Because it’s there
I decided to take another long bicycle ride today. I tried to apply some of the lessons learned from last time and did a few things differently:
Freaking eat something first. The last time I attempted this ride I rolled out of bed and onto the bike with only a pot of coffee in between. It turns out that black coffee isn’t as much the breakfast of champions as I may have hoped. Today I fixed myself a big plate of grits (I probably need carbs or something), an orange (don’t want no scurvy) and some bacon (delicious). I could have used some eggs or toast or some of those other things pictured in the “complete breakfast” on boxes of sugary cereal, but I didn’t have any of that stuff. Regardless, I suspect that the meal improved my performance a bit.
The roof is not on fire, but I still need some water. I got pretty thirsty on the last ride, but I do have a problem of capacity with regards to water. I decided to attempt to apply a lesson from Dune: the best place to carry water is inside you. I drank about a quart before starting, half-expecting to need to stop and pee in someone’s bushes halfway through, but instead I just sweat it all out in the first five minutes. Maybe I should get one of those bottle cages that attaches behind the saddle.
No errands. No trips to Blockbuster, no stops at grocery stores, and no bags or backpacks or other carrying devices. I stripped El Blue Demon down to just 18 pounds of rubber and aluminum and carbon fiber, leaving only my under-saddle bag, stuffed full with a patch kit, tire levers, spare tube, chain tool, my cell phone and I think an Allen wrench or two, to bail me out a variety of emergencies. I didn’t need any of it, thankfully, and it was really nice to let my road bike handle like a road bike. I did leave the rack on, but it’s reasonably light and a pain to remove.
Start earlier. I really only wanted to do this earlier so I’d have some daylight left after the ride to do some other stuff. For me “early” is “before noon” (I guess that coffee I mentioned earlier was more a lunch of champions), so putting my ride between 11 and 2 probably wasn’t the greatest idea. Did you know it’s 87° today?
When I checked the Green Tour website to plan my route, I noticed that they’ve made a couple of changes. The “Intermediate” portion of the route that loops through the Long Island Creek area removed all that twisting and turning around Long Island Dr and the surrounding roads, instead starting the route with a straight shot down Mt. Vernon. Apparently they felt that the extra-gnarly hills in that area were a bit too much. There’s also an extra bit of course: whereas last time they described a 30mi “Advanced” course and a 60mi double-advanced (or something like that) that was really just regular-advanced twice, this time there is a ~15mi extension that continues south on Glenridge at the end of the Dunwoody loop and crosses the southern edge of Sandy Springs before continuing back north on Mt. Vernon. They say the route is still being finalized, and I suspect one reason for that is that the roads they specify don’t actually connect. I stuck with the 30mi course.
I rode the route in order this time, except for the part where I turned the wrong way on Northside and ended up taking the Riverview counterclockwise. Eh. I felt like I was doing pretty good this time around. Maybe the removal of the extra hills helped, or maybe going the correct direction through Long Island and Powers Ferry and all that results in fewer steep climbs. I ended up finishing the first of my two bottles of water somewhere on Dunwoody Club Dr, and I was still going pretty good. I gave a moment’s thought to continuing along the extra-advanced course, maybe stopping at that park on Hammond to get more water, but that idea was thoroughly crushed by the time I got back to Glenridge. Just north of Abernathy, a little after Glenridge turns right into itself, there’s a somewhat steep hill, and when I got to the foot of that I just couldn’t go any farther. My knees where aching, my legs were sore, and each new stroke took more and more of my waning will to complete. I probably would have made up some nuclear secrets right there and sold them to al-Qaeda if I thought it would get me a cold glass of water and a soft bed. I pulled over and lied down for a while around the same spot as the 3:40 break on last ride’s map. This was my first non-traffic stop after a little over two hours of riding, so that’s probably not too bad.
In all, the ride was 32.5mi, and I completed it with an average speed of 13mph or so. I did notice a lot of other cyclists today, maybe because it’s more into race season now or maybe because I was sticking more to the path, and man do those people piss me off. I have a different mindset from these people, and I realize that: I don’t have the lycra shorts or the fancy jersies or anything, and I realize that biking in a hawaiian shirt and jeans means that I’m carrying about five pounds of sweat around with me, but it’s comfortable enough and doesn’t make me look like a complete tool. I’m not out here to win any races. So I’m not in a big hurry to begin with, and maybe the endorphins make me friendlier, but I feel it’s appropriate to acknowledge other bikers’ presence. Are we not all brothers and sisters in transportation? Ride on, and godspeed! And it wouldn’t kill you to nod or wave or shout “howdy” back when I do so for you, jerks. I hope their overpriced titanium spokes snap.