JoeMetal
07-07-08, 12:09 PM
*Disclaimer: This is copied word for word from my blog.*
So to ‘celebrate’ the 4th of July, I decided to go on my longest bike ride ever. I was really feeling up for a good long ride, and I had the day off, so I figured ‘why not?’
The ride started in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Columbus, IN. Let me point out here that this was the first time I have ever done a solo ride that did not start either at my apartment or at my office. I actually drove somewhere to start this ride. The main reason for that was that I wanted a nice long and flat route. Unfortunately, flat routes don’t exist near me. So, I packed up my bike and gear and headed east. After reassembling my bike and getting my shoes and gloves and such on, I started out on the road. It was about 3pm. The forecast wasn’t great for that day, but there was supposed to be no rain in Columbus after 3pm. As I started out, there were very thick clouds overhead, but they were keeping their moisture to themselves.
Since I’m not that great at planning routes in areas I don’t know very well, I stuck to main roads. I’ve run into the issue in Bloomington before where I’ll plan a nice route only to find out that one of the roads I’ve never seen before turns out to be an unpaved road. That is quite annoying. So I figured if it was a yellow colored road on Google Maps then it must certainly be paved. That reasoning hasn’t failed me yet. One benefit of following such main roads is that there are generally less turns, and that means less places to get lost. Of course, keeping track of things like distance and time get rather difficult without constantly checking your cycling computer. As it happens, I missed the very first turn I was supposed to take after I left the Wal-Mart parking lot and got on my first ‘yellow’ road. For some reason I expected these main roads to somehow look different than the regular ‘white’ roads from Google Maps. That is not always true. About half a mile after where I was supposed to turn, I got to thinking that I might have already missed a turn. I stopped, and checked my hand-made cue sheet. Yup, I had missed a turn. Oh well, all that meant was that my longest ride was going to be a mile longer. :)
It was about that time that the rain started. Yes, the rain that wasn’t supposed to be there. Normally, I detest the rain. If it even looks like it’s going to rain, I usually won’t go out. I didn’t have much of an option in this case however, so I just had to deal with it. To be honest, it wasn’t all that bad. Sure, I got all wet and had to wipe my glasses rather often, but it wasn’t as horrible as I usually expect riding in the rain to be. That being said, I still don’t like riding in the rain and will most likely continue to avoid it. Thankfully the rain only lasted about 20 minutes and didn’t make another appearance for the rest of the ride.
After my first hour on the road I decided to stop for my first break. My plan was to stop just about every hour for 5-10 minutes for a quick rest, and a bite of a Clif Bar and then keep on going. My first ‘rest stop’ had me stopped on a relatively quiet road at a stream crossing so there was a guard rail to sit on. It still amazes me how quiet things can be when there are no people around. I was by far the loudest thing on this road, except for the few cars that would pass. Such quiet gives you lots of time to reflect on various things. That’s usually a good thing, but about 5 miles after my rest stop, I remembered that it can also be a bad thing to have so much ‘me’ time.
Usually, after about 20 or so miles, I inexplicably want my riding to be over NOW. It’s not that I’m tired or anything. I think it’s just that I’m starting to get bored. This has been happening to me ever since the end of last season. I think that this is also one of the main reasons that I am not out there cycling more than I am now. It gets rather discouraging when you constantly think about ways you can cut this ride short. This is also the main reason I didn’t ride until the end of the time limit on the Tour de Cure ride. I knew that I wasn’t going to get to 100 miles, so I figured ‘why bother?’ and gave up. This is something I seriously need to work on and any tips are certainly appreciated.
After a little bit more on that nice and solitary road (which was still a ‘yellow’ road, by the way) I made my next turn (successfully) onto a more major road. This road had a great surface and a nice 2-3 foot shoulder. I was pleased. Pretty soon, the two hour mark came up and I stopped once again. This time it was at the intersection of two main roads once again so I could sit on a guard rail. They are quite comfy. :)
After my break was up, it was time to turn onto my next main road of my route. Just for a reference, this was around mile 28. This new road was a divided ‘highway.’ It was quite busy, but I had a shoulder that was the size of a car lane to deal with, so I felt rather safe. Thankfully, most of the length of this shoulder was rather clean as well. I’ve run across some shoulders this size that are almost unrideable because they are either poorly paved or covered with dirt and debris. There was only a section about a quarter mile long where most of the shoulder was obscured by debris. All in all, I was rather pleased with this portion of the road.
