Clevland rocks

We got into Cleveland yesterday, and after a night of watching olympic gymnastics we woke up and took the train into downtown to meet up with a friend that a few of the riders knew from fall conference. We ate at the hard Rock cafe with an annoyingly campy waiter, then drove around town for a bit before deciding to head to the Rock and Roll Hall of fame, which was fun. For dinner we met up with some of Flannery's family who made us an awesome spread of BBQ and beer, then put us up in a hotel for the night, marking our first hotel stay of the entire trip. 

homecoming

There was no "Welcome to Illinois" sign.  I've seen them a hundred times before. Driving to and from Wisconsin every weekend in the winter, coming home from road trips, from day trips to Indiana.  I've seen the sign more times than I can count, but thats not the point.  I've never really missed Illinois before. I've never really wanted to be welcomed back, until today that is. And today, of all days I didn't see it.

No matter.  I was greeted by the Missisipi, which for all its trash and toxic waste was actually really pretty to ride along.  I was greeted by rolling hills along the western shore of the river that I didn't know existed.  I was greeted by familiar town names, places I remembered hearing about through various soccer tournaments, state competitions in High School, or road trips I'd taken with friends. And most exciting for me, I was greeted by my family, when my dad and aunt showed up around lunch to ride with me in to Peru.

As much as I had been looking forward to this day for weeks, Illinois sure knew how to welcome me back.  Between the heat index pushing 110, the 20 mile an hour crosswind turned headwind and 4 consecutive flat tires after going the entire state of Iowa without a single flat, there were about a hundred points during today that I probably would have called it quits if I hadn't gotten to ride with my dad.

My dad is the person who got me interested in cycling, and who put up with me for hour after hour on the roads and up hills at my mind numbingly slow pace.  I've done a few rides with him in the past, but it was nice to meet up with him at this point because, while he still kicks my ass up hill, I think I can finally keep a flats pace that doesn't drive him nuts. Better than the ride, however was being able to get dinner and drinks (and reluctantly more tubes) with my family, and spend an evening catching up on the events of the past month.  Even though I'll be home tomorrow, it was a nice sneak peak, and really made my homecoming enjoyable. 

I'm still bitter about that sign though.

Of mountains and mole hills

Yesterday might have been our first day in the Rockies, but today was our first real climb. We started the day on winding, confusing bike trails that lead in and out of subdivisions, ski villages, and golf courses. It rained off and on all morning and by the time we made it to he base of the first pass we were wet, annoyed and already tired. We slowly climbed up the 11 mile Vail pass that was not quite gradual enough to be easy, but gradual enough to be possible. We made a wrong turn, did some extra climbing, and met a few people along the way.

After nearly two long hours of climbing the summit was within sight. As we rounded the lake at the top of the pass the skies, which had looked ready to dump since the base, opened up on us. Rain quickly turned to hail as we rushed toward the van parked at the summit. After the hail let up we began our descent. What is usually the best part of a climb turned out to be a miserable experience. The path was narrow and slick keeping us at around 15 mph, and the wind made the cool mountain temperatures seem freezing. Halfway down the hail started up again and we took shelter with some other riders who were on their way up. By the time we got down to the base we were drenched and freezing and looking for a bathroom. We wandered around a resort village for a while, stopped in a bar and finally met up with the rest of the group.

 After eating in a gas station we set out to finish off the last few miles on a bike path, and saw lightening in the direction we were headed. We waited it out for a bit, but it wasn't seeming to completely let up, so we called it a day and took the vans in to the town of Vail. Our hosts for the night had an awesome house in Silverthorne. They had nachos, snack bars, water, post cards and every kind of Oreo made by Nabisco waiting for us when we got there. They also directed us in to town where I hit up the Pearl Izumi outlet and picked up a pair of bike shorts for $30 and a light jacket that I am in love with. I'm not sure I'm ready for another day of climbing tomorrow.

Another one Bites the dust

We left this morning from North Platte before the sun came up, and made it a whole 15 miles before my back tire started swelling up, and the tube blew through the rubber. The couple that had put us up the night before on their lawn knew a bike shop owner in town, and I was able to back track in the van and pick up a new tire, tubes, and some insulated water bottles for an awesome discount.

