Misery (or, the story of a long, painful ride)

A couple of weeks ago I was invited by a friend to ditch our normal Saturday bike shop group ride for  something a little different. The ride was billed as a mixture of gravel, dirt, and road riding for a total distance of approximately 60 miles. Sounded great to me! I spent at least a week getting excited about this ride. Last year a few friends and I did some riding that included gravel roads and some single track riding, all on cyclocross and touring bikes. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and the idea of getting off road for this ride was something I really was looking forward to. The night before I swapped out the 25mm tires on my Bianchi Tangent for some worn out 35mm (actually they measure more like 32mm installed) cyclocross tires.

The morning of the ride we arrived in the parking lot of a brewery, strategically chosen for the convenient post ride beverage availability. As I got my bike and myself ready I started looking around at the riders congregating for the days' adventure. A small sense of panic washed over me. A significant portion of the group was comprised of some of the faster riders from our usual Saturday morning shop rides. This was going to be faster than I anticipated.

After a short pre-ride briefing on the course and re-group plan, we were off. The ride started on the road for the first few miles and was mostly up hill. I stayed towards the back of the ride trying to assess the situation. Was this going to be a hammer fest or was it going to be more mellow? While I'm not the strongest climber I pretty much stayed with the back of the group. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all?

The fun started just a few miles in when we turned off the road onto some hard packed dirt single track trails. Flying through the trails for the next few miles was the highlight of my day, by far. If the ride had ended then, after probably just 10 miles or so, I would have been perfectly happy. But, that was not to be. Some gravel riding, at a moderate pace, was next. This was fun too, the swoops, bumps and turns of the trails made me feel like a kid again. Next came a few miles of road riding. The terrain was fairly flat and the pace reflected it. We kept a 20+ mph pace until we eventually turned onto a flat, wide, gravel trail. To my dismay, the pace didn't just maintain, oh no, it increased. I hung onto the back of a 23 mph group of very strong riders for probably 3 miles. At this point I  slowly dropped off the back of the pack. Fortunately, I wasn't the only one feeling the pressure of the pace and my friend dropped back with me. Even at 17-18 mph, they simply walked away from us and were out of sight around a bend in the trail in no time.

Just a few miles down the gravel road we completely lost sight of the group. There was a little confusion at one point and we ended up accidentally taking a shortcut to the next regroup location at a park. Being so far off the back, it actually worked out well. After a walk across a really cool suspension bridge that crossed the river at the park, we turned back onto the roads to finish up the ride. I was familiar with this portion of the ride. It was same route as part of one of the large local organized rides. Unfortunately for me, feeling rather whooped at this point, I also knew that this route included a decent climb, about a mile long.

I worked my way slowly up the climb, legs screaming for mercy. I crested the hill and caught my breath during the short down hill section and then quickly slowed to a crawl again as the climbing continued. This is where the ride ended and the struggle to get home started. I cramped up in both legs at the same time. I felt it come on suddenly and tried to ease up a little, but because of the climbing, it just didn't happen. I stopped and could barely stand up. This was not good. I still had close to 30 miles of riding to get back to the car. On top of the cramps, I was worn out, and quite hungry. My tank was empty.

Rewind a few miles. I had realized just how little I had been eating and drinking when we stopped at the park. I had been eating and drinking like I always do. I've been really working on that since the STP (Seattle to Portland) last year. The problem was I had been doing so just like I do on my other rides. I had not taken into consideration the significantly higher pace of this ride and was way behind the curve. Unfortunately, I realized this far to late in the ride. I was doomed to miles of paying for my mistakes.

Never have I had to ride so far while feeling so miserable. I've bonked, I've cramped, I've been flat worn out, but never, ever, have I been all three with 30 miles to go. I came closer to calling for someone to pick me up than I ever have before. If it wasn't for my friend that so kindly stayed back with me, I'm certain I would have. This is the only ride I have ever done that I look back on and don't just brush off the pain as making myself stronger. I hated it. The first part of the ride was a blast, and the route was great, but the pace was simply way too fast and I did a poor job of adjusting my hydration and food intake to the fast pace of the ride. The last part of the ride was just getting back to the car to get off the freaking bike.

When I think about the ride now, it still sucked. No fond memories of pushing my limits but feeling good about it in the end. Nope, not this time. I screwed up. I can still learn from it though. I need to be more careful about matching my hydration and nutrition to my pace. I know my "normal" and will have to adjust on the fly or else suffer the same fate again if I find myself riding with a fast group. I also need to know when to say enough is enough and stop trying to hang with the fast guys. I like to go fast. I like to push myself by riding with people that are faster than I am sometimes. It is a great motivator. However, I need to back off a lot sooner than I did on this ride.

Maybe some day I'll go find that same route again and enjoy it at a pace I can maintain the entire ride.    While it may not be the same route entirely, I will be riding that climb again at the end of this month when I do the large organized ride that takes riders up that same hill. There will be plenty of casualties on the side of the road at that ride too. Worn out riders walking their bikes. Riders stopped half way, or less, chugging down half a water bottle of some sports drink with the hope that it will somehow turn their lead filled legs into hill crushing pistons. That hill has never beaten me before, and I don't plan a repeat.

