Saddle Soreness
I survived the ride.
We went north through Coburg, crossed the freeway, and stopped in Brownsville. The weather to this point was actually quite nice. I think it was due to the fact that I neglected to bring sunglasses because the weather prediction was so gloomy. It seems like the best way to change the weather is to be unprepared for it.
On the way to Brownsville there was quite a bit of grassy farmland (the valley here grows most of the world's grass seed, which is also why Eugene is site #1 on the government's allergy web site). These very large lawns were cut short, I assume from the previous harvest, and were quite a nice shade of green. Many of the fields had standing water, which was making large crowds of frogs quite happy. It had been a while since I had heard frog song.
We stopped in Brownsville, which has a really nice public restroom in a little park. I mention this because I found it quite amusing, in a "dead culture that doesn't know its dying" combined with a "one of us" kind of way. It was a pretty nice building (at least as good as the rest areas on the freeways). The amusing part was that on a Sunday morning these restrooms, which were in a town of about 800 in the middle of nowhere, were heated. I kid you not. It was warmer in the men's room than I keep my apartment. I have to admit that on a cold day I would appreciate the warmth, but only in the land of unrestrained consumerism could such a wasteful example of creature comfort exist. It was so...ridiculous. I'm surprised homeless people weren't fighting over floor space. Oh, but I guess they get the privilege of using the county jail...Don't get me started ;)
Anyway, back to the trip.
My legs held out pretty well to this point, and we made pretty good time. I think we averaged 16mph with stops. As we headed out of Brownsville the weather started to degrade. Within 10 miles it started raining, but it only lasted for about 15 minutes. Unfortunately, it was enough to chill my legs a little, which caused some tightening. I think we were nearly 50 miles in at this point.
Then we hit some hills. Normally, I do 50 mile rides in the hills, but my time off has really led to some muscle atrophy, and the quads really started to burn. Within a half and hour I was barely able to keep a 10mph pace on flat ground, and the wind was picking up. When it was at our backs we were fine, but it seemed to like our faces instead, and by mile 60 the combination of saddle soreness and muscle fatigue began to seriously hamper the fun factor. Also, we discovered that we had missed a turn, and were a bit lost. Well, Michal had his new GPS with him, so we knew our latitude and longitude to within 20 feet; but that doesn't turn out to be particularly useful in the absence of a map to tell you where the freeway overpass is located. Ah, data vs. information.
We found our way, but it was going to take another hour at my pace (roughly half that of a sedated sloth). We were headed to Michal's mother-in-law's house, where his wife was waiting for us with hot food. To my good fortune, she was driving support and had a bike rack on their van. (Actually, I probably would have turned back at Coburg had Michal not told me this was the case).
So, I called it quits and bummed a ride at mile 70, went and hung out with the in-laws, ate, and played with their dog.
Michal rode on at a much faster pace, stopped in for a quick bite, and continued on to finish 113 miles before dark.
All in all a good time. Though I am still a bit sore.
We went north through Coburg, crossed the freeway, and stopped in Brownsville. The weather to this point was actually quite nice. I think it was due to the fact that I neglected to bring sunglasses because the weather prediction was so gloomy. It seems like the best way to change the weather is to be unprepared for it.
On the way to Brownsville there was quite a bit of grassy farmland (the valley here grows most of the world's grass seed, which is also why Eugene is site #1 on the government's allergy web site). These very large lawns were cut short, I assume from the previous harvest, and were quite a nice shade of green. Many of the fields had standing water, which was making large crowds of frogs quite happy. It had been a while since I had heard frog song.
We stopped in Brownsville, which has a really nice public restroom in a little park. I mention this because I found it quite amusing, in a "dead culture that doesn't know its dying" combined with a "one of us" kind of way. It was a pretty nice building (at least as good as the rest areas on the freeways). The amusing part was that on a Sunday morning these restrooms, which were in a town of about 800 in the middle of nowhere, were heated. I kid you not. It was warmer in the men's room than I keep my apartment. I have to admit that on a cold day I would appreciate the warmth, but only in the land of unrestrained consumerism could such a wasteful example of creature comfort exist. It was so...ridiculous. I'm surprised homeless people weren't fighting over floor space. Oh, but I guess they get the privilege of using the county jail...Don't get me started ;)
Anyway, back to the trip.
My legs held out pretty well to this point, and we made pretty good time. I think we averaged 16mph with stops. As we headed out of Brownsville the weather started to degrade. Within 10 miles it started raining, but it only lasted for about 15 minutes. Unfortunately, it was enough to chill my legs a little, which caused some tightening. I think we were nearly 50 miles in at this point.
Then we hit some hills. Normally, I do 50 mile rides in the hills, but my time off has really led to some muscle atrophy, and the quads really started to burn. Within a half and hour I was barely able to keep a 10mph pace on flat ground, and the wind was picking up. When it was at our backs we were fine, but it seemed to like our faces instead, and by mile 60 the combination of saddle soreness and muscle fatigue began to seriously hamper the fun factor. Also, we discovered that we had missed a turn, and were a bit lost. Well, Michal had his new GPS with him, so we knew our latitude and longitude to within 20 feet; but that doesn't turn out to be particularly useful in the absence of a map to tell you where the freeway overpass is located. Ah, data vs. information.
We found our way, but it was going to take another hour at my pace (roughly half that of a sedated sloth). We were headed to Michal's mother-in-law's house, where his wife was waiting for us with hot food. To my good fortune, she was driving support and had a bike rack on their van. (Actually, I probably would have turned back at Coburg had Michal not told me this was the case).
So, I called it quits and bummed a ride at mile 70, went and hung out with the in-laws, ate, and played with their dog.
Michal rode on at a much faster pace, stopped in for a quick bite, and continued on to finish 113 miles before dark.
All in all a good time. Though I am still a bit sore.
posted by tk | Tuesday, February 20, 2007
|
0 comments