I caught back up to the group at lunch and finished off the ~70 mile day into Lexington, NE, a small town that survives off of, and smells like, its meat packing plant. We stayed at a small campground outside of town (far enough out of town to avoid the smell) and had breakfast for dinner made of pancakes and eggs. Here's to hoping that I actually get a full, uninterupted day of riding in Nebraska tomorrow, and here's to hoping my new tire holds up, at least for a little while. 

The grass is greener

We left this morning from our host's house in Denver well fed on a big breakfast of eggs and chocolate cake. We spent a goood part of the morning on a bike trail next to the interstate, eventually turning on to country roads. As difficult as the Rockies were, I didn't realize rolling hills and headwinds could be worse.  We spent a good ten miles on "Inspiration road" which was anything but inspirational.  Watching the cars crest the hill in front of us, and expecting a descent only to be met by bigger, steeper hills was completely disheartening. Luckily we turned after 10 miles or so and settled in on roads that were a lot less hilly and headwind-y.  After you leave Denver, you're still in Colorado, but you might as well just call it Nebraska. Once you leave the Rockies it gets flat pretty quickly, and the scenic highways quickly become county roads through corn fields. Some people find it boring, but to me it finally feels like I'm home. Being from the Midwest riding through corn fields (and soy fields and grass fields and all sorts of other fields) is where I feel most at home riding.  We pulled up for the night at Fort Morgan, CO a surprisingly large rural town with a nice public park open to campers.  We had a dinner of left over pasta and were given the leftovers of a chocolate cake (second time today!) from a family having a birthday party at the park. Most of us called it a night under the stars and didn't bother to set up tents below the clear skies.   Unfortunately for us the forecast might have been clear, but the public park sign that let us know we could camp neglected to also post the sprinkler schedule. Although the lush green grass in the middle of a summer drought should have served as a warning, we were all unpleasantly surprised to be pelted in the face at 12:30 in the morning by the sprinkler system. In a sleepy daze we dragged our mats a hundred feet away and went back to sleep.... until an hour later when the second wave of sprinklers turned on and soaked us for a second time.  In the morning our departure was delayed by the collective need to wring out our sleeping bags and dump the standing water out of our bags. From here on out I think we will all be a bit wearier about sleeping on well manicured lawns. 

The best laid plans

Today was another rest day and it was desperately needed. This week had a lot of really difficult days and a day off the bike could not have come soon enough.  Glennwood springs was a beautiful town, but it was a very touristy town and therefore everything was very expensive.  We had a lot of plans for the day; hot springs, gondola ride to caverns, hiking, but none of it came to fruition.  We never really found the springs (although we never really looked) and it was windy and then lightening making us rethink a trip up the mountain.

In the end we just wound up hanging around the downtown area, grabbing food in a cafe, and I finished my book in a cafe waiting for people to finish spa appointments.  I also bought some much needed supplies, a notebook, a new mouthpiece for my camelbak and some snacks to punctuate the energy bars I eat all day. 

Happy birthday 'Murica

Today was finally a shorter day, though not necessarily an easier day.  The whole morning was a lot of climbing and rolling hills that seemed to require a lot of work without a lot of payoff.  After about 30 miles we finally hit the downhill, but the head wind was rough and the descent still required a good amount of work.  5 miles out of lunch Cacie's tire went the way of mine and exploded through the patch job I'd done the night before, putting her tied in first with me and Sydney for ruined tires. Unable to ride the van picked her up and I finished the ride to lunch on my own.  Not ready to be outdone I flatted out (number 10) 2 miles out of town.

The afternoon was a pleasant surprise when the 25 miles I thought we had left turned out to be closer to 10 miles.  We render vouz-ed at a gas station, then hitched a ride into the town in the vans as there was no way to get there without using the interstate.

After a long stretch of camping having a home stay tonight was nice. We had a big home cooked meal in true 4th of july style with brats and beans and fruit and ice cream.  After dinner and much needed showers, a few of us went in to town and hit up a local brewery, I got a delicious berry ale, then picked up some harder stuff for a celebration back at the house.

