Am I Ready? (Day -4)

Even though it is four days before my travel group meets up in Mobile, I take off two days from now. (I will stay in Boston for a night, fly out of Logan, and arrive in Mobile a day early.) I'm excited, yes, but I also feel that my nerves are a bit taut. What was I thinking that I could do this trip?! As I scurry around packing my gear and cleaning my house, I keep giving myself little pep talks. (It will be fine. Fun even. I prepared well--at least as much as I could. The anticipation is more difficult and nerve-racking than the reality will be. Etc., etc., blah, blah, blah)

So...am I ready? Let's see...

• Do I have the right gear? I think so. I will write a whole separate post about the gear I'm taking with me. I'm in the middle of trying to figure out if the gear I have amassed will all fit in the two bags I've chosen to use for the trip. Final verdict on that is still out.
• Am I healthy enough? My doctor thought I was okay to go when I saw her. She sent me the results of my blood work with a note that said, "Blood work wicked, awesome, good. Have a great time." so I guess that's that.
• Am I physically fit enough? I think I have done all I could do to prepare physically for the trip. I tried to train wisely--pushing myself to improve my strength as much as I could with the amount of time I had, without pushing myself so hard that I risked injury. I have lost a total of 25 pounds since I began training in January, and I am delighted to have less weight to haul over the miles. There are times that I hardly notice the difference because, believe me, I could still stand to lose more weight; in other words, I'm not gaunt or wasting away. (I guess I was in denial about how much weight I had packed on these last few years.) My brother says I look different, though, so I guess those who haven't seen me for awhile might notice the difference. My core and my legs feel a lot stronger. I have spent enough time on a bicycle seat that my butt has "acclimated"; I'm sure fellow cyclists can relate to this. I have ridden enough over these last few months that riding feels like a given. When I'm on a bike, I feel like I can just go and go. I get into a kind of zone where I'm not thinking about every ache and pain or how heavily I'm breathing on the uphills; I just keep pedaling while I think about other things and enjoy the view. If I don't ride for more than a day, I feel like something is missing. Particularly since riding a lot of miles every day for six weeks encourages repetitive-use injuries rather than recovery, I do have some concerns about this aging body handling the demands of the trip (my knees are creakier than they used to be, my hands have some arthritis and don't rebound from the road vibration as well as they used to, and the soreness in my right ankle gets worse if I walk a lot [not so much when riding]), but I think these things are manageable and worth giving the trip my best effort. A few people who know that I have an artificial hip have asked how my hips are doing. Honestly, my hips have felt fine and have not given me any concern throughout my training.
• I have read a number of books about slavery and the Underground Railroad to give myself context for the ride and the historic sites we will see along the way. I will write a separate post about this.
• Have I arranged housesitting and pet care? Check and check. All set. (I have even been working on emptying out the refrigerator so I won't be met by green meanies when I return.) Well...then there's the matter of the extra cat that appears to be living in my yard like s/he has adopted us. I have not done anything about that yet--except to confirm that the cat is not wearing a collar. I have wondered if s/he might have a microchip. (My cats don't have chips, but you never know.)
• I have (hopefully) anticipated every bill that will be due while I am away and prepaid them. 
• I got a hair cut that is a little shorter than usual because I hope it sees me through the whole trip. Had my teeth cleaned and checked for cavities; none. I have my last chiropractic adjustment tomorrow.
• How about connecting transportation? I have a ride to the bus in Portland on Friday. I will take a bus to Boston and ride the T to East Boston (to my sister's place). I have flights to Mobile on Saturday and a reservation for a shuttle to the inn. I have reserved a rental car in Buffalo for May 23 and I have a campground reservation for that night in Ithaca (my old stomping ground--haven't been back there in decades). I haven't figured out the night of May 24 yet. (Turns out most campgrounds want a minimum three-night reservation during Memorial Day weekend, so maybe that means I should treat myself to a motel room.) I have a little time to figure that out.
• I confirmed with the bike store in Mobile that my bike arrived on Monday--earlier than I anticipated. They hadn't opened the box yet, but the box looked fine (had no damage), so I assume that my bike is fine and will be ready for me when I arrive.
• Emotionally? I mostly feel upbeat and excited. I have had to employ a few tricks (like the pep talks) to keep my nerves at bay. Another example: Even though I love maps and normally enjoy pouring over them endlessly, I set aside all of the route maps after studying them one evening--and I haven't looked at them again since. Anticipating the mileage and looking at the ride contours was freaking me out. I decided to protect myself from all that and just study the routes one day at a time once I'm out on the road. Whatever works, right?

