You and my wife, who has terrible allergies. I wish science could figure it all out.

Wanderer:
Hope you had a happy Birthday Kid.

Phil:
You are doing a great job turning the cranks. Keep enjoying life!

Tomorrow I will try the Tour de Mesa (Phoenix) route again. Hopefully I will do better and for sure I will carry more water on the last leg. 74 miles total.

Finally in Spain, nearly skint
 

Hi, everybody! Arrived in Madrid from Addis Ababa day before yesterday, and was relieved of my wallet before I got to the bicycle shop. Fortunately, between the taxi driver (who didn't want to be paid), the bike shop owner (who took a lot of his time taking me to the police and allowing me to make calls) and my wonderful wife (who took my call at 5 am her time and canceled all cards before any money could be spent and then wired me money), I'm inconvenienced but my tour is still on.

After chasing all across Madrid to two non-existent Western Union offices, I finally found one near the Plaza de Argentina by accident and got my money. I was heading onto a freeway headed to Corunna when I saw 5 mountain bikers flying towards me. Stopped them, and they said "Follow us" in non-existent English, and flew off breaking every traffic law known to man, but I stuck with them. So ended up at a full-up Youth Hostel in the huge park (Casa de Campo) on the way to Avila, instead. They gave us the address of another Youth Hostel 15 km away in south Madrid, but by this time I had developed A. Fib. as a result of inadequate sleep on the plane, emotional upset from the theft, no food since 5 am, and very little in the way of fluids, so I had real trouble keeping up with young Robert C. as he led me along a river that flows over a now buried freeway to an address I never would have been able to find without his help. Got to the Hostel at 6.30pm, so I didn't have to look for a place to stay in the dark on a bike with no lights. Thank God for Angels on Mountain Bikes!

This Y.H. is a great place, and I stayed here the whole day yesterday to finish up some work and let the A.Fib. go away. But my plans have changed - no more heading for Salamanca and then south to Gibraltar - that would mean going through Madrid again: it's straight for Toledo and the south now, although I have no idea how to get through the last bit of Madrid - it's a virtual freeway.

Keep those cranks a-turnin'

JohnB

Another thrilling day in Spain: I rode 36 miles for a total of 56 since I arrived, but I am still only 20-odd miles out of Madrid. I got trapped in the suburb of Getafe, which seemed to be totally ringed by freeways except in the direction of Madrid: it also seemed to be one big geriatric ward. After banging my head repeatedly against uncrossable freeways I back-tracked to Villaverde, and got on the Calle de Andalucia, which soon turned into a freeway with no shoulders. After 5 km of that, found myself back in Getafe, but noticed a cyclist (spandex-type) heading West on another freeway, so got on that and soon found myself on a nice cycle track, heading back towards Madrid. After about 2 miles there was a junction, and I found the track heading out of Madrid, into the teeth of a wet 30 mph wind. This is bare country with few windbreaks and long hills. There's nothing that will make you feel like an old guy more than riding a fully-laden mountain bike into a strong headwind!
Got dehydrated again and that triggered A.Fib., but an early and long sleep has cured that. Hallelujah!!

Please keep up the ride reports. They are most interesting, and you are on a rare adventure.

Did the Tour de Mesa (Phoenix) route again and found it to be a little easier except for the last climb up Usery Pass.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/73100574

Another training ride for the Tour de Mesa (Phoenix)


http://connect.garmin.com/activity/73375115

For some reason I just didn't have "IT" today. I did the whole ride but much slower and it felt like I was doing 7 percent hills all day.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/73710442

A bit of over training, I would guess. Your body is screaming for some recovery time.

Sounds like a very energetic way to get around Phoenix, and very hot, too. Good luck with your training and the race, Phil85207

Andalucia!
 

Now in Ronda, Andalucia. I got as far as Aranjuez, south of Madrid, but decided in the face of lousy weather and headwinds to take a train to Jaen, about 160 miles south. Was very glad that I did, as the first two thirds of the route were flat and boring and cold and wet, even from the train. Then things got interesting. The usual problem in Jaen: I couldn't find a way out - hit a Freeway on every attempt. And since the main freeway is low down, and Jaen is on the side of mountain, that got old quickly, so checked into the Youth Hostel, which was part of a spa complex with a pool that seemed to be continually filled with fat old people doing water aerobics. Remind me not to ever wear swimming trunks again! In Jaen I finally found a bookshop that sold Michelin maps (Spanish towns seem to be notably devoid of bookshops). Three cheers for that. Plus a bike shop owner who knew how to get on the Via Verde, a Rails-to-Trails track to the west, and could give coherent directions to get to it. Three more cheers! Rode the entire Via Verde to Puente Genil, 120 km in 1.5 days. Anyone else thinking of riding Spain, take note: the Via Verde is NOT on the Michelin map, the maps provided by the tourist office do NOT show how to get on and off it in the towns and it is impossible to find out anything about where such a route goes once it leaves the province you are in. The weather is now beautiful, and the old railroad track a delight, tho' not always well-maintained. Little coffee shops in many of the stations. Met a Swiss fellow at the one in Cabra who had been walking for 11.5 months: Switzerland to Santiago to the Moroccan desert, now back to Santiago, then on to Rome by Christmas. He had done 11,500 km.

