A Nice Big Slice of Humble Pie.

Longest ride to date kicks my butt.

I haven't been riding enough lately. This is evidenced by my lack of interesting posts regarding rides, and by my devastating loss last month in the Frost Mileage Challenge. Knowing that I have to get back in the habit of logging some serious miles, I saw an opportunity this weekend and took it. We were trying to organize a ride this weekend, but it was hard getting everyone together. I was on the phone with Chad, who already had ridden a ton this weekend, and couldn't ride on Sunday, but thought it would be nice to get together Sunday evening for some grilling. Nothing closes out a weekend like some beer and brats.

I got off the phone excited about the brats, but bummed that no ride would take place. Then a light bulb went off in my head. I could ride down to his house, about 60 miles away, Becky could then meet me there, we all laugh and enjoy chowing on charred meat, have some beverages and then throw my bike in the trunk and drive home, stuffed and very pleased with myself. The crown jewel of this plan, was that it would be a surprise to Chad, and seeing his face when I pull up to the BBQ on my bike would be priceless. It was a good plan.

Then the phone rang again. It was Todd wondering what my ride plans for the weekend were. Well, I told him, and he said alright, let me talk to the wife and I call you back. I was a little surprised that he wanted to tag along, but I was psyched that things seemed to be coming together. A couple minutes later, he called back and it was on. We just needed to plan a route and settle on a time. Here is the route we came up with and we planned to meet up around 1:00.

As you can tell by the elevation chart, the first half of this ride was a grind. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The beginning of my eating of humble pie, started only 4 tenths of a mile away from home. My first flat. Can you believe it, not even a mile from home and my rear tire blows out. There was some glass in the road and it didn't agree with my tire. Not to fear. Todd had a tube and a CO2 inflater so we would be on our way in no time. Or would we? Todd pinched the new tube with a tire lever when trying to put it on so the new tube wouldn't hold air either. Doh. Back to the house. I had to do the walk of shame almost a half mile in cycling shoes, where we could patch the tube and pump it back up. We managed to do this, but agreed that a stop at Pedal Power on our way through Middletown to pick up a couple new tubes and more CO2 was a good idea.

We were finally on the road around two o'clock and things went better this second try. We made it to the bike shop, picked up the supplies and kept riding. We crossed the Connecticut River over the Portland Bridge which was pretty cool, nice view from up there. After that, the next nice part of the ride would be about 2 hours away. Once we turned onto Route 16 after Portland, we were slapped in the face with some serious climbing. Turns out, I've never really climbed before. I mean, I've done some hills, and I thought that with Chad a couple weeks ago we were doing serious hills, but no, that was all just chump change compared to these seemingly endless hills. As you can tell from the elevation chart, around mile 20 there was a hill that was about 2 miles long with most of the climb being steeper than a 6% grade. One word...Painful. I don't know how this stacks up to real climbs that real cyclists make, but to me, this was outrageous. Literally, this was one of those "I think I can" hills. No joke, I was telling myself, like I was the little engine that could, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can..." Brutal and yes, humbling. I made it up these hills and once we got to Colchester the ride got more enjoyable, but the damage was done as we would come to find out later.

In Colchester we stopped at a gas station and got some drinks and regrouped. We got back on the road, and took Norwich Ave. all the way into Norwich. This was clearly the best part of the ride. It was flatter, less traffic, and we had just stopped and were felling better. Plus as we passed from town to town, we were getting a positive sense that we were making headway and that this would all be over soon. Also, arriving in Norwich was a morale boost as that was the unofficial start of Southeastern CT, which our final destination was a part of. The closer we got, the better it seemed although there were a couple things left that would take me down a peg.

From Norwich we rolled through Preston, then into my hometown, Ledyard. Being that it was my hometown, I knew that there were a couple more hills that would challenge us for sure. The first, Route 117, not only challenged us...it beat us. The destruction of our legs earlier in the ride, finally reared it's head about 3/4 of the way up 117. Todd had passed me and was out in front. I was barely getting the pedals around and had to put a foot down. Simultaneously, Todd had a momentary pause in his pedal stroke, which on a hill like this is impossible to recover from and he too put a foot down. He looked back at me, and I think without saying anything, we both stepped off our bikes and started walking. Like I said, humble pie. I had never had to walk it before, and I wasn't liking it, but I felt like I had no choice, my legs simply wouldn't turn the pedals when I asked them to. We made it to the top of the hill on foot, and paused to regroup.

The only silver lining to a butt whooping like this, is that we always had something to talk about. How much this ride sucked. I'm pretty sure that Todd wished that he had never called me the day before.