Pace yourself, drink, eat, and enjoy the ride.

Finding the Right Tool for the Job

As I stated in my first post I started my adult bicycle riding on a shiny new mountain bike. That bike was fun and it worked well for hauling the kids around in the trailer on family rides. I soon found that I enjoyed riding more than just 10 or 15 miles at a time though. The mountain bike was like driving a pick-up truck. It took a lot of effort to keep that beast rolling along on the road. I installed some smooth tread road tires on it in place of the knobby off road ones that came on it. This helped a little, but still didn't turn it into the sports car I was looking for. Dragging a heavy, dead feeling bike up a hill while the front suspension compressed with every pedal stroke quickly became tiresome. The flat handlebars didn't offer much variation in hand positions on longer rides either. Something had to change.

My lack of cycling experience on anything but mountain or BMX style bikes as a kid is really what led me to the purchase of my mountain bike as an adult. It was what I had put so many miles on as a kid, so it should be the bike of choice as an adult too, right? Wrong. Many people automatically gravitate towards mountain bikes for their do-it-all appearance. I suspect that many mountain bikes suffer the same fate as 4X4 trucks and SUVs. They were originally designed for off road use, but rarely see more than a mud puddle. Something with drop handlebars for more hand postions, a more comfortable geometry for longer distances, and no front suspension fork to absorb my efforts on a climb is what I needed.

I spent hours researching road bikes on the internet. I really didn’t know anything about them. Heck, I’d probably only ridden one once. This was all new to me. With a budget in mind, I went to several bike shops in the area and rode as many bikes as possible. After many test rides, hours spent on the internet, and a lot of conversation with the guys at a few local bike shops, I finally found a new bike. My first road bike was a Felt Z85, an aluminum frame with a carbon fiber fork and Shimano 105 components. 

After riding a mountain bike, my new bike felt like a Porsche. I loved the speed and handling. The distances I could cover, at a reasonable speed, in comfort were amazing to me. I put many happy miles on that bike. I did my first Seattle to Portland (STP) ride on that bike. For what I wanted to do on my bike, I had had finally found the right tool for the job, for now. 

Could I have completed the STP on my mountain bike? Sure. Would I want to? No. Having the right bike for your intended use makes the ride more comfortable, more convenient, faster, or sometimes even safer. Many bikes can span a range of uses though. While they may not be ideal for all situations, they perform well enough to meet the goal at the time, particularly if the departure from the intended design of the bike is short lived. Other times trying to use a bike that is not designed for a particular task or environment can prove difficult. I’ve used my cyclocross bike like a hard tail mountain bike on some off road, trail rides a few times. It isn’t ideal, but I’ve never encountered a situation where I simply could not ride where I wanted because my cyclocross bike wouldn’t work. I have also used that same bike to ride the 204 miles of the STP. Parts of those rides may have been better tackled with a bike designed for that purpose, but they were no less enjoyable on my cyclocross bike.

Even after my switch to road bikes, I still find myself searching for the next bike. Cyclists jokingly referred to this as N+1 (N+1 = Correct number of bikes; N represents the current number of bikes you own). While this is obviously a silly, tongue in cheek idea, I have had a few different bikes since I started riding. It seems there is always room for improvement. Always, some aspect of a bike I'd like to change. Some day I hope to find that perfect bike...

I had a revelation during the STP last year about bicycle comfort and practicality. It was my first year riding the STP in one day. I found myself 150 miles into the 204 mile ride thinking about how uncomfortable my once perfectly fitting, carbon fiber road bike really is. I’ll stop right here to say that I really do like this bike. I still have it and it will not be leaving my stable of bicycles any time soon. What I found were the limits of practicality or usefulness of this bike. After about 100 miles I want a more comfortable saddle, a little more upright riding position, a ride that doesn’t feel every single vibration caused by the road, and somewhere to stash some real food (gels, bars, blocks, and bananas get really old after a while). My carbon fiber road bike is fantastic and a blast to ride on a warm summer day for 50 miles. However, extend that ride to 100 miles, or add a little rain (no fenders….), maybe I want to haul an extra layer of clothing or a real lunch, and suddenly that amazing bike that I enjoy so much, isn’t so practical. 

As I pedaled along on that hot summer day last year during the STP, I did a lot of thinking. I’d heard of these people that ride really long distances in one ride, like 200km, 300km, 600km and up to 1000km. I asked myself, what kind of bikes do they ride? I came up with some ideas on what a good long distance bike might be. In a 204 mile ride one has plenty of time to think of such things. What I came up with was a steel framed bike, with wide tires to help soak up the road bumps and vibrations, the ability to haul a bag that would contain more than just a spare tube and a multi tool, and a Brooks leather saddle. After that STP, I started researching long distance riding to see if my ideas were reasonable or if I had been simply suffering from some heat stroke induced hallucinations that day. I came across a sport within the cycling community known as Randonneuring. Randonneruring is basically long distance cycling. Well, it turns out I wasn’t too far off the mark with my mid ride mental bike build.

