The February edition of the bad idea hundo or 6mohundo or whatever I endeavored to call this mess when I contrived the crazy plan to prep for Michigan.
Why not return to Michigan for a crazy adventure bike race? Fitting I think.
So yeah I got the Feb ride in. Not quickly, my bikes are slow, and I am untrained and slow. Durable? Perhaps, doggedly determined? For sure. But this was a very significantly easier feat to accomplish than my blunder in January. Although I would have liked to have a coffee and a doughnut at the mid-point yesterday. Sufficed to supplement my rations with a handful of Krysta's chocolate covered almonds at NBX in ganset. Should have maybe stopped at Iggys afterall.
I also just finished reading Into The Wild. Who the hell ever told me to read this, and then how in the world did I decide to delve into that book instead of another sci-fi novel is still a big confused in my head. I mentioned that I was reading it to CF "Doubting if I should have. But not regretting it." he replied "Yeah, I would not have recommend that one for you!"
There are mountains of reasons why, but many of those why I shouldn't read them are more along the lines of relating to it on a very personal level. It leaves me thinking a bit more introspectively than I have in a while. For the most part my lack of confidence and timidity and risk aversion keep me from wandering down Chris's path. But then, I grew up reading Tom Brown, I grew up knowing what plants to eat, what not to eat, college as a botanist should give some idea to support that. My stupid long rides mostly alone or with few others...
Never for a minute did I consider taking David up on his offer at NBX. He called in a ride and went to get pizza to wait. I was at the 75 miles mark (he was just under), in south county and 25% shy of my target. There was no question I was going to get back on my bike and keep riding. Even if it meant finishing the ride alone. And basically even the straightest shot, way more than 25 miles from home, but then 43.5 isn't really that much farther than 23. Except it is. Esp on a bike, climbing the spine of RI only to have to hit PVD and turn south another 5.
With a huge amount of fortune the wind held as predicted and we had a tailwind from Point Judith north. It was a big help riding alone, steadily up, and up and up into Coventry. And the ice we encountered on the bike path on the way out at the start of the day had mostly melted. I was late, left cash and ID and med card at home, turned around to get them, delayed my arrival to 7 stars on Broadway by 10 min. Met up with Cornelius and David there. Cornelius is a great story, one year many ago now, during one of the Hope street festivals when I was working at the 4th street shop, he wandered down looking for a bike, and a helmet. We hit it off, I guess, enough that he bought a pretty sweet trek 7.3. And discovered riding. That bike was stolen from work, and he replaced it, and then bought a road bike or two, and it has always been fun catching up whenever we see each other, on the street or in the shop. I saw him in december after hatching this plan and he agreed to come along with the January one. But he had to work on Friday. Since this was a rare weekend Hundo for me I sent him a FB message and well, he said yeah. Scott G joined in but only until we got down to the other side of Big River, he had to be in Boston for the evening and didn't want to be out all day. And David said he was good for a long ride. David brought is Gaz out of retirement, Cornelius showed up on his Domane 6 disc that he got this summer and Scott was shaking down his Circle A. I was on my old Black blue. Trusty, slow and heavy but familiar and good. Well not THAT good. The rear der is kind of fucked, either the hanger is bent or the der is and while i thought I got it straight when putting it back together, i think I might have rushed it or overlooked something, not sure. But it shifts just fine from 11-19 but 21-23-25 don't work. (or whatever the three cogs just below the 28 are - not going to look it up). Paired with the single ring up front there's really a big jump. Not nearly as crippling yesterday as it was riding to boston in January. And no - have not had time to get a hanger tool on there - finally replaced a broken spoke on the Crossrip and discovered the rear pads were down to the backing today - trying some metal pads this time - rotor measures 1.75, plenty of life.
So yah anyway - it was a good day, the ice was a bit of a hitch in the early avg speed, lots of slowing down for that for those 10 miles we were able to ride on the Washington secondary path. We jumped off and hit 117 until the road that goes past the general store, then wound our way south on some fantastic roads, jumped on Rt 3. Scott and C headed off on their way, C wanted to head over to wickford, he knows the roads down here and didn't want to commit to the whole Pt Judith thing and I think he wanted to ride more at his own pace. David and I headed out way and had a great afternoon riding and talking. But on that road to Pt Judith, he started to crack and fade. Cramp and feel out of it. But with the wind at our back and me following the breadcrumb north we rolled and rolled and finally rolled into NBX.
The ride home, alone, the roads were good, some were great but they were mostly up. I had eaten my two sandwiches, one cliff bar, had one bottle of coffee, one 3/4 bottle of coffee from a funky bottle, and just a few sips out of my third bottle with water in it. Add the almonds from Krysta and that was it. I had planned to eat a bowl of museli for breakfast but we were out of milk and yogurt. I had some Kehfir (is that Key Fur or Ku-Fear?) and some other stuff with the coffee. Really not that much for breakfast. The two sandwiches I made were 2 egg, 1 slice of turkey, some cheese on 7 grain bread. Simple. palatable and easy to eat and very stable in my tummy. At one at a Coventry fire station a couple hours into the ride (just after we were buzzed by a side blade plow). Ate a cliff bar at the Kingston train station, at the second sandwich at NBX and the final cliff bar on the Washington secondary. Finished my water somewhere after that. Pretty damn minimal provisions and even at the end I felt pretty good pedaling. But then again I'm carrying around 40-60k calories of excess fuel as fat (maybe less - but that's probably close enough) and I've managed to stay pretty well fat adapted.
It was dark when I got home, Matt B loaned me a backup light, mine was warning me with a low battery, while dark rolling through the city it wasn't a big deal.
Tired, but not really hungry, thirsty? Yeah I was a bit, but I did pee twice on the ride, not too dehydrated. Made some noodles, ate some cheese, drank water, watched an episode of The Expanse (S3), then some outside hockey on TV then tried to sleep. Not only did I feel better riding but I slept without the agonizing leg pain after the January one.
But man I am tired today. Only got out of bed when I did because my head was starting to throb in need of coffee at 7:30am, shuffled through the day, did some laundry, grocery shopping then made an attempt to start the volvo (it started, i guess it is fixed for a while) and headed up to the shop to catch up on the maintenance of one bike. I'll try and ride the rest of them on a commute and leave early and get the rest of the work done on the fleet on the way home. Lots to do.
For now i gotta pack up some lunches, drink some water and start trying to relax, going to skip the Oscars, maybe launch into another book. Writing here hasn't been as consistent lately, work, riding, reading, stresses and the like are hounding me or leaving me in no condition to get thoughts down. Not sure any of this stuff I've written makes any sense, but hopefully at least I'll be able to look back and after a while remember what the fuck i'm referencing. There was a downside to the pedaling. Once I was alone my brain started revisiting all the shit I've been working to overcome. Not overtly negative impact but mostly just made me feel a bit sad. But maybe i needed that particular alone time to help move on.
Now I'm really gonna wrap it up ..
heddwch
G
Stopped to snap a photo this morning
