My First Attempt at 53 miles

Today I woke up at about 7:30. After mounting the GPS on the bike this time instead of in the backpack, I was on the road. The first few miles were a breeze it was quite cold this morning but I knew as the day progressed it would warm up. I basically made my way to where the Logan to Jackson Classic started, then followed the entire route to Trenton, UT about 21 miles from my starting point. Honestly I wasn't feeling too bad at all when I arrived in Trenton.

The stroll through Trenton was quite nice. It is an extremely small town with not much there at all. I made my way to the Highway and from there continued to Newton. The road to Newton I got my first taste being exhausted, but I pushed through. There is a bit of a challenging hill just outside of Newton. When I made it to the downhill side I peaked my best speed at about 33 mph today. After that it was a small incline to the next highway.

The next Highway I experienced a bit of a downhill push. It was quite nice until I got to the other side of the bridge that goes over Cutler Reservoir. On the other side there was another hill and then a long and steady gradually hill awaited me until I got to Mendon. It was on this trail that my legs were really beginning to feel burned. The other problem was my butt was getting sore as well... not chaffed thank goodness, but just sore from sitting on that seat and all the exercise.

When I got to Mendon I decided to cut it short from my original route and head home a slightly faster way. Instead of 53 miles it would have been more like 50 miles. But part way between Mendon and Logan. I could really feel my legs starting to cramp up. I had exhausted all my water supply by then and new that discretion is the better part of valor and made the phone call for my wife to pick me up.

I was going to walk the bike but instead got off and laid down to stretch out the muscles before cramps set in. So in all I went 43 miles in 3 hours and 28 minutes roughly 12.4 mph average. I had to make a few stops to readjust the back pack. I ended up tearing off one of the ear buds for my mp3 player. Oh well I can get another set of ear buds.

I think I've learned a lot from this ride. I'm not giving up yet on my attempt to ride the Logan to Jackson Classic next year. But it has given me better perspective and admiration for those that have done it.

I need a few things that will help me out. The first thing is a good road bike. Pushing around an extra 20 lbs. is a bit tough. But I look at these attempts as my way of getting back in shape so I will deal with the extra 20 lbs.

It's not only 20 lbs of bike I'm carrying around it's another 30 - 40 lbs or fat I'm pushing around too! Getting my weight off is going to help me increase my times and speeds.

I need a good helmet with a mirror. While riding there were several cyclists that I observed, one of them had a mirror mounted to his helmet so he could see cars coming from behind. I noticed that as I rode it really wasn't until a car was 3 or 4 car lengths behind me that I could hear them, which really doesn't give me a lot of time to react. Most of the time I rode near the shoulder of the road. Once in awhile I even had to ride on the soft should just to be safe. I figure I can make better adjustments if I can see what is behind me. With the MP3 player it makes it even more difficult to hear the cars approaching from the rear. Right now I'm not even wearing a helmet. I probably look pretty "redneckish" but I don't really care. Until I see some real weight loss I just don't think some things are necessary but I think a helmet is definitely a good thing.

A good pair of biking gloves would also be helpful. While riding the foam rubber on the hand grips is starting to come off. Gloves will help my hands.

A good pair of cycling pants will definitely help my sore rear! I may want to even consider buying a better seat for comfort.

So now my goal is to actually make 50 miles in around 4 hours.

I've got to figure out a way to keep from cramping up as well. I'm not sure how to do this but I might ask Kory what he does or how others do it. I know that foods will help with this but I'm not sure how to implement food while out on the road without carrying the back pack.