1st Training Day - Back in the Saddle

Today was sunny and a balmy 38 degrees with no wind. I would not let such a rare Cleveland winter day go by without a bike ride. My first of the year.

Actually, my first since 2008. Last summer I had a job away from the Cleveland area and could not bring my bike along. I obviously did not have my priorities in the right order last summer. I'm not about to get my priorities muddled up now! I pumped my deflated tires to 130 PSI, put on some gloves and a windbreaker and was ready to go.

Getting back in that saddle reminded me why I love riding my bike. I was cruising at 18 MPH. It felt smooth and effortless; like floating. That feeling did not last long. It was interrupted by a rather large hill. I have climbed this hill numerous times before and knew it well. However, this time I was not half way up it but found myself in the lowest gear trying to downshift. I got out of the saddle and used my whole body to get up that hill. I had not gone 2 miles but was now completely spent. I felt queasy and as though my feet could not complete one more cadence. Hardly a reason to turn around. I kept at it. Up hills going barely 6 MPH I was in pain and my legs could barely move the pedals. On one such hill my chain fell off and so I had to walk my bike the rest of the way to the top. But just as much as I was cursing gravity on the way up I was praising it on the way down hitting 35-40 MPH with cars behind me unwilling to pass for fear of receiving a speeding ticket.

I got myself 10 miles away when I felt the need for a drink and realized that in all my excitement before the ride I had forgotten to provide myself with a water bottle. I decided to turn around and managed to find a Walgreen's where I guzzled a Gatorade. However, the trip to the Walgreen's was an extra 2 hilly miles. Although, in my dehydrated state I have to say it was worth it.

In about 2 and a half hours (including rest) I totaled 22 miles and for the last 3 I could not feel my toes, my thighs and hamstrings were cramping up and my butt was in agony (I need new padded riding shorts). It may be hard to believe but despite these minor discomforts I was smiling. I knew I had gone as far as I could go today. My body was beginning to give me very obvious signs that I should give it some rest and rest I did.

Invested

Today I became financially invested in my adventure. I purchased the maps I will use for my route across the U.S. Now there is no turning back.

The route I will take is approximately 3,800 miles long and starts in Washington D.C. and ends in San Francisco. For a look at the route you can check out this website http://www.adventurecycling.org/routes/network.cfm. On the right side of the page there is a link named "Map of all ACA Routes." If you click that link a map will open and if you just follow the colored lines from Washington D.C. to San Francisco you will see the route I intend to take.

Also, here is a list of some of the cities I will be passing through:

Washington D.C.
Fredericksburg, VA
Richmond, VA
Charlottesville, VA
Christiansburg, VA
Demascus, VA
Elkhorn City, KY
Berea, KY
Bardstown, KY
Sonora, KY
Dixon, KY
Murphysboro, IL
Chester, IL
Farmington, MO
Ellington, MO
Girard, KS
Newton, KS
Alexander, KS
Eads, KS
Pueblo, CO
Poncha Springs, CO
Montrose, CO
Rico, CO
Dolores, CO
Monticello, UT
Blanding, UT
Hanksville, UT
Grover, UT
Escalante, UT
Cedar City, UT
Milford, UT
Baker, NV
Eureka, NV
Fallon, NV
Carson City, NV
Woodlands, CA
Folsom, CA
Davis, CA
San Francisco, CA

Anyone want to meet me anywhere?

The Beginning

The beginning was actually three years ago. I was 19 years old and in college at the time. It was my sixth and final year at Baldwin-Wallace and I spent much of my time on school related stuff or working a part time job packaging boxes five hours a day at a podiatry supply company. The school stuff consisted of suffering through a differential equations class three times a week or trying to convince myself that the differential equations homework I had been assigned would be a good use of my time. Most every time I sat down to complete the homework I quickly became convinced that it was a waste of my time and so it became a great struggle for me. However, this class was the only class I was enrolled in during my final semester. I needed any grade better than a 'D' to graduate. I finished with a 'B'. Getting out of college proved to be a strong motivator, even when assigned the task of calculating the inverse LaPlace transform of the Dirac delta function. The purpose of which fails me to this day.

It was winter and sometime in between Dirac and my tape gun I came across an article about a young man who, alone, had recently rowed a boat across the Atlantic Ocean. As I read his journal of his days at sea I became fascinated. Stories of dodging Navy battleships, rowing in storms with crashing waves, the porpoises swimming alongside, the blisters, the loneliness, the sun, the moon, the stars, the thrill, the adventure, the unknown, the struggle, and ultimately the accomplishment held my speed reading eyes until it was time to go back to the packing popcorn and cardboard as I had every other weekday since summer.

What kind of life was I leading? School and my job were my ball and chain and there was no end in sight. I was even trying to find a full time job that I could make a career out of. What a terrible idea! Fortunately, I was denied by all that I applied to. Up until this point I had been going through life without knowing that people willingly row across the Atlantic Ocean by themselves. This is something I will not let my kids go their first 19 years without knowing. I felt I had been enlightened. This idea stirred something deep within me. A door was opened and a monster let out that has not gone away since. A monster that gets hungrier every day. At first it was content with dreaming about the day when I would go on my first adventure. That was not enough. I then fed it stories of other people's adventures. Stories like "Into the Wild", "Into the Air", and "The Royal Road to Romance". But now these are not enough. I am sick of reading about other people's adventures. I want adventure.

After deciding that rowing a boat across the Atlantic would be too expensive, I decided to ride my bike across the United States. Three years I have thought about this. In May 2010, I will begin my first adventure!