Then I came to mile 32.5. This was roughly the halfway point. It was also the point where I made another turn and started heading more or less back in the direction of Columbus. Although this route so far had been fairly flat, there was pretty much a constant incline the entire way. It wasn’t much of one, but my average speed at that point (13.7mph) was telling me that it was enough of an incline to affect my speed. From this point forward everything was going to be more or less ‘downhill,’ which was a comforting thought to me.
The road that I turned down to start my return journey was much quieter than the major highway I had just left and had very few cars on it. The surface was quite nice however, so it was smooth sailing for quite a while. Until I hit mile 46. This is where I made my second navigational mistake. When I was planning my route, I thought that I had to follow this road all the way through until it hit another major artery of the area. As it turns out, this was not completely true. The road I was on had a three-way stop at mile 46. I could either go right or left. I went right. I was supposed to go left. After another half mile, I saw a road sign that told me that I was not on the road I wanted to be on, so I turned around.
After getting back on the correct road, I rode for another 3 miles and then made my third stop. It was now 3:30 into my ride. I was still feeling rather good at this point. I may have been a bit tired, but after 49 miles, what else could be expected? Once again, I stopped so I could sit on a guard rail. This time it was next to a bridge over a stream. It was obvious by looking at the surroundings that when Indiana had some flooding recently, the stream had completely covered the road. This was no small task either, since the stream was 15-20 feet below the bottom of the bridge.
Anyways, after my rest I once again headed back out. The only interesting thing for the next while was that I rode by a church on Locust Road with the slogan “I’m burning for you” on their board. It made me chuckle.
As I turned onto my second to last road of my ride, I started feeling very tired. I knew I only had about 5 more miles to go, but I just HAD to stop. I saw a nice looking guard rail, so I stopped. It was 4:19 into the ride and at mile 63. After about 3 minutes of rest, I pushed on. About half a mile after my stop I came back into the town of Columbus. I made my final turn and headed back to my car.
When I got back to my car, I had spent a total of 4:37:25 on the bike for a grand total of 67.78 miles. According to my wonderful data analysis program, I burned 4852 calories during the ride. When I got back to my car, I wasn’t completely drained. Unfortunately, it was starting to get late though, so it was probably best if I called it a day at that point. As I started loading my stuff back into my car, a great feeling of accomplishment came over me. I’m not one to be overly emotional about much of anything, but I really had to work to supress the urge to pump both of my fists in the air and scream “I DID IT!!”
Overall, it was a great ride. I completed my longest distance to date and still felt great afterwords. I think that this has been my most successful ride yet. :)
So to ‘celebrate’ the 4th of July, I decided to go on my longest bike ride ever. I was really feeling up for a good long ride, and I had the day off, so I figured ‘why not?’
The ride started in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Columbus, IN. Let me point out here that this was the first time I have ever done a solo ride that did not start either at my apartment or at my office. I actually drove somewhere to start this ride. The main reason for that was that I wanted a nice long and flat route. Unfortunately, flat routes don’t exist near me. So, I packed up my bike and gear and headed east. After reassembling my bike and getting my shoes and gloves and such on, I started out on the road. It was about 3pm. The forecast wasn’t great for that day, but there was supposed to be no rain in Columbus after 3pm. As I started out, there were very thick clouds overhead, but they were keeping their moisture to themselves.
Since I’m not that great at planning routes in areas I don’t know very well, I stuck to main roads. I’ve run into the issue in Bloomington before where I’ll plan a nice route only to find out that one of the roads I’ve never seen before turns out to be an unpaved road. That is quite annoying. So I figured if it was a yellow colored road on Google Maps then it must certainly be paved. That reasoning hasn’t failed me yet. One benefit of following such main roads is that there are generally less turns, and that means less places to get lost. Of course, keeping track of things like distance and time get rather difficult without constantly checking your cycling computer. As it happens, I missed the very first turn I was supposed to take after I left the Wal-Mart parking lot and got on my first ‘yellow’ road. For some reason I expected these main roads to somehow look different than the regular ‘white’ roads from Google Maps. That is not always true. About half a mile after where I was supposed to turn, I got to thinking that I might have already missed a turn. I stopped, and checked my hand-made cue sheet. Yup, I had missed a turn. Oh well, all that meant was that my longest ride was going to be a mile longer. :)
It was about that time that the rain started. Yes, the rain that wasn’t supposed to be there. Normally, I detest the rain. If it even looks like it’s going to rain, I usually won’t go out. I didn’t have much of an option in this case however, so I just had to deal with it. To be honest, it wasn’t all that bad. Sure, I got all wet and had to wipe my glasses rather often, but it wasn’t as horrible as I usually expect riding in the rain to be. That being said, I still don’t like riding in the rain and will most likely continue to avoid it. Thankfully the rain only lasted about 20 minutes and didn’t make another appearance for the rest of the ride.
