COUNTDOWN WEEK 13

Well, we've just finished up Week 13 of training weeks to go before "D-Day" on September 22.   Summary of this weeks training:

261.85 miles ridden in 16.07 hours; 16.3 mph average overall; best avg 18.18 mph; worst 13.58.

We have moved to Flagstaff AZ and are camped out in the Coconino National Forest.  Very nice here, and COOLER!!  We have been riding Lake Mary Road which has a wide smooth shoulder and some decent but not killer hills.  There are several other good rides in the area which we will explore as well.

View from our windows

Our Forest Camp

Today is a day off.  We rode hard yesterday (that was a 40 mile,  18.18 mph avg day).  We still have 12 weeks more of this to go and need to get that weekly mileage count up to 360 consistently.  I can see where this is going....life is all about riding, eating, sleeping for the next 12 weeks and then another (at least) 10 beyond that.  It's a sobering thought.  This ride really sounded like a good idea at the time we came up with it, but the stark reality of it is that it's not going to be all fun and games.  Sometimes it's just going to be boring, some days exhausting.  I just hope I can keep "keeping on" for the next 22 weeks!!!  It's a lot harder than imagined....

4 days, 170 miles

Well we've just completed a four-day training run which totaled 170 miles for those four days.  We are feeling pretty good, not too tired or sore now and actually have some energy left for doing the routine things around the home the rest of the day.

But today is a day off for doctor appointments and eating out - yum!!  Tomorrow we'll resume the training and start trying to build up the mileage.  Depending on how this doctor appointment goes and how soon I can get back in for an annual physical, we will either stay a little longer in Havasu or head out to higher country near Flagstaff.  I've got to admit, the higher cooler country sounds good, especially for longer rides.  Here we've been finishing up at 9 am or so with 91 degrees.  Can't imagine how nice it would be to ride with just a high in the middle of the day of 85!!

One Week, 214 miles

We have completed our first full week here in Hot Havasu.  Today it's only 113 degrees.  When we finished up our ride this morning just after 8 am, it was 91.  We're getting used to it.

This past week we rode 6 out of 7 days, which is what we need to be able to do for the cross country ride.  But our total mileage for the week is just 214 miles, which is only 60% of the mileage we need to do (360 per week) in order to do the ride in two months.  But we have 3 months still to get there.

I am feeling better about this now.  Rick has been figuring out the first 5 days of the ride from San Diego to Quartzsite and has planned some good places to stay over so we can enjoy ourselves after riding each day.

If we could just have catered meals, a swimming pool or jacuzzi, hot shower and a massage each day after riding, this COULD be really fun....

Dream on!!

It's so HOT here we wish we were naked!!

Today's training ride commenced circa 5:30 am.  A "cool" 80 degrees starting temp.  We rode north on highway 95 for 15 miles, had breakfast at the truck stop Carl's Jr., then proceeded to ride another 11 miles out east on I-40 before turning around and heading home.  Total mileage was 52 today.  We didn't finish up until 9:30 am when it was "only" 91 degrees.  Later today the temp soared to 115.  It's supposed to get hotter the next few days.  The pool here is a welcome relief.

Can't wait to see how hot it is tomorrow morning at 5:30 am!  Did I mention I don't like extreme temperatures?????

Today we reflected on the gravity of this undertaking.  Are we nuts?  Whose idea was this anyway?  We just did 52 today, and in order to finish this ride up within two months, we need to be able to consistently ride an average of 60 miles per day, 6 days a week.  I can't get my head quite around that yet.

And what will we do for the rest of the day if we get up at the crack of dawn, do our daily ride in 4-5 hours and get back to the RV by noon?  Out in the middle of nowhere?  (I just hope it's not 105 degrees and we aren't someplace where we can't run AC.)

Serious questions to ponder....

Did somebody think this was going to be FUN?????

Back to the Mother Ship, starting to train....

We got back to the Mother Ship on Tuesday (Mother Ship is the Teton 5th wheel, shuttle craft being the Xterra towing sailboat).  Rode 35 miles, 2000' of climbing through the neighbohoods of Lake Havasu.  Felt good, but lots of glycogen left stored in our legs (from two weeks of gorging on fish and chips in Ireland/Scotland).  The next day wasn't as pleasant....25 miles on FLATS, felt like shit.  Thought about not getting up today, but did anyway and put in another 35 miles, 1800' climbing.  Probably need to take a rest day tomorrow, but probably won't.  No rested for the wicked, and that we are!  We need to be riding over 300 miles a week pretty soon (next few weeks) or else we'll be toast.  (Hmmm....toast sounds good, to eat that is).

Talked to Dennis and Lindsay tonight.  They may hang around San Diego to see us off on Sept. 21.  They were tempted to join us....

We really pigged out in I/S.  I gained 12 pounds and am now sporting heaviest weight ever, spent too much time at the "chippie" (take out fish n' chips)

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Should've just drank beer but it wasn't as good as the fish!

  

Hello fellow Amigos!