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Hoo boy. Epic ride of epicness.
Mar. 14th, 2009 10:20 amWell, after a good night's rest, it's time to actually write out a thing or two about yesterday's adventures in addition to what I captured via voice-posting (I hope you enjoyed those--I sure did!). Before I do so, I should note that I have been using LJ's "Auto-Transcribe" feature for voice posts, BUT the auto-transcriber is terrible. So read the transcriptions purely for the sake of hilarity (especially the 1:01 pm one), but actually listen to the voice posts for the sake of reasonably good record-keeping.
Anyway. What a day. And night. I'm not going to go through things in a blow-by-blow fashion, but will instead focus on major impressions and things I learned. I didn't take any photographs, but both R and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
scrottie did, so once those become available I'll point them out to you. The photographs will do a better job of capturing the utter beauty of the ride--I'm coming to love the trip between Phoenix and Tucson, although I think I'm happy with sticking with taking one day to get there and one day to get back. Some of the middle stretches yesterday were pretty painful because we were pushing the pace so much. I didn't voice-post much about it, but on the way down between Casa Grande and Picacho, both N and R got leg cramps, which were no fun at all.
Cramps and fuel: Our long break at Picacho for lunch #1 gave them a chance to get re-hydrated and de-cramped, but then I ate too much of the wrong sorts of foods (proteins and fats), and my GI tract cramped up badly between Picacho and the Welcome to Tucson segment. It was so bad that we had to pull over for about 5 minutes while I lay down on a flat gravelly spot by the side of the road. Fortunately, after those five minutes, my digestive system got itself straightened out and was pretty good for the rest of the ride (aside from minor nausea after eating--eating for that ride was quite different than eating for a 100-mile ride). It was one of those cases where stopping for 5 minutes was way smarter than trying to push through the pain.
We think that several of our digestive ailments were associated with not quite eating right--probably too much fat and protein, and not enough simple carbohydrates. It all makes me wonder how people were able to complete these sorts of massive expeditions in the days before energy-food-bar-product-things. Although in general I dislike processed foods, I do have to make a shout-out to Luna bars, gatorade, and Clif bloks for keeping me well fueled through most of the ride. It was the other stuff that I ate that was questionable (donuts, cheese, dense bread).
Night-Riding: Riding 212 miles is strange and crazy. Here is our route, for reference. I enjoyed, but was terrified by, the stretch between Casa Grande and the McDonald's on the edge of the city, which we rode in the dark. Cars were much, much nicer to us at night on that road than they were during the day.
I think the better motorist behavior was due to a combination of better drivers (fewer poor drivers travel those roads at night) and the fact that drivers had to base their decisions off of our blinky lights instead of our shapes during daylight. Oh, and we also rode closer to the center of the road, where the road is in better repair and where it's more clear that we are legitimate vehicles and not nuisances on the edge of the pavement. I think I'll bring more high-visibility gear in the future for daytime riding, though. And I will continue to practice taking up my fair share of space on roadways.
Anyway, the terrifying aspect was that between the three of us, we had only two headlights, and mine was the brightest (it's okay for city riding, but barely acceptable for riding in the pitch-black countryside). Some of the roads along that section weren't in fantastic repair, and we were dependent on cars for locating the turns, so we generally took it pretty easy along that entire stretch. We only encountered one tricky hazard along Route 87 (a chunk of 2x4), but were able to dodge it successfully.
Pacing and bicycles: The hardest part of the ride was definitely the middle, starting and ending at Casa Grande. We had to balance out several factors simultaneously: pacing ourselves for a freaking long bike ride, making sure our backsides didn't wear out prematurely, and figuring out how to fuel ourselves properly (as described above). For our first time completing such a long ride, we did a pretty good job of figuring out all of the relevant parameters, but there is a lot to learn (assuming I keep up this habit of ludicrously long rides).
It seems that, after spending a lot of time on the Jolly Roger, my legs are incredibly powerful. The upside of this is that when I ride a bicycle that provides a higher resistance, my leg power keeps more of my weight off of my bike saddle and shifts it to my feet/pedals. The downside of this is that when I switch over to a lighter bicycle, the same power application makes me go way, way faster than the speed which I'm accustomed to traveling. This seems like it would be a good thing because it means I go faster, except that overall the lighter bicycle requires more quickness, which I haven't been practicing because I've been riding the heavy Jolly Roger. So I had to use my legs differently than I normally do (and that's not to mention any/all changes due to the difference in seat position/handlebar position). This upped some of the wear-and-tear on my knees, and now my left knee is sore. Not good. On top of that, because we were trying to pace ourselves, I generally wasn't applying as much leg pressure as usual, so more of my weight was transferred to my bike seat. That translated into a very sore butt. The sore butt then translated into more coasting/standing than I would have preferred. So maybe the moral of the story is that it's best to keep on riding the bike that one is familiar with when one undertakes an epic ride (though I suspect I wouldn't have been able to make it all 212 miles on the Jolly Roger...good heavens, I was tired after 80 miles last Sunday!).
As a side note, though, just as with running, this experience argues in favor of routes with varying terrain, which encourage a bicyclist to shift positions and use different muscle groups. Go figure.
The really interesting part of all of this blathering relates to the final segments of the ride (Casa Grande to McDonald's to Boulders on Broadway), which were much faster because N and R felt better (heck, *I* felt better, too, as the temperatures cooled and the wind died down). When we started to push the pace, my butt and legs started to feel better because I could finally engage other muscle groups that weren't getting used at the more moderate speed.