Fire bans and bad timing meant that we didn't see any fireworks, but being able to sleep in tomorrow will be more than worth it. 

back to back centuries

Today we kicked off from Vernal headed east on 40 towards my favorite town in the world.  25 miles in we passed over the Utah/Colorado state line and 5 miles later were in Dinosaur, Colorado.  I had definitely been there before and I took a picture with some of the dinosaurs outside a playground the I have pictures with from 2006. After passing through the town we got on to route 64, which was much nicer than 40, with far less traffic and an actual shoulder.

The morning was not bad and we stopped for lunch at a reservoir where we we stopped to swim for a while then got back on the road.  The afternoon was pretty much consistently rolling hills, which I find worse than big climbs and descents, since you can never really enjoy the down hills before you're hit with another climb.

The hills seemed to go on forever, until finally around 4 we hit the 100 mile mark which Cacie and I celebrated with a dance party on the side of the road.  It was a first for both of us; neither of us had ever done back to back centuries. The momentum of our dance party was hardly enough to push us through the last 8 miles, which proved harder than the whole 100 before them. The last few miles seemed to go on forever.  Our asses hurt, our legs hurt, and every turn just revealed another stretch without a campsite.

One mile out Cacie blew through a tire and I rolled up to the campsite alone. Tuna salad for dinner and another night sleeping out under the stars in Meeker, CO, and I'm happy to have a day under 100 miles finally tomorrow. 

Our first century

I woke up this morning freezing even though I was sleeping in the van and not in a tent. The first 20 miles of the ride today were uncomfortably cold and my legs were numb almost to lunch. There was a lot of climbing in the morning then a nice downhill through a wild cat preservation area, where we sadly didn't see any cats. The rest of the day was a lot of rolling hills, but went by fairly quickly. I got my 9th flat tire at mile 96 then at nearly exactly 100 miles Cacie got her first. The very last 10 miles in to town were rough. We kept waiting for a downhill that never seemed to come. Finally after 112 miles we rolled in to Vernal, which was way bigger than I expected. We went and got FroYo, and tried to find a bike shop to have some of our mech issues looked at. There was only one bike shop in town and it was already closed for the day, but undeterred a few members of our group knocked on the door of the house next door that th owner appeared to live at, and he came out, opened the shop to us, then et us camp out in the field behind the shop. For dinner a few of us went to Golden Corral and ate what was probably close to 6,000 calories worth of cheap food, hung out at the McDonalds in town to try and steal som WiFi, then went back and slept out in the yad behind the shop. I realized at some point in our drive around town that I had definitely been here before on a family road trip 6 years ago, and I had been in quite a few of the attractions in town including the natural history museum.

Leap of Faith

20 Feet doesn't sound too high. It's less than 4 of me stacked one on top of the other.  But it was high enough to shatter my ankle and put me off my feet for 6 months. And standing on a bridge, looking down 20 feet into a pitch black river bed, it could be 100 feet.

We rode in to Provo today, or at least everyone else did.  I drove the van from our Utahian oasis in Delta, the land of change back into the real world where buildings have more than 2 stories and highways have more than one lane.  I also finally got acces to a Chase bank which means for the first time since California I've had access to my own money.

We were met in Provo, after a series of mix ups and turn arounds, by a group of guys in their 20s that run a bike collective where people in town can access a rudimentary bike shop, and have access to spare parts and assistance for a reasonable price. After a dinner of vegan chili and PBR we were able to give a presentation to some locals in the bike community, and set up camp for the night in the garage  that houses their collective, or in our case outside of the garage. 

Excited to meet people our own age for the first time in weeks, we esily agreed to accompany some of the guys on the most exciting thing Provo, Utah, home of Brigham Young University and the strictest liquor laws in the US, had to offer. We followed them on a midnight bike ride to the middle of nowhere, climbed a few fences and took off most of our clothes, and found ourselves standing on the edge of a 20 foot bridge.  It took me a few minutes and a little bit of coaxing, but I did finally jump.  Hey, you only ride your bike across the country once. So why not?

