Winnie’s thoughts on cycling and distance

I rode about 40 miles the other day. That used to be a shortish ride.

Today it was, then suddenly, it wasn’t. I got too hungry & hadn’t packed any reasonable amount of food. I had a cookie, but somehow, that just wasn’t going to take care of things. So I stopped at the grocery store after calling my husband & sister to come along & rescue me, along with stuff for a very early dinner. I’m not sure why I couldn’t get this right; it’s not all that hard. I travel with a medium-sized Camelback, which helps me drink enough, and has plenty of room for nuts (and cookies) and, if I expect to be out at a regular mealtime, a peanut butter sandwich or something like it. And perhaps a nice sparkling water. 

Right now I am trying to get back to longer rides of 60 miles or more. We are seriously considering two different tours next spring/summer: a couple of weeks exploring Japan, probably free-form, mostly organized by a friend who has been there several times; and/or, a ride along what Adventure Cycling calls The Transamerica Trail. That one could be quite a challenge. Although I have ridden the northern cross-continent route and the southern one offered by Adventure Cycling, I have chosen not to ride this one. I still don’t want to ride the whole thing. Why? Well, up until recently, it was because I didn’t want to take on the winds, mostly in Kansas, and because I am frankly scared of the dogs in eastern Kentucky. The winds on that open prairie state are almost constant, but can change directions quite a bit. I am small, my bike is light; my bike touring doesn’t include camping, so I don’t need to carry all that equipment. I have already experienced winds strong enough to push me a foot or more from where I thought I was riding, and in one case, 90 degrees from where I’d been heading. I just don’t want a sudden gust to come along and send me out into the traffic lane. I have ridden in Kansas, loved it in many ways, but all the way across? Nope.

The dogs are notorious among touring cyclists. There’s an area where there seem to be no restrictions on keeping them behind a fence, and they act as if they’ve been bred from Prohibition-era dogs that were schooled to keep the inspectors at a good distance from the stills hidden in the Appalachian hills. Bloggers write of using horns, water sprays from bottles, shouting, bear spray (but what if the wind is heading your way???), getting off & putting the bike between you & the dog (but if there’s more than one dog…). Anyway, I choose not to take that one on. I have ridden in western Kentucky. It’s lovely.

There was one other concern. The pass across the Rocky Mountains is high. Over 11,000 feet. I have ridden up Haleakala on Maui, a bit over 10,000 feet, and I really feel it when I get above about 8500 feet. How can all these people make it across? Why do none of them even talk about the reduced oxygen?

I read lots & lots of journals on crazyguyonabike.com. I finally realized: they spend a week or two on the ascent. I do the beach-to-summit in one day on Haleakala. Oh. Maybe I could do it. So we are seriously considering giving it a try. We would ride from somewhere in Oregon (Coast? Bend? Doesn’t matter much; we’ve ridden both those areas quite a bit) and finish in Pueblo, Colorado, where the land flattens & becomes the Great Plains.

Which explains why I need to remember my peanut butter sandwich on my longer rides starting now.

Bio: I am a lifelong Californian. My mother and father were not born here but moved to the state as small children. I have two grown daughters and five wonderful grandchildren. I spent my working life working at, and eventually running, the family insurance business. My father had introduced many employee benefits – sabbatical starting in 1970, optional four-day work week in 1972, elimination of all official work time rules in 1974. Adults like to be treated as adults, and people tended to stay a long time, so it was a very pleasant working environment with key elements of trust and respect. I also served on a couple of independent school boards, one a strong academic school serving grades 6-12, one a school designed to start helping city kids who had suffered the ongoing effects of racism & poverty to find opportunities they might not as easily discover without support. I live at a Lifetime Care Community where I serve on the finance committee and chair the sustainability committee. I also plan to join the newly formed fitness committee. And for fun, I have ridden my bicycle across North America. Twice.