Okay, that's all of my thoughts for the moment. My head kind of hurts this morning, probably as a result of the return to Phoenix's pollen cloud (as soon as we left the city, we could *feel* the change in the air--it was crazy!). Maybe I'll have more to report later on.
Anyway. What a day. And night. I'm not going to go through things in a blow-by-blow fashion, but will instead focus on major impressions and things I learned. I didn't take any photographs, but both R and
scrottie did, so once those become available I'll point them out to you. The photographs will do a better job of capturing the utter beauty of the ride--I'm coming to love the trip between Phoenix and Tucson, although I think I'm happy with sticking with taking one day to get there and one day to get back. Some of the middle stretches yesterday were pretty painful because we were pushing the pace so much. I didn't voice-post much about it, but on the way down between Casa Grande and Picacho, both N and R got leg cramps, which were no fun at all. Cramps and fuel: Our long break at Picacho for lunch #1 gave them a chance to get re-hydrated and de-cramped, but then I ate too much of the wrong sorts of foods (proteins and fats), and my GI tract cramped up badly between Picacho and the Welcome to Tucson segment. It was so bad that we had to pull over for about 5 minutes while I lay down on a flat gravelly spot by the side of the road. Fortunately, after those five minutes, my digestive system got itself straightened out and was pretty good for the rest of the ride (aside from minor nausea after eating--eating for that ride was quite different than eating for a 100-mile ride). It was one of those cases where stopping for 5 minutes was way smarter than trying to push through the pain.
We think that several of our digestive ailments were associated with not quite eating right--probably too much fat and protein, and not enough simple carbohydrates. It all makes me wonder how people were able to complete these sorts of massive expeditions in the days before energy-food-bar-product-things. Although in general I dislike processed foods, I do have to make a shout-out to Luna bars, gatorade, and Clif bloks for keeping me well fueled through most of the ride. It was the other stuff that I ate that was questionable (donuts, cheese, dense bread).
Night-Riding: Riding 212 miles is strange and crazy. Here is our route, for reference. I enjoyed, but was terrified by, the stretch between Casa Grande and the McDonald's on the edge of the city, which we rode in the dark. Cars were much, much nicer to us at night on that road than they were during the day.
I think the better motorist behavior was due to a combination of better drivers (fewer poor drivers travel those roads at night) and the fact that drivers had to base their decisions off of our blinky lights instead of our shapes during daylight. Oh, and we also rode closer to the center of the road, where the road is in better repair and where it's more clear that we are legitimate vehicles and not nuisances on the edge of the pavement. I think I'll bring more high-visibility gear in the future for daytime riding, though. And I will continue to practice taking up my fair share of space on roadways.
Anyway, the terrifying aspect was that between the three of us, we had only two headlights, and mine was the brightest (it's okay for city riding, but barely acceptable for riding in the pitch-black countryside). Some of the roads along that section weren't in fantastic repair, and we were dependent on cars for locating the turns, so we generally took it pretty easy along that entire stretch. We only encountered one tricky hazard along Route 87 (a chunk of 2x4), but were able to dodge it successfully.
Pacing and bicycles: The hardest part of the ride was definitely the middle, starting and ending at Casa Grande. We had to balance out several factors simultaneously: pacing ourselves for a freaking long bike ride, making sure our backsides didn't wear out prematurely, and figuring out how to fuel ourselves properly (as described above). For our first time completing such a long ride, we did a pretty good job of figuring out all of the relevant parameters, but there is a lot to learn (assuming I keep up this habit of ludicrously long rides).
It seems that, after spending a lot of time on the Jolly Roger, my legs are incredibly powerful. The upside of this is that when I ride a bicycle that provides a higher resistance, my leg power keeps more of my weight off of my bike saddle and shifts it to my feet/pedals. The downside of this is that when I switch over to a lighter bicycle, the same power application makes me go way, way faster than the speed which I'm accustomed to traveling. This seems like it would be a good thing because it means I go faster, except that overall the lighter bicycle requires more quickness, which I haven't been practicing because I've been riding the heavy Jolly Roger. So I had to use my legs differently than I normally do (and that's not to mention any/all changes due to the difference in seat position/handlebar position). This upped some of the wear-and-tear on my knees, and now my left knee is sore. Not good. On top of that, because we were trying to pace ourselves, I generally wasn't applying as much leg pressure as usual, so more of my weight was transferred to my bike seat. That translated into a very sore butt. The sore butt then translated into more coasting/standing than I would have preferred. So maybe the moral of the story is that it's best to keep on riding the bike that one is familiar with when one undertakes an epic ride (though I suspect I wouldn't have been able to make it all 212 miles on the Jolly Roger...good heavens, I was tired after 80 miles last Sunday!).
As a side note, though, just as with running, this experience argues in favor of routes with varying terrain, which encourage a bicyclist to shift positions and use different muscle groups. Go figure.
The really interesting part of all of this blathering relates to the final segments of the ride (Casa Grande to McDonald's to Boulders on Broadway), which were much faster because N and R felt better (heck, *I* felt better, too, as the temperatures cooled and the wind died down). When we started to push the pace, my butt and legs started to feel better because I could finally engage other muscle groups that weren't getting used at the more moderate speed.
Okay, that's all of my thoughts for the moment. My head kind of hurts this morning, probably as a result of the return to Phoenix's pollen cloud (as soon as we left the city, we could *feel* the change in the air--it was crazy!). Maybe I'll have more to report later on.
