Adventure By Bike

"Adventure By Bike", says the screened on logo on the underside of this frameset.  How marvelous.  Not Winning By Bike, Get Fit By Bike, The Meaning of Life By Bike, Feed Your Adrenaline Need By Bike...nope.

Adventure.  Now tell me that, really, when you strip away all the other cool things that encompass riding a bicycle, among them the ability to improve, compete and win, the way it raises your fitness and restores a youthful outlook, the way it brings us outdoors and gives us something good to focus on, and the way it makes us go "wheeeee!" when the trail tilts in our favor, when all that is pared down, that what is left and what really attracted us in the first place is the potential for adventure.

From the first time we, as a small wide eyed child turned loose from training wheels and the limits of the yard, wobbled out from underneath our parent's wings, turned left out the driveway and on to the waiting sidewalk and thus the world; when the paperboy bike took us into the back alleys, woods, country roads, and lamp lit streets, the horizon limited only by our legs and the length of the apron strings that tugged at us for dinner and homework duties; when we topped one hill only to see another dozen in the distance and thought "why not?", a bike has meant adventure.

So what begins is a new bike build from the company that penned this saying and plastered it over the product they make.  Now that could just be a great slogan from a big, paid advertising firm to grab a bit of the marketplace pie.  Or, it could have come from the hearts of a bunch of bike nuts who's eyes still widen just a bit when they pedal out the driveway and turn left.

I like to think it is the latter, but that is just me.

Road to WRIAD 2

FFW, the myth, the man, the legend.

The second training ride this last Sat was just FFW Dave and I.  FFW is the only guy so far to wave at me and say "Aye" to the plan in March, so we got together to spin around the country a bit, talk and plan.  FFW is a darn strong rider and very accomplished, so there is no question as to whether he is a worthy companion.  I am stoked to have him along.

I have done this loop about 4 times or so and it is always hard.  This time I was very pleased at how I felt.  The first 8 mile climb was into a headwind.  Ugh.  I was concerned what that would do to me over the rest of the day.  But the second climb went by without even any pain...we talked all the way up.  The third climb was not even hard and normally that is a sufferfest.  The next 10 miles of dirt intervals hurt a bit, but nothing more than it always does, even if I have not ridden 4 hours beforehand.  Interesting.  We even added in some extra credit climbing and singletrack at the end.

I took the time to regularly stretch the legs, focusing on keeping the hamstrings, inner groin/thighs, and quads from pulling up tight on me.  One bottle of Fluid Performance drink, two bottles of Clif Shot drink mix, 3 Endurolytes, 100oz of water, 6 oatmeal cookies, one oatmeal bar, and some trail mix.

I think I am on a good path here, but could I have done this ride twice?  No, not likely.  That concerns me, but I have some time yet to train further.  I was also trying to test the pace of the ride.  I think we need to be on a 10mph average for WRIAD.  So, this ride was in that zone and it felt good.  We could talk, take short breaks, but still move efficiently. 

Sat's tale of the tape:  42.8 miles  5,526' of elevation gain, 4.35 riding time, 5.26 total time.  9.3mph average.

FFW in The Narrows

Going Fishing.

Road to WRIAD

Well, it seems like it is on, at least for now, so that means I have a few more weeks to make rides count towards getting the saddle time I need to survive 102 miles and more hours then I have been on a bike to date.

So, this past Sat I was on call and could not get too far from home or phone service.  That meant a local ride, home based if possible.  I opted for a ride I call Triple Bypass.  It knits together three different loops of about ten miles and one hour + each and makes for a pretty good workout.  I am fighting either a cold or allergies...not sure which, so that was a bummer, but it is what it is.

More to come, but the tale of the Triple Bypass:  32.4 miles D to D, 4,330' of elevation gain.  4 hours of 'out there' time.  I felt OK actually, a bit tired, but I had much more in the bank at the end.  Good base miles to build on.  Hopefully the week nights can be hard but short efforts, lots of SS time, and then at least one good ride on the weekends to drive some depth into the legs.

We shall see.  The Epic Marathon was working well and the carbon Rovals shod with the new tubeless Conti X Kings were all I could ask for.  I need to R&R the front Reba with some fresh lube, but I think it is ready.  if I get another frame in time (in the works) I might take that but only if I get the build done early in the month of March.  No way will I go into WRIAD on anything but proven stuff.

I need to sort out cargo capacity.  I think I might pop the bikepacking seat bag onto the Epic and carry clothes and emergency shelter in there.  That would leave the water toting duty to the Osprey Talon 22.  Need to work all that out.  I am thinking about 2 large water bladders + some bottles and bags of powdered mix.   I sure wish the Epic had more than one WB mount.  Silly race bikes.