If you search the internet for randonneur bikes you’ll find that they match my thoughts on what would make a more comfortable, practical, long distance bike. I wish I could find where I read this, but I think the best description of a randonneuring bike that I’ve seen is a touring bike mixed with a race bike. Basically, take your average touring bike design and make it as fast and light as possible. I think this is a fantastic idea. Part of the beauty of these bikes is they can be used for so much more than just long rides. I can see using it as a “rain” bike, since many of them have plenty of room for fenders, a commuter, or a light weight camping/ light touring bike, provided loads are kept light. 

So what is next in the search for bicycle nirvana? For me, it is a randonneuring bike. This design philosophy checks all the boxes for me when it comes to comfort, speed, and versatility. Hopefully one day soon I’ll be able to post a build and review of one. Until then, I’ll continue to ride what I have. I’ve yet to be on a ride and think to myself “this ride sucks, I can’t have fun on this bike”.  The right tool for the job is great, but when it comes down to riding a bike that is not ideal for a situation or not riding at all, I’ll take the less than ideal bike and keep on pedaling. Finding the right bike may not happen right away. For me, it has been an evolutionary process. The more I ride, the more I learn about my likes and dislikes and I suspect that I’ll never be done. For me, this is part of the fun of cycling.

The Beginning

Blogging is strange if you really think about it. Here I sit, typing my thoughts, opinions, and ideas for any person out on the internet to find. I'm fairly certain this used to be called a journal or diary. Once a book hidden in a secret location for nobody to find. Now we put these thoughts and ideas out for all to see. Definitely a little strange. Anyway,  I'm a little behind the curve on this whole concept. My wife has been blogging for a few years now about her running, but I only just recently discovered blogs that are related to my interests in cycling. I started reading them and it got me thinking that maybe I should give it a try. Who knows, maybe someone will enjoy my random thoughts on bicycles or riding them. If not, then I consider it simply a place to put down these thoughts.

This blog (what a weird word in my opinion) is simply going to contain cycling related stuff. I can't promise you I won't stray from that topic occasionally though. I'll do my best to make any information I include accurate, but in no way do I claim to be an authority on the world of cycling. I'd actually say that I'm far from it in fact. I'm just a normal guy who likes bikes. As the title suggests, I'm simply "Out for a Bike Ride" and these thoughts I put down likely came to me while I was out riding, so it seems a fitting title. I realize that this seems rather open ended, but I don't have any clue where this whole blog thing will go for me, so I'll keep my options on topics open. Also, as I don't claim to be an English teacher, my grammar or spelling may be less than perfect. Sorry, I'll at least do my best to communicate my thoughts clearly.

A little background on me is probably in order and this first post seems to be the logical place to put it. I don't plan to get specific in my personal information, so sorry if you want to hang out and be my new best friend, not going to happen, nothing personal though. Not to say that I won't divulge additional personal information later, if it seems appropriate. At the time of this post, I'm in my early 30's, and male. I'm not a professional athlete in any way. In fact, until I started riding my bike 4 years ago, I really didn't do much in the way of exercise. At the time I was at my highest weight ever, 218 pounds. I was not happy with that new milestone in my life and decided to do something about it.

In an attempt to find something to get me off my butt I thought back to when I was a kid. I loved riding my bike. I put countless miles on it in my neighborhood. I rode the heck out of that heavy old steel mountain bike. It was nothing fancy. I believe my parents had bought it at Costco, not even a bike shop. There was one family that lived next door that all had Specialized brand mountain bikes. I always thought they were just the coolest and longed for the day that I could have one myself. With this memory pulled from the depths of my mind, I informed my amazingly wonderful wife that I wanted a mountain bike. I'm pretty sure she thought I was nuts, but was of course supportive of my decision to get in better shape. I spent hours pouring over information on the latest models offered before going to the local bike shop (LBS). How much? $350 for a bike?? Man, I was way out of the loop, little did I know...... more on that later.

I really thought that mountain bike was cool. I started doing rides on one of the local multi use paths (MUP). Soon, they turned into family affairs. It was great fun. I eventually swapped my knobby off road tires for some smooth city tires. I found that my mountain bike, like so many of its kind, never left pavement. I wanted to ride further and faster too. I had also come up with the hair brained idea (at the time anyway) of riding the Seattle to Portland (STP) bicycle ride. This 2 day, 200 mile ride organized by Cascade Bicycle Club seemed impossible, but the idea took hold in my mind and I was fascinated.

So this was the how it all began. Me, overweight, on a mountain bike to get off my lazy butt, and the idea of a 200 mile ride. I really had no idea what I was getting myself into, if I'm going to be completely honest. Throughout this blog I'll finish the story of my mountain bike beginnings and weave a tale of cycling suffering, the concept of N+1, craigslist finds, building up bicycles from a pile of parts, adventures in the saddle, and other amazing topics that I'm sure nobody will be able to resist (heavy on the sarcasm folks). If you're actually reading this, thank you. I hope you enjoy it.