Ben Hur. The Godfather. Apocalypse Now. Hollywood is known for its epic motion pictures. Eric Goetz should be known for putting on an epic bicycle ride.
On Saturday, July 12, I rode a bicycle from Capitol Hill in Washington DC to Point Lookout, MD... located at the confluence of the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay. I then rode my bike back to Capitol Hill. Round trip, I came up with 202 miles on my bike computer. Ride time was just at 10 hours. There is a lot more to the story, however.
To put the ride into the context of this blog, consider the following. I wanted to do this ride as some of my friends were doing it, they had done it in the past (so I felt left out), I wanted to use the preparation for it as motivation for training and I wanted to push my limits, again. So, on all counts, the ride was a success. It was certainly an adventure, one I will never forget.
Lessons learned...
1. Always bring a credit card with you on such a long ride. You figure I would have known that already, as I often do that, even on mere 50 miles rides. Yesterday, I had $20 cash on me and I needed $68 more.
2. Nutrition is as important as riding fitness. I nailed my nutrition and was comfortably able to make it through the ride. Others were not so fortunate. I discovered a new product that I'll begin using. At mile 150 of the ride, I started cramping. I took some Endurolytes at the next rest stop and was without cramps the rest of the ride.
3. Knowing how to work on your own bike can save you time and money. I got two flats on the ride. Being a boob when it comes to bike mechanics resulted in me losing time on the ride and also money as I had to pay others to do for me what I couldn't do for myself.
Whooo Wee!
15 years ago
2 comments:
Good ride TJ. You were strong the entire way. But you gotta do something about the flats! How much did you drink on the ride? Several people commented to me that you don't drink much. Did you focus on fluid in-take at all?
Yeah... the flats sucked. The second one was inexcusable. I took my eye off the road and ran over something nasty. I think the Civil War Century experience makes this seem worse than it seems.
As far as drinking... I think that is the first time someone has ever commented that I don't drink much. Ha!
Seriously, I took in a lot of fluid. I'm a every 20 minutes take big swigs type of person. I drank at least 8 Diet Cokes total.
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