? Maybe Sam's 10% swimming advantage only saves him 8 minutes of time, but also saves him proportionally more energy so that in theory he could do the next two legs a little above average, while Bob's 35 minute savings on the efficient bicycle doesn't gain him much extra energy over other racers.
Here's how I'd do it: Find out how many calories the average world-class marathoner burns over 26.2 miles. Then determine swimming and cycling distances where athletes of similar caliber would burn the same number of calories. That way competitors would strive for equal skill and efficiency among all disciplines in order to maximize their overall endurance. I believe that such an "energy distance" triathlon would be truly unbiased!
We didn't have any big plans for Saturday other than dropping off our foster dog at an adoption event for Vicky's Pet Connection. The event went well because Darva got adopted and we got a new foster Marty. It was what happened on our way back home from dropping off Darva that changed the day's (lack of) plans.
The drive home took us through Ada and as we skirted the quaint downtown, we noticed a main road was closed off. It seemed like a parade was getting underway until we saw the "floats" fly by - a group of cyclists with bib numbers pinned to their team jerseys. It was a bike race!
The event was the Ada Criterium, a series of ten bike races sanctioned by the US Cycling Federation and also serving as the Michigan criterium state championships. Riders of all abilities, even pro, were competing. It was about 12:30pm, so we found a parking space and found a place to watch along the sidewalk.
The race course was simply a 0.8-mile loop on the downtown streets and there were very few spectators. That isn't to say it wasn't crowded, because the sidewalks near the start/finish line were full of cyclists and their friends and family. We watched the men's Cat 4 race at 12:40 where the riders race 30 minutes plus 5 laps; they ride the 30 minutes at whatever pace the peloton feels like, but once the time is up then there's automatically 5 laps to go.
We chatted with a few volunteers who informed us that the premier race of the day would take place at 4:50pm with the Cat 1-2 (and pro) men. They neglected to tell us that the pro and Cat 1-2 women were racing next at 1:30pm! So after watching just one race we drove home to take care of some errands and grab lunch. Soon we were on the road again, heading to Vicky's to pick up our next foster dog, Marty. Then, we were back at the races.
The elite men's race was 80 minutes plus 5 laps, so we decided to walk around the entire course (it's only 0.8 miles, remember) during the race to watch from every possible angle! It was just like going for a stroll on the neighborhood sidewalk with a pack of VERY FAST cyclists humming past every 100 seconds or so.
While walking near the start/finish area I ran into David, a guy I'd met twice before. The first time was back in February while running on the North Country Trail near my house - he was running, too! We said hi, but didn't introduce ourselves until we happened to meet at the bookstore during the Dean Karnazes book signing! He's a triathlete and recently completed the Lake Placid Ironman in a little over 12 hours, a very solid time - at least I think it is, but I've never done a triathlon before. Maybe someday...
David stayed to take some photos while Amanda and I continued our circuit of the race loop. We talked with one volunteer whose son finished 3rd in the junior men's race, and another volunteer couple who had a son in the last race, the Cat 3 men. At one point a police officer, whose job was to keep the public OFF the race course, nearly got nailed by the race leader when he tried to cross the road without looking! I felt bad for the rider who had to shout "Watch out!" and swerve when he was doing his best to attack the peloton.
Finally the race was over, won by a local rider, and Amanda and I decided to go home. Not without a couple souvenirs - the sponsor Ada Bike Shop was selling nice water bottles for $3 each! It was our first time watching an organized road bike race and it was quite thrilling - the speed, the strategic tactics, the competition! It made me feel like racing, and I'm not even a "roadie"! But I'll stick to running and adventure racing for now.
Ryan has to tell us his new jokes before we get started.
A few months ago my dad and I discussed going on a bike ride sometime this summer. We used to go for 12-20 mile rides on occasion back when I lived in Ann Arbor during college, but haven't ridden together since then. We decided to go for a ride again this year on 4th of July.