Delta stands for change

Today was our second rest day, and it was much needed.  We stayed today at an RV park in Delta, Utah, a town of about 3,000 that had WiFi, a grocery store, movie theatd all the other things we've been missing this past week.  We took the day to go to the library, and to clean out our vans which was MUCH needed. Off tomorrow to Provo!

the loneliest road

They say 50 is the loneliest road in America.  While the past few days were far from action packed, they did not compare to today.  We went 83 miles from Border Inn to the small town of Hinkley without seeing so much as a gas station or a shack.

I didn't think that Utah would be vastly different from Nevada, but it does seem to be slightly more colorful and there are a lot more plateaus in Utah than I saw in Nevada. Today also saw my first salt flats, and an extremely convincing mirage of a lake that we debated over weather it was real or a reflection for over 10 miles.

A flat tire and a photo op at the new shoe tree (the old one got cut down in an act of vengance from some spurned ex husband) rounded out our afternoon.  We are calling Delta, UT home for the next two days and are staying at yet another RV park.  A few of us walked to a bar for dinner in hopes of catching the Olympic time trials for swimming, but learned first hand how strict Utah's liquor laws are when were kicked out of the bar for having under-21s with us.

We caught dinner at a local diner, but returned to the bar after dropping off the under-agers back at camp.  Colin, Casey and I played a game of darts and talked to the locals for a bit, and as closing time approached we took shots with a couple for last call. And second last call. And third and fourth.  When the bar finally closed we were invited out to hang out with the couple back at their place and we followed them home to play more darts, pool and air hockey.

We got back to our campsite well into the early hours of the morning with a stray dog in tow, after a jog through sand dunes, ready to pass out and sleep in tomorrow.

Roughing it

For the most part today was a lot like every other day recently.  Long, hot flats through the desert punctuated by hellish climbs and awesome descents.  We ended the day at Border Inn.  Or at least we were supposed to.  A few of us missed that memo and headed straight through to Baker, a town of maybe 500 a few miles out of the way. We realized our mistake when we passed through the entire town (twice) and didn't see any of the vans or any bikes sitting outside restaurants. Without service to call the group we made our way slowly back to the last (and only) turn we had made that day. We didn't make it far before we bumped in to the van drivers who had gone out looking for us when we hadn't showed up at camp and no one remembered passing us.

When we got to the place we were staying for the night it became apparent that Border Inn was just that, an inn on the border. There was a gas station, restaurant, bar and inn all in one small building just feet away from the Utah/Nevada border. Whoever was working graciously let us set up camp in a small field behind the inn and use their bathrooms and showers, which we desperately needed.  

The west is on fire

Today was probably the closest I've ever been to a wildfire.  At no point were we in any danger of shifting winds or blowing embers, but on our first descent of the day we completely circled an area with a few dozen acres on fire.  The rest of the day was long and hot, with smoke blowing around us constantly.

We ended for the day in Ely, NV which was slightly larger than the other towns we've been to recently.    We stayed at a KOA, which was more expensive than other nights, but it was nice to have access to showers, laundry and a store with chocolate milk.

two steps forward one step back

I started today straight up from the RV park and up a 7% grade into one hell of a headwind.  The headwind turned into a crosswind on the descent, making the descent more scary than gratifying. 20 miles out of town the tire that Colin had patched for me the night before gave out and I was stuck more or less by myself on a long, windy stretch of road in the middle of nowhere. I called the vans and luckily for me (unluckily for them) Alice and Manish both had bike issues that needed a shop and the three of us were able to take a van to the nearest bike shop.  Unfortunately for us that shop was several hundred miles away, back in Reno.

The round trip drive took us all day, but luckily we were able to all take care of our problems.  I got a new tire and a spare, new tubes, and my derailer adjusted so that I had use once again of my larger 2 rings. On the drive back I slept most of the way and we stopped at a castle otside of Austin that was considered a Nevada historic marker.

By the time we rolled up in to Eureka the sun had gone down and everyone had already set up camp.  I threw together a dinner of bagels, and set up my sleeping mat in the public park that we had claimed as ours.  Around midnight we were woken up by what sounded like tornado sirens, but louder.  They lasted for about 10 minutes, then stopped.  Like any sane group of people would we just went back to sleep and didn't think about it til the next morning when we found out it was an alarm for wildfires in the area. Whoops.