Back in the saddle, we continued on, and by this point we were pretty close. A couple smaller, but still tough hills passed by slowly, and soon we were rolling up to the stoplight about a half mile from Chad's house. Enter my last bite of humble pie. I was coming up to this intersection, totally spent. This was at the bottom of one final hill that takes us up to Chad's house, and it was a flashing red light that crosses a highway. I'm not sure if it was all of this weighing on my mind, coupled with my sheer exhaustion, or what, but I had a momentary lapse of focus, and before I knew it, I had slowed down and was off balance but still clipped into my pedals.

I tipped right over.

I had heard that this happens to everyone sooner or later, but I had gotten used to these pedals so quickly and never had any problems before that I never thought it would happen to me. Well it did, and to make it a little bit better, Todd (again) had a front row seat for the fall, along with a car full, yes 4 passengers, of teenagers pulling up to the same intersection. Luckily it was warm out so their windows were down, allowing me the pleasure of hearing their laughs and chuckles. It brings a smile to my face as I write. I wasn't really hurt save a scuffed knee and wrist, but the hardest part was yet to come. How the heck do you unclip while laying on the ground? Somehow I got my right foot out, brought it over the bike and somehow managed to stand myself and the bike up with my left foot still clipped in. Todd, politely told the teens that they could go ahead. There was a break in the traffic, we got across and fought the final hill between us and brats. Actually, the last hill wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be compared to the monsters we climbed earlier, so we finally pulled into Chad's driveway about 4 hours after we left mine.

We were quickly greeted by my two nephews who immediately wanted to play in the backyard, not really comprehending that Uncle Clay was about to pass out, and was just happy to be alive at this point. Some brats and a shower did me good. I was feeling better an hour or so later, but one thing is for certain, I have a lot of training to do if I'm going to survive to 100 Mile LIVESTRONG challenge.

Finding the Sweet Spot

Learning to Draft

So you know I'm new to this whole cycling thing, and during most of my training up to this point, I've been flying solo. I've had a few rides with Chad, a couple with Todd, and who could forget the accidental group ride. I'm finding that riding with others is a lot more fun than riding alone. Certainly to get in enough mileage and training, I'm going to have to ride alone once in awhile, but from now on, I'll be trying to find a partner or partners for my long rides. Not only does it go by a bit faster with a little conversation, and human interaction, but I've found the sweet spot as far as drafting goes a couple times and man is that fun.

Todd and I got in a ride on Wednesday after work. He had come to ride at my house once already so we decided to meet at his place and take a ride down Route 10. As it may sound, Route 10 is not a very picturesque ride, and has some traffic, especially the time of day that we were riding, but it has it's positives too. First of all, it's strait out and back. If you want to get in 20 miles, just ride ten out and turn around, longer or shorter doesn't matter, just turn around when you want to be half done... nice and easy. Also, it's fairly flat, and the "hills" it does have are long and gradual, making the climb up not too grueling, and the ride down long and fast. On this particular day, the wind was howling and believe it or not, I had my first experience "drafting" going uphill. Todd had taken the lead and we we're churning up one of those long slopes and the wind was really making it harder than it needed to be. I decided to get right on Todd's wheel, and all of the sudden it was like someone flipped a light switch on the wind. I thought maybe it had just died down, but sure enough, as I pulled out to the left, I was slapped in the face with that stiff breeze again. Like a kid who just touched the stove for the first time, I quickly reacted and slipped right back in behind Todd. Wow. It actually makes a difference. I'm sure you can picture me riding along for the next half mile or so, weaving in and out of the sweet spot, smile on my face, making sure it was a real phenomenon. Like for once I was conquering the wind that has tormented me for the past couple months riding alone. Now I had the power to stick my face in the wind, stick my tongue out, and before the wind could get back at me, I could sneak back in behind Todd and keep rolling along. Like I said... sweet.

The only downside here, as I'm sure all of you real cyclists out there already realized, it's not really fair to your riding buddy, to sit behind him in the sweet spot all ride. Suddenly, it was my turn to ride in front, Todd coasted to the back and I took up the lead position. I was like that guy in a fight that had been held back by his buddies, but was suddenly not being held back anymore. Not so tough now, am I? It was like the wind knew it. It was waiting patiently while I was in the draft grinning ear to ear like an idiot, waiting for me to be back in front, at it's mercy so it could really blow. And blow it did...man was it windy that day, at least on the way out. Luckily we were able to take turns in front, and when we turned around at the halfway point, the wind was finally at our backs, as if to say it's nothing personal.