While my dad focused on getting back into shape, I scouted out a route that would take us from my house to my grandma's (dad's mom) about 21 miles away. Similar to the rides of my college days, I planned to stick to dirt roads to avoid traffic and spend more time in the countryside. Then Dad called a few days later to boast about his first training ride that totally wore him out... he had gone just 12 miles!
I decided to schedule our ride such that we would stop after the first 13 hilly miles in a small town called Smyrna. There we could recharge at the ice cream shop and give Dad a rest. Soon my brothers, Eric and Ryan, heard of our little expedition and decided to join in. When Eric reclaimed his mountain bike from my parents' house, Dad suddenly found himself without a ride! It turned out to be a perfect excuse to buy a bike, getting a great deal on a quality hybrid from the classifieds.
Soon July 4th was upon us and by now my cousins Gabe and Adrienne, plus Adrienne's friend Rean, were planning to ride out to meet us near Smyrna (they live near Grandma). My family arrived at my house right on schedule and we proceded to prep the bikes - we pumped up the tires, adjusted seats, and I cleaned about 15 years worth of dirt from Ryan's drivetrain! Ryan was using my trusty (and a bit rusty) old bike that I used in college.
After posing for a photo, we were off! Well, as soon as Ryan finished telling us his two new jokes. My favorite: What does a snail riding on the back of a turtle say? "Wheeee!" This would later remind us of dad riding his bike... ;)
Right away we climbed an 80-foot hill (pretty big for Michigan) and my three wingmen were already grousing about the ascent! There would be a tougher climb later on. Eric has been keeping in decent shape by playing hockey while Ryan maintains his fitness with tennis and basketball. My dad plays basketball, too, but he doesn't have youth on his side. We joked that Dad will win the 0-to-60 drag race... to 60 years old, that is.
One of the cool aspects of the route is that it took us across two historic covered bridges: Fallasburg Covered Bridge and White's Covered Bridge. If we'd started 15 miles southwest of Lowell, we could've added the Ada Covered Bridge, too. Maybe next time. We also passed by an old grain silo that had been converted into a sort of lighthouse along the Flat River just north of White's Bridge.
After about an hour we met up with our cousins, and twenty minutes later we reached Smyrna. The ice cream shop offers sizes of "baby", "small", "medium" and "large". We all ordered "small" and found ourselves trying to down a pint of ice cream each! I wonder how big "large" is, a gallon? Holy cow. It was good stuff, too.
Moving on, most of the last 8 miles were fairly flat and straight and entirely on dirt roads. Gabe used to road race and brought his road bike for this ride, which was a lot to handle on the lumpy gravel roads but he easily kept up. Everyone was doing pretty well, actually. Adrienne and Rean in particular were well trained - they had just completed a two-week long bike ride along Lake Michigan and Lake Huron totaling about 800 miles!
The home stretch was probably the most difficult - a mile riding through Grandma's old pasture, an energy-sapping section of two-track full of weeds and rough terrain. Finally we made it to our destination: my aunt and uncle's house, which borders on my grandma's pasture. After cooling off with a garden hose we were treated to a 4th of July BBQ on their screened-in porch. We even celebrated Grandma's 85th birthday, which is July 6.
After dinner we started looking for something to do. My uncle brought out a three-person slingshot designed to launch water balloons! Two people hold each end while a third "shooter" loads the balloon, pulls back, and lets fly. These grenades were sailing 50-100 yards across the lawn and reaching over 150 feet high! Every once in a while a balloon would explode upon release, showering the launch crew with water.
Ryan and Amanda took up safe positions behind trees to capture some cool photos while Gabe and Rean went downrange with a shovel handle, trying to swat the balloons before they hit the ground. After launching for a while I joined them, and we all managed to hit a couple "homers" before the balloon supply was exhausted. What a fun day!
Kevin and Todd hold firm as Dad prepares the "grenade" for launch.
Todd launches one downrange (using Dad and I as the "cannon") towards Gabe and Rean, who are waiting with a big stick...
Focused on swatting the incoming water balloon!