The Road less traveled

Today was our first century of the trip. Or at least it was going to be. Sadly for me, Cacie and Valerie, the girls I was riding with, we never made it past 80 miles. The morning was good. The ride out of Fallon was long and flat with a tailwind for most of the ride, however when I stopped to use the batroom at a bar in a podunk town 40 miles out of Fallon a lady knocked over my bike and the derailer got moved. Unable to shift out of my middle ring, I tried to power my way through the rest of the day when I got a flat. Then another. Then finally, 30 miles out of Austin my tire gave up completely and yet another flat blew through the rubber leaving a hole.

Stuck 30 miles from our destination, with no signal to contact the van drivers or other riders, we did the only thing we could think of and started walking our bikes towards a road sign we could use as shade (something thats not overly abundant in the desert). After over an hour in the sun, the vans finally found us and picked me up, unable to finish the day on the trashed tire, and with no spare tubes left to put in the tire anyways.

We pulled up for the night at a Baptist Church/RV park in the town of Austin, NV which could not have a population over 300, and set up for our first night of camping.  The park was an interesting place to say the least, and although they graciously let us stay for free the ten commandments posted on every wall and bathrooms labeled "Adam" and "Eve" were a bit much.  Unfortunately the town rolled up its sidewalks at 8:30 so we weren't able to explore much. We took some vidoes of our adventure hiking in the desert that I'll try to upload when I reach a place with better 3G service on my phone.

Break day

Today we had our first break day and finally got to breathe and get off our bikes for a bit. There were five of us staying with Jim and Jane, including 2 of us who slept out in a campr in the back yard. We woke up this morning to a huge breakfast of eggs cooked to order, grits, homemade honey (our hosts keep bees), fruit, yogurt, bacon, ham and anything else you could want to eat. After eating Jim offered to take us out 4 wheeling and three of us took him up on the offer. We Drove out to the edge of town and followed some trails for a while till we got out to some big dunes. We raced a bit, followed a canal, scared off some cows and got stuck on an incline before heading home a few hours later.

 For dinner we met back up with the rest of the group and had another potluck dinner of fajitas. After dinner a few of us went out to one of the casinos in town, a shady little place called The Nugget, where I lasted 45 minutes playin video poker with $2. We went next door to an even shadier dive and played pool til midnight, when we returned to our host house.

Setting a land speed record

Today was finally the kind of riding that I'm used to. Long, flat and windy. Luckily for us that wind was largely at our backs. We flew through 60 miles in what seemed like no time at all. Sam, Flannery, Valerie and I held a pace right around 23mph and hardly stopped except to fill up our water bottles. And to fix 3 flats.

Our group of four finished all 60 miles in just over 4 hours, including stops for flats which we termed "party flats" as we would crank up our music and dance on the side of the road while we changed our tubes.  For most of us these were the first tubes we replaced on our own, so each stop took about 20 minutes after all the patching, inflating, brake aligning and dancing was said and done.

These proverbial bumps in the road could not have come on a better day.  Even with our pit stops we still finished the whole day in time for lunch at the Sonic in Fallon (Nevada - we crossed the state line yesterday on our way out of Tahoe).

A host family had us all over, including half of the neighborhood, for a potluck dinner and grilling (don't forget the beer), then we parted ways into five different houses for the night.  Five of us (Sydney, Gabi, Augie, Ellie and I) went a few miles down the highway to stay with a couple, and for the fist time since leaving Illinois I got to sleep on a real bed, albeit a small one inside a camper.

What goes up must come down

Today was the downhill to yesterday's uphill.  A (relatively) short 40 mile day, 15 of which were a 6% grade descent in to Carson city.  The ride took less than 3 hours, and was a ton of fun. Or at least that's what they told me.  I got to drive one of the 16 passenger vans today, and white knuckled the entire way down at a cool 55mph.

We ended up for the night with a family in Carson city who set us up with Chinese food, and more beer and wine, and sat around talking in the kitchen well in to the night.  The family had a dog and a ton of cats so a few of us wound up sleeping out on the porch to save ourselves from allergies. I didn't realize the desert could get so cold at night, but falling asleep quite literally under the stars and waking up with the sun was oddly relaxing.

My first mountain.