After my first hour on the road I decided to stop for my first break. My plan was to stop just about every hour for 5-10 minutes for a quick rest, and a bite of a Clif Bar and then keep on going. My first ‘rest stop’ had me stopped on a relatively quiet road at a stream crossing so there was a guard rail to sit on. It still amazes me how quiet things can be when there are no people around. I was by far the loudest thing on this road, except for the few cars that would pass. Such quiet gives you lots of time to reflect on various things. That’s usually a good thing, but about 5 miles after my rest stop, I remembered that it can also be a bad thing to have so much ‘me’ time.
Usually, after about 20 or so miles, I inexplicably want my riding to be over NOW. It’s not that I’m tired or anything. I think it’s just that I’m starting to get bored. This has been happening to me ever since the end of last season. I think that this is also one of the main reasons that I am not out there cycling more than I am now. It gets rather discouraging when you constantly think about ways you can cut this ride short. This is also the main reason I didn’t ride until the end of the time limit on the Tour de Cure ride. I knew that I wasn’t going to get to 100 miles, so I figured ‘why bother?’ and gave up. This is something I seriously need to work on and any tips are certainly appreciated.
After a little bit more on that nice and solitary road (which was still a ‘yellow’ road, by the way) I made my next turn (successfully) onto a more major road. This road had a great surface and a nice 2-3 foot shoulder. I was pleased. Pretty soon, the two hour mark came up and I stopped once again. This time it was at the intersection of two main roads once again so I could sit on a guard rail. They are quite comfy. :)
After my break was up, it was time to turn onto my next main road of my route. Just for a reference, this was around mile 28. This new road was a divided ‘highway.’ It was quite busy, but I had a shoulder that was the size of a car lane to deal with, so I felt rather safe. Thankfully, most of the length of this shoulder was rather clean as well. I’ve run across some shoulders this size that are almost unrideable because they are either poorly paved or covered with dirt and debris. There was only a section about a quarter mile long where most of the shoulder was obscured by debris. All in all, I was rather pleased with this portion of the road.
Then I came to mile 32.5. This was roughly the halfway point. It was also the point where I made another turn and started heading more or less back in the direction of Columbus. Although this route so far had been fairly flat, there was pretty much a constant incline the entire way. It wasn’t much of one, but my average speed at that point (13.7mph) was telling me that it was enough of an incline to affect my speed. From this point forward everything was going to be more or less ‘downhill,’ which was a comforting thought to me.
The road that I turned down to start my return journey was much quieter than the major highway I had just left and had very few cars on it. The surface was quite nice however, so it was smooth sailing for quite a while. Until I hit mile 46. This is where I made my second navigational mistake. When I was planning my route, I thought that I had to follow this road all the way through until it hit another major artery of the area. As it turns out, this was not completely true. The road I was on had a three-way stop at mile 46. I could either go right or left. I went right. I was supposed to go left. After another half mile, I saw a road sign that told me that I was not on the road I wanted to be on, so I turned around.
After getting back on the correct road, I rode for another 3 miles and then made my third stop. It was now 3:30 into my ride. I was still feeling rather good at this point. I may have been a bit tired, but after 49 miles, what else could be expected? Once again, I stopped so I could sit on a guard rail. This time it was next to a bridge over a stream. It was obvious by looking at the surroundings that when Indiana had some flooding recently, the stream had completely covered the road. This was no small task either, since the stream was 15-20 feet below the bottom of the bridge.
Anyways, after my rest I once again headed back out. The only interesting thing for the next while was that I rode by a church on Locust Road with the slogan “I’m burning for you” on their board. It made me chuckle.
As I turned onto my second to last road of my ride, I started feeling very tired. I knew I only had about 5 more miles to go, but I just HAD to stop. I saw a nice looking guard rail, so I stopped. It was 4:19 into the ride and at mile 63. After about 3 minutes of rest, I pushed on. About half a mile after my stop I came back into the town of Columbus. I made my final turn and headed back to my car.
When I got back to my car, I had spent a total of 4:37:25 on the bike for a grand total of 67.78 miles. According to my wonderful data analysis program, I burned 4852 calories during the ride. When I got back to my car, I wasn’t completely drained. Unfortunately, it was starting to get late though, so it was probably best if I called it a day at that point. As I started loading my stuff back into my car, a great feeling of accomplishment came over me. I’m not one to be overly emotional about much of anything, but I really had to work to supress the urge to pump both of my fists in the air and scream “I DID IT!!”
Overall, it was a great ride. I completed my longest distance to date and still felt great afterwords. I think that this has been my most successful ride yet. :)