It's a great time to be a fan of endurance sports! Right now two sports - adventure racing and road cycling - are putting on their biggest events of the year. The best adventure racers in the world are just finishing up their premier event, the Primal Quest, hosted in Utah this year. As the Primal Quest comes to a close, cycling's signature Tour de France race is kicking off in Europe. Both events take several days to complete, which may be too slow for TV but it's a great type of race to follow during the day via the internet - day after day of wondering what it would be like to undertake such an endeavor.
The Tour de France (TdF) is a stage race, which means competitors race a given segment of the course each day and they add up the total time required to complete each leg. The TdF covers over 2,200 miles during the course of 23 days (including two rest days of no racing) winding through the mountains, farm fields, and towns of France and Germany. While I'm not an avid road cyclist, I find the strategy and tension to be captivating. It's a lot like watching soccer or NASCAR - extended periods of little obvious action during which teams are intensely trying to set themselves up to capitalize on a sudden opportunity.
Much more exciting and even inspiring to me is the Primal Quest (PQ), which is a continuous expedition - the race never stops. When to sleep, and how much sleep to get, is a key strategic factor in every team's success (or lack thereof). It is this event that has left me more amazed and in awe than any other sporting event. The PQ covers 500 miles comprising varied disciplines such as trekking, kayaking, mountain biking, and mountain climbing. The winning team finished in just over six days, and the slowest teams will take up to ten days.
While strategy plays a huge role in the TdF, the strategic planning of the PQ is many times greater in scope. Not only are the racers pushing themselves physically, but also cognitively as they battle fatigue, dehydration, malnourishment, overheating, and sleep deprivation without a chance to recover until they finish. It gives new meaning to the word "perseverance", or even "survival". If it wasn't enough to be physically exhausted and mentally burned out, racers have to remain emotionally upbeat and continue to work well together.
What really intrigues me about expedition-length races (covering several days) is the amount of personal drive and will power required just to finish the event. You and your team of four, on your own in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night, hoping that you planned and trained appropriately for the weather, the terrain, and your mental state. Someday I would LOVE to compete in PQ or a similar expedition; in fact there's a great one here in Michigan put on by Infiterra Sports.
I'm probably not prepared yet to complete an expedition race, but how do I know for sure? A few of my training buddies have completed the Michigan Coast to Coast so I know it's well within my realm of possibility. But what more am I capable of? In 9th grade I loved running but didn't join the cross country team because I didn't think I could run three miles; I'd never run farther than one at the time. Then as a high school senior I did finally join cross country and even though I went on training runs up to ten miles long, I felt that a marathon was well beyond my abilities. During college I marvelled at the Eco Challenge races but felt that I could never do it. Even when my neighbor during my last year of college was recruited by an Eco Challenge team, it never occurred to me that such a challenge was within my grasp.
After college I stopped running for about five years, but resumed running a couple years ago. Last year I ran my first marathon and finished my first adventure race (an 8-hour sprint). I used to think three miles was impossible for me, and then I thought a marathon was impossible. Those were enough to make me wonder, just how much is possible? This fall I plan to complete a 50 mile trail run... holy cow, can I really run 50 miles? There's only one way to find out! Following the PQ and TdF will help to inspire my desire to ENDURE, to PERSEVERE, and FINISH an event that at one point in my life I used to consider impossible for myself. Whether or not I finish it's going to be painful, but worth the effort - at least I'll know just how far I can go.
Sunday morning Amanda and I hauled our bikes over to the White Pine Trail, a 92-mile linear State Park running from Grand Rapids to Cadillac and passing through over a dozen towns in between. Today's objective: ride from Grand Rapids to Big Rapids via the White Pine Trail.
We set up at a parking lot in Belmont on the north end of Grand Rapids. From there we rode 14 miles to Cedar Springs, the first 11+ of which is paved (see trail details using this map). One of the nice things about this trail is that it was a Rails to Trails project - a former railroad track converted into a public-use trail - which means that the entire route is very flat.