Nothing could have prepared me for today. Being from the Midwest where the biggest hills come in the form of highway overpasses, I knew my first day riding on real mountains was going to be interesting. We left Folsom straight into huge rolling foothills, then shortly after into mountains.  In the morning Valerie and I stayed mostly on a nice, gradual uphill bike path.  After a few peanut butter sandwichesSydney and I took off, hit a 10 mile descent, took a break to swim in a river and then started to do the real work.  I spent more time in my granny gear than I thought possible, stayed upright at speeds that were physics defyingly slow, and climbed more vertical feet than I see in a year of riding in Illinois.

By the end of the day, after rolling in to South Lake Tahoe 12 hours later, I was more than happy to inhale a heap of pasta and asparagus, celebrate my first mountain ever with some (a whole bottle of) $3 wine and pass out in the little vacation home about 10 miles off of the lake that some friendly strangers very graciously let us crash in.

I've been to Tahoe more than a few times before with family and friends, but I've always taken on the mountains in a car or bus. While the ride was incredibly difficult physically, it gave me an even greater appreciation for how beautiful that area is. Today gave me an awesome new perspective on one of my favorite places in the world, defined my boundaries as a rider, and left me feeling amazing.  I conquered my first mountain ever, and could not feel better. Well, maybe I could with a massage.

Little by little

If anything today shows that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. We started off with a few wrong turns, but by lunch we were 20 miles farther than we were at the same time yesterday and the number of map errors is definitely on the decline.  We powered through quite a few miles of flat lands with heavy winds that reminded me of central Illinois, and reminded me that I can, in fact, ride my bike and hold a pace.  I lead a pace line for a while with Cacie, Valerie and Katie and made awesome time until an accident a few miles out of Davis.  Everyone was fine, but it definitely wrecked the confidence of a few people and slowed us down for the afternoon. It's been frustrating, but there is a definite learning curve, and I think by the end of the week we will have gotten used to riding together.

The house we stayed at was again amazing, and as we finished out 85 miles through Sacramento into Folsom we were met by tacos, guac, a pool and more beers.  

And We're Off

Day one done!  The good news is everyone is in one piece, the bad news is we have a lot of work to do as a group to make this summer run smoothly. Today our route (which was 106 turns long) took us up and then back down useless hills, out of our way, and lead us in to a few dead ends.  We wrapped up the day as the sun was going down lost a few cities away from our host house, no less than 5 flat tires and 50 wrong turns later. The learning curve is going to be a bitch, but hopefully after a few days of practice, and some new ideas we will get to a point where we can plan (and follow) routes, or at least get on long stretches of highways that are easier to follow.

The stay today was at a beautiful house in Fairfield with an awesome host who set us up with lasagne, salad, and some much needed beers. She also had two little boys who were hilariously enamored by the 19 smelly strangers taking over their house, and wanted to help everything from unpacking the roof rack to changing bike tires.

Welcome to San Francisco

Landed in san francisco yesterday for orientation, and happy to say my bike, luggage, and I all landed in one piece. A little 5am sweet talking even got my bike on the plane for no extra charge, which was a life saver since I've come to realize how expensive biking is. Meeting everyone was interesting since I've spent the past 3 months relentlessly staling their facebook profiles and creeping through their pictures, but I'm derfinitely not dissapointed.

San Francisco is a beautiful town with hellish hills that are rough even on foot.  There's also an interesting homeless population that we learned about first hand when a midnight subway trip culminated in being approached by a man covered in blood who had just been jumped and wanted help finding a Tony Jones and his jacket, and a toothless woman who thought I was someone named Harriet who was on a committee for the pride parade.

Looking forward to our first group ride and our kickoff from the Golden Gate bridge.

I hate hills.

Got back from my graduation present trip to Las Vegas, picked up my bike from the bike shop and jumped right back in to riding with a 40ish mile ride with my dad.  It was my favorite kind of ride, a long tough 20 miles out with a strong head-wind that you know will be at your back as soon as you hit the turn around point.  We went to a trail that I hadn't been to in years, with a killer hill section infamous for causing my baby sister to go out of control and crash into a tree. This confirmed for me that I am without a doubt a plains rider, and if I run into any bears in the mountains out west it better be on the way down.