Stayed the night at DonaMencia after riding 52 miles: at the end of the trail I had a horrendous (when fully-loaded) climb out of the valley to Lora de Estena, which is on a Freeway. Here a friendly motorcyclist told me about the service roads for the freeways, and how to get on this one: apparently all the freeways must have one, but they are outside the fence and look like farmer's tracks. This got me to La Roda de Andalucia, where they pack La Espanola brand olives, which I think I have seen in my local grocery store. Then a nice easy road (well, one steep 3 km hill) to Campillos, where I stayed after a 72 mile day. Another note for travelers in Spain: lots of things are closed on Saturday, so eating may be difficult. EVERYTHING is closed on Sunday unless it is tourist-oriented: i.e. a roadside cafe in a beauty spot - these are 50% more expensive than the non-touristy equivalent. Today only 40 miles, and so exhausted that I was shivering at the end of the day: I had to ride over a 3000 foot pass (885 m) which was not marked on the Michelin map: but beautiful country - around the Embalse de Guadalteba (reservoir), beneath Teba, lying like a crumpled handkerchief on a saddle between the Sierra Subbetica and the Castillo de la Estrella. Then a 17 km continuous climb past Cuevas del Becerro, a small town that sits on the edge of cliff. From directly beneath the town there springs from caves a full-grown river to plunge down a series of spectacular waterfalls. Finally Ronda, a town divided in two by a vertical-sided slot that must be 200 feet deep and has a spectacular bridge across it. From the south side of town one looks over cliffs that must be 800 feet high across the mountains between here and Algeciras: I think I'm taking the train, though. It looks like a spectacular train ride, and the only bicycle route that doesn't put me in Freewayland apparently is 4 times more hilly than today's, and there may be no places to stay: 68 km of climbing on a 6-8% grade and a bed in the hay doesn't sound so good! Besides, my original intention was to ride the Spanish coast north: this week has been a bonus because I was told you can't take a bike on a national train, only on the local ones. I may NOT be able to ride north out of Algeciras, though - it's all mountains and freeways: I'll give you the answer to that in a few days.

JohnBerry: Sounds like a great time. Are you taking any pictures? I would love to see some. What an adventure!! Great going.

Ditto - I wold love to see pics, and thanks for posting.

DnverZ:

I'd love to post photos, but it asks for a URL (www.blahdeblah, etc) and I don't know how to post direct from my computer. It would seem that I would have to open a Flickr account or something like it, and post from there. Can you give me some help?

I should have some good photos from today - I did 54 miles, which included an 1103 m (3618 ft) pass, and ended with my having to push the bike about 1 mile up the impossibly steep street leading into Arcos de la Frontera, where I am staying the night. It's going to be interesting going down those cobblestone ramps tomorrow morning!

John

You have two options:

1. Reduce the size of the picture using whatver software you might have to less than about 100K, and, using the "Go Advanced" feature at the bottom right of the "Quick Reply" screen, upload them directly to BFN and the message you are writing from your computer. A good free easily availabl graphics program for this is Irfanview www.irfanview.com recognized world-wide as an excellent graphics program. Simply resize the picture under the "image" tab (about 800x600 pixels), and then save as a jpg file, choosing about 75% compression - you will see the slider on the right as you go through the save process. Then upload the pictures using the built-in program at BFN, under "manage attachments" under the "Go advanced" tab, as described above. They will then show on your BFN message as a thumb nail, enlarged by clicking on the picture.

2. Place your pictures on something like Flickr or another photo web services and, copying the enlarged picture (not the thumbnail) URL from the Flickr or other site - and they generally have a special place to copy the URL - and insert that into your posts using the "insert image" tab at the top of the reply area.

Or, I would be pleased to post a few pictures on BFN for you if you email them to me - dnvrfox@aol.com

Hope this helps.

JohnBerry, go the the Quick Reply

Click on the Green Square (7 th Icon under the Quick Reply Heading)
There you may post pic from your computer.

Thanks - that's a new one to me. Much easier.

I really think my trouble is allergies more than over training. I have been off for 4 days not and still feel like poop. I am going tomorrow I don't care how I feel. I can't stand sitting around the house anymore or I will go mad.

Some photographs of Spain
 

Now in Lepe, 12 milesfrom the Portuguese border, on the south coast, after doing two 100-km days in succession.
I'm going to try to post some photoshttps://picasaweb.google.com/1110357...05261127303586http://picasaweb.google.com/11103571...05435684391874[IMG]picasaweb.google.com/111035710558417825046/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCM6ym4bz_866kQE&pli=1#5588505667182615058[/IMG]http://picasaweb.google.com/11103571...05878190405586[IMG]picasaweb.google.com/111035710558417825046/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCM6ym4bz_866kQE&pli=1#5588505789194489922[/IMG]

Obviously, that didn't work. I also tried DnvrFox's method, but it will take some work as the files are too large.

I'll try again tomorrow,
John

Keep trying, I can't wait to see them.

Sinced you are posting in this forum I gather you are over 65 and a fellow Elder. If that is correct, based on my experience I think you'll find 4 days recovery isn't near enough. If you have seriously stressed yourself 10 days plus is more like it. Above all don't do what I did; ride hard and then go out and work hard on tasks that stress the legs. OOOOOO!

Nice, light exercise like walking or swimming is more the ticket.

I wonder if they make an oxygen bottle on wheels that can fix behind my bike.
Maybe a Oxygen Backpack, would that look cool?

No, I'm OK. Just kidding. I just hate the long sleeve white shirt!

10 days? Unless he actually has "overtrained" - I mean the real definition - I really doubt the need for 10 days.