At the Russell Road access point the trail becomes an unpaved two-track that continues until just before Big Rapids. We continued on to Cedar Springs where we stopped for a few minutes to eat some snacks before parting ways. Amanda turned around to return to Belmont while I pressed on towards Big Rapids. By the time Amanda got back to our car she had ridden 28 miles - her previous longest ride was over a year ago at "just" 12 miles!
Surprisingly this trail doesn't have a wilderness feel - as a former train track it parallels a major two-lane road. Despite this, there are nice views across some farmland and a few sleepy, rural small towns to pass through. These 30+ unpaved miles are quiet enough (I didn't see a soul on the trail!) to allow the local wildlife to feel at home exploring the trail. During my journey I saw countless rabbits, robins, goldfinches, and even a couple woodchucks. Near a pond I had to dodge two painted turtles goin' slow and steady across the trail. At one point I startled a sandhill crane, who decided to fly away from me straight down the trail - I put the hammer down and tried to give chase but wings beat tires every time. I also encountered a doe with two very small fawns, and later another deer watched me pedal onward from less than 20 feet away.
Sharing the trail with so many animals wasn't the only excitement of the trip. Halfway through the four-hour ride it began to rain; 30 minutes later the wind picked up menacingly and it began to pour. What a blast! It was such a rush to be flying along the trail against the driving rain, out there on my own with many miles to go. Three times I enjoyed a ten-minute downpour - the rest of the way it was a steady rain. Needless to say I was soaked by the time I finished.
I was feeling strong the entire day. I set my watch to beep every 15 minutes to remind me to drink water, and every half hour I made sure to eat some form of calories. Given the soft trail surface I couldn't ride very fast (I wound up averaging 11 mph) but I kept the tempo up best I could. At one point I even let some air out of my tires to give me better traction on the sand and loose gravel, which helped significantly. The trail has mile posts and once I realized that I had just three miles to go, I picked up the pace. Soon I was greeted with a "Welcome to Big Rapids" sign and the trail became smooth pavement - a welcome sight indeed! I flew the last couple of my 49+ miles and arrived at the access point where Amanda would pick me up, except...
Where's Amanda? She had plenty of time to get there so I found a roof overhang (it was still raining steadily) and called her on my cell phone. She had stopped for french fries but then couldn't find the access point; the intersecting road M-20 made a few confusing turns as it passed through Big Rapids but eventually she found me. Did I mention that I was soaked? And covered with dirt, bits of leaves, and whatever other trail debris my tires kicked onto my legs, back, and even my head! Wisely we had brought along a change of clothes so while Amanda gassed up the car I used the restroom to wash up best I could and put on some dry threads. We treated ourselves to Jimmy Johns sub sandwiches and then headed home. What a ride!
On Friday I rode my bike to work for the second time. I had done it once before two weeks ago, also on a Friday. If only we lived a bit closer, because I'd certainly commute by bike more often; however, for now I'm planning on riding about once a week every Friday. The shortest route is 14.65 miles, which I followed two weeks ago - it took me one hour. This week I took a slightly longer but less hilly route that added up to 17.15 miles. The reduction in hills must've helped because I arrived at work in 1:05, just five minutes slower than my first trip. For comparison, it takes me about 25 minutes to drive those same routes to work.
Those miles, however, just get me to the main building at work (my company has two buildings about a mile apart). This building has a fitness center, including a locker room and shower stalls so I'm able to wear my bike gear on the ride there, then shower and change into my work clothes. I work in the auxiliary building, which means I then have to ride the one mile down the road, but I take it easy so as to not get all sweaty. On these rides my backpack is fully loaded, including carrying my standard sustenance - breakfast (a half-liter of strawberry Slim Fast) plus lunch (a half-liter of kool-aid, a yogurt, and a double-decker PB&J sandwich).
All told that's a bit less than 1.5 hours if you include the shower stop and riding to the auxiliary building. So far on these days I haven't ridden home. Fridays I like to leave a little early, so instead of biking home Amanda will come to pick me up and we go out for dinner somewhere. This week is was gourmet dining at Wendy's!