I think I'm ready!

Shake-Down Ride

Busy day. My road bike had been overhauled by a bike shop (new chain, new hard-case tires, re-packed bottom bracket, cleaned, tuned); the raw, pouring-rain weather of the last few days ended, and the sun came out; and I have to ship my bike to Mobile tomorrow--so this was my one day to do a shake-down road ride.

My fantasy that I was going to pull off a 50-mile ride today proved to be...just that, a fantasy.

After my workout at the gym, I took time to document that the river was flowing with open water today--first day! Yes, it was great to see the blue and the movement. What I loved the most, though, was the sound. The sound of lapping water, and the sound of the birds returning. It all made me breathe easier and feel brighter.

Next, I installed the roof rack on my car. Even though I have a rack that hangs on the back of my car to transport my fat bike, the aerodynamics of my car ensures that all kinds of schmutz (especially from my dirt/mud road) gets thrown on the back of my car, including any bike that is hanging back there. I far prefer to carry my bike on the roof, away from all that schmutz.

I had a difficult time getting the bike tires fully inflated. I struggled for quite some time with my brand-new bike pump. It's smaller than the old one and packs more easily, but it takes superhuman strength to use it to get 120 pounds of pressure in a tire. I finally gave up and switched to my old bike pump. Lesson learned: I better take my old bike pump on my trip if I intend to keep my tires inflated--or maybe both pumps, since I've been worried that my ancient bike pump will just die at some point.

Finally, by late afternoon, I started my ride. My fantasy that my bike--all tuned up and looking great--would also ride great proved to be...just that, a fantasy. From the start, I could tell I had major gear/shifting issues. Such an awful grinding noise! Turns out that my front derailleur was not adjusted anywhere near right. Whenever the chain was on the largest chainring in the front, the chain rubbed continuously and loudly on the front derailleur. I had to give up all my best downhill gears and just not use that chainring. I didn't stop to try to make adjustments; I wanted to get the ride in before the day was over, so I adapted. It slowed my pace down considerably that I could not pedal on the downhills, but that was okay.

It was warm (47 degrees F! amazing what difference a few degrees can make). And such a joy to ride on skinny road wheels--with great gliding and coasting! I felt strong and, even though I headed for as many steep hills as I could find within a 15 mile loop, none of it felt overly daunting. My butt and my hands didn't hurt as much as they do when I ride my fat bike, which is the opposite of what I expected. I did decide, though, that my new riding shoes are enough thicker in the soles that I should probably raise the seat a smidgen.

I stopped and took a few photos along my ride. My fantasy that I would figure out how to snap photos while riding (and without crashing, of course) has proven to be... (everyone with me now, you get the drill) ...just that, a fantasy. I thought I was stopping to take a picture of a beaver lodge and was stunned to see a huge beaver out in the open, working on the lodge. Did I get its picture? No! of course not. I didn't move quickly enough.

When I first saw the beaver, it was swimming in the open water to the left of the lodge. Then it climbed up on that side of the lodge to work on it. By the time I had my camera ready to shoot, the beaver had disappeared.

Open, gushing water. Ah, another joy of spring!

Finally, I looped back around to the river again.

I noticed this shadow on my way home:

Below is my first experiment with illustrating my route for the day. I like that color gradients show the change in grade/elevation along the route.

Below is a different view of the elevation (and speed) changes along the route. Where the blue line shows that my speed dropped to 0 mph--that's where I stopped to take photos of the beaver lodge and marsh.

Another busy day tomorrow. I need to make adjustments to my bike and then box it up and ship it off to Mobile!

Sure Route to Intimidation

When I read a couple of bloggers' accounts of their journeys along the Underground Railroad route, I learned that the route through Alabama is pretty but not too hilly. Then, traveling through the foothills of Tennessee and Kentucky becomes a bit of a hilly grind. Now that I have poured over the maps (great maps!), I can see these changes in topography. Each little map is accompanied by a profile view of the elevation changes. Check these out.

Below is a profile view of about 29 miles in Tennessee. Doesn't this look intimidating? Both the uphills and downs look steep enough to fall off.

By contrast, check out this 28-mile stretch in Kentucky, right along the Indiana border.

Maps!

I love maps! I have been itching to study the maps of my upcoming tour, but I have had to sit on my hands to keep myself from ordering the maps of the UGRR route; after all, my own copy of the whole set was included in the tour price. I was assuming I would not receive the maps until I arrived at the start of the tour. Not true; an email just arrived that says we will all receive our map sets through the mail now. Yippee! You know what I'll be doing...