Even with the wind at our backs, the draft was still very real on the downhills. It was amazing to me, to be behind Todd while he's pedaling his guts out and all I had to do to keep up was to stay close to his rear tire and coast along. I think I've mentioned before than I'm quickly becoming addicted to the speed that cycling offers and this draft thing is a whole new dimension in speed. Awesome, I can't wait to explore it more. Any tips would be much appreciated. As much fun as it is, I can see how riding that close together provides ample opportunity for catastrophe. Just always be alert I guess. Group ride planned again for Saturday morning so we'll see how it goes. Can't wait.

One Small Clip for a Real Cyclist...

One GIANT Clip for a Non Cyclist.

The clipless adventure has begun, and I'm loving it. Who knew that nike shoes were so bad for cycling. I only rode 16 miles, but what a difference.

Todd got in touch with me early on Thursday and asked if I wanted to ride. My answer of course was yes as you know I needed to tack on some miles for the mileage challenge. I got home from work and got busy putting on the pedals (you got me, I didn't do it the other night after I put up that post that said I was going to do it then) and attaching the cleats to my shoes. It's amazing how much better my bike looks without those clunky pedals with toe clips strapped on. I put on the Look pedals as they did wind up winning the poll by one vote, and they look sharp. Nice and streamlined, but a little intimidating. They're so small, and I started thinking about how they will firmly hold me onto the bike, and how they might not want to let me go. Anyway, on to the cleats.

I screwed the cleats into the Shimano shoes and by this time Todd had showed up and we we pretty much ready to go. After signing up for a 100 mile bike race without owning a bike, riding in 28 degree weather with fingerless gloves on, and riding a 30 year old loaner to get acquainted with the sport, you no doubt have reservations about my level of common sense. I can't convince you otherwise, but I can tell you that I did at least practice getting in and out of these new pedals before we took off. I'm glad I did as they were set way too tight for me. A few turns of the allen wrench and they were less like bear traps and more like pedals so we got started.

I pull out of the driveway and right into near disaster. While I was looking down trying to get my other foot in my pedal, one of my neighbors had turned into the cul-de-sac. By the time I looked up, she was politely trying to navigate her minivan around the idiot in the street who apparently doesn't know how to ride a bike, even though he's wearing bike shorts and sporting biking gloves. I managed to wobble to the edge of the road, and she passed without me toppling over. I finally finagled my other foot in and we were off.

This is better.

From the first few pedal strokes, I could tell how much better this was going to be. The stiffness of the shoes, the connection to the bike, I could get used to this fast. We took off down my now somewhat routine 16 mile down and back route. The wind was so bad it was laughable. We were struggling just to stay in a strait line and make forward progress. The only silver lining was that this was a down and back route, so while this wind would kill us the whole first half of the ride, barring any major atmospheric anomaly, it should be pushing us with the same force the whole way home.

I'm happy to report that we timed most of the streetlights perfectly. We had to pause a few times, but never had to completely stop and unclip. I know, not a true test of the clipless pedals, but I was happy to get lucky the first time using them. I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities to topple over, unable to unclip, in the future. The second half was much more enjoyable with the wind at our backs. There is one hill on the route, that put us in our place, but other than that we made it back to my house in good order. I made sure to unclip before I even got in my driveway and did so uneventfully. So far I'm loving the Look pedals and will continue to use them. Not to disappoint all you SPD lovers out there, and don't hate me, but if things keep going well with the Look pedals, I'm not sure I'll even give the SPD's a chance. I know, heartless, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it right?

New Rider for the Cause

Team Fatty Keeps on Growing

A warm welcome goes out to my friend and new team mate Todd Guerrette. Todd has joined Team Fat Cyclist: Fighting for Susan and will be riding with my brothers and I, in the 100 mile LiveSTRONG Challenge in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, Todd's sister-in-law Kim is battling breast cancer, so in honor and support of her, Todd will be dusting off the bike (yes, he already owns one) and raising money to support the cause.

Having Todd join up is a great addition and is a good reminder that this isn't just a fun ride or a good excuse to try something new and make fun of myself. While the journey to race day can be fun, and learning a new sport is exciting/humiliating, the entire reason that we're taking on this challenge is to support a critical cause that in some way, effects us all. We appreciate your support, both financially and otherwise, so please visit our fundraising pages and keep the emails and comments coming.

If you live in CT/MA/RI area, keep an eye out for our fundraising events. I'll make sure all the information gets posted to the blog as we finalize things, but we will be throwing an event or two in support of the Philly 09 LiveSTRONG challenge so stay tuned. If you'd like to be kept in touch via email please drop me a note at noncyclist@gmail.com and I'll make sure you get added to the distribution list. To make sure you don't miss a blog, bookmark this page or you can also subscribe to noncyclist.com using the subscription buttons on the right hand side of the blog. Again, thanks for all of the support!