Check in ride

I did my check in ride yesterday and I just wanted to share a little bit about my ride. 88 degrees and sunny, way too hot for an Illinois May! All was going well until I turned North and hit some 22 mile an hour winds and realized I wasn't as fast as I thought I was. I rode around pretty aimlessly through the wind farm outside of Bloomington for a few hours, trying to pass as many of the windmills I could then figuring out how to get back. Highlights include stopping and having some honeysuckle while hanging out with cows and running over an (already) dead snake.  I got some awesome cut-off tan lines and scuffed up my white shoes so they don't look quite so new. This definitely pumped me up for the long days through some states with better scenery than 50 solid miles of cows and soy.

Not so smooth sailing

If this week had a motto it would be "anything that can go wrong will." I've been able to rope a few friends to go out on shorter rides with me nearly every day, but this week has been one set of downfalls after another.  Day one started by me going to get on my bike and finding the back tire flat, and the bike shop informing me it would be at least 2 weeks for them to order a new one (I needed a new tube and tire, bleh) until which I'll be mooching off of friends. Day two seemed to be going better, but we got a little too late of a start, and got a little too ambitious in going past our typical turn around point.  We were still a few miles out and the sun had completely set leaving us in the dark where we learned just how many bats lived in the trees around the bike trails, and how close to your head they like to fly.  By day three I probably should have learned my lesson about tempting fate and should have been prepared even though the forecast had knocked down the chance of rain from 80% in the morning to a mere 30%, but nonetheless we were basically at our turn around point without jackets when the downpour started.  It wasn't until day four that we finally made our typical loop completely without incident.

Luckily for me my friends were not turned off to biking based off of 3 days of bad luck, and I learned some valuable lessons about keeping track of time, distances and weather forecasts while I was close enough to home and not stranded hours away.

Off on the left foot

As of last week I have my bike set up for maximum daily training. Being winter in Illinois (albeit a really REALLY nice one) and the sun setting about the time I finish class for the day, my ability to ride outdoors is sort of limited. Not to be deterred I've set up my bike rollers in front of the TV.  Seeing as I don't have cable, I bide my time on my bike playing old playstation games (my roommate informs me that when I'm being chased by the cops in GTA I tend to pedal faster).  I'm hoping to get my xbox back up and running soon so I can log some serious hours on my RPGs, but until then I'm stuck playing games released before 2009. Also, I've realized I didn't bring my trip computer down to school, so I'm SOL as far as counting miles goes until I get that back.

Square One

So here it goes, as of yesterday I decided that I am committing to the 2012 Ride Against AIDS for the group Face AIDS.  The packet I received gave the following description:

The 2012  Ride  Against  AIDS  will  begin  at  Ocean Beach in San Francisco, CA,  and proceed in 60-100 mile daily segments across the United States. Rest days will be interspersed throughout the summer so that no riders will ride more than seven days in a row without a rest day.  From  California, the route continues  through  Nevada,  Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland,  West Virginia,  Washington  D.C.,  Delaware,  New  Jersey,  New  York,  Connecticut,  and  Rhode Island before finally arriving in Massachusetts. All in all,  the  ride covers over 4,000 miles and 18 states in 67 days. 

I hope to detail to the best of my ability every step from here to when the ride ends in August, and beyond. From my training, fundraising, and every mile of of the journey from here to the finish line.

Full Disclosure:
As of today I am at square one.

• I am 5'2", 150 lbs.
• As of last week I had a workout routine of about 60 minutes cardio and 30 minutes weights and core 4 times a week
• I have a 1,500-2,000 calorie a day diet, although I don't watch this too closely
• My lifting is fairly pathetic, I can bench 60 and leg press 190
• I can do about 20 pushups and 40 sit-ups in a minute
• I rode my first century in 2009, I doubt I could go out and do the same tomorrow
• I ride at a leisurely pace of around 12 mph, I don't know what pace I can max out at over long distances, as I haven't gone on a serious ride in over a year
• I haven't been able to run in about a year, due to a broken ankle in March of last year

Totals:

Miles on my bike - 6

Time on my bike - 0:30

Money raised - $0