Those of you who are experienced racers, cyclo-tourists, or intermediate-long distance cyclists, you may want to move along, unless you enjoy feeling superior to us neophytes (in which case, go right ahead!). For those of you who, like me, are re-discovering cycling, bike mostly for transportation, and are looking forward to more and more cycling, perhaps you will learn from my experience today.
A re-cap: when I turned 44 this past May, I set myself a few goals, one of which is to complete a 45-mile bike ride before my 45th birthday. There have been many benefits to setting this goal, beyond the achievement of the goal itself, which I have written about before here at RocBike. Still, once I set a goal, I don’t let go of it. I ‘ve wanted to do it before the cold winter months of Rochester, because I know it will be harder to get out on my bike as the winter progresses.
So, I set out today with high hopes, planning to bike from Fairport to Newark along the Erie Canalway Trail. I even emailed Jack for a recommendation for a good diner along the way for our midway break. My partner Tanya, also a cyclist, came with me, and a fellow cyclist shot our starting photo at the Canal Park in Fairport.
I’ll cut right to the chase. I didn’t get to 45 miles. I did, however, learn a few things which I’m passing along to you.
Lesson One: When setting out with a specific goal in mind, be familiar with the route. I’ve ridden various sections of the Erie Canalway Trail, but not this one. The terrain was not what I expected…(wet) crushed cinders. (Actually, my book Cycling the Erie Canal describes it as “stone dust.”) I expected the cinders, but hadn’t considered the effect of the recent wet weather on the surface. At times it felt like I was biking in sand. You can see the mud that’s splashed up on my bike (along with the remnants of Thanksgiving’s snow).
Lesson Two: Park midway, not at the beginning/end. Tanya’s a faster cyclist than me, and I caught up with her munching on her apple at Palmyra’s Aqueduct Park.
When I told her that we were 1/4 of the way done, she uttered some words from which I will spare you. She hated biking on the surface we were on. What’s more, when we did the math, we realized that we were going quite a bit slower than usual (I was biking about 60-75% of my usual MPH), and that there was no way we could get to Newark and back to the car before nightfall. Not wanting to bike after dark on the unlighted canal, since we both have headlights more useful for being seen by others than illuminating darkness, we came up with Plan B. Bike back to Fairport, have lunch there, then bike on to Genesee Valley Park, on a paved portion of the trail, and BACK to Fairport to the 45-mile mark.
Lesson Three: Give yourself plenty of time. While our new plan seemed reasonable, there was another thing we hadn’t considered…the wind. The weather forecast had predicted gusts 15-20 MPH. I didn’t think it would be too bad, but we were biking right into it. The last 6 miles to Fairport felt like twice that.
The clock was ticking as I got to Fairport Village Coffee…
T. was already ensconced with a cup of coffee. We ordered some veggie chili and a portabella panini, plus I got myself a ginger soy decaf latte (all were excellent, by the way). And then we both agreed that we were done for the day. We would have had to really push it to finish before dark. It made me feel a little better that she, the stronger and faster athlete, was achy and tired, too. She had just biked her usual 20-mile route yesterday and had felt fine. We could only guess that the combination of the terrain and wind, quite frankly, were just more than we were ready for, given the time we had given ourselves to complete the ride.
Lesson Four: When at first you don’t succeed…you know the rest. I was disappointed at first that I didn’t make it. But really, I have 6 months to make it happen. It will be incentive to keep in shape and keep biking! Considering that, until I set myself this challenge, biking 8 miles was about as much as I was willing to push myself, and then only in warm weather, I feel okay about it. It will happen! Can’t you tell by the look on my face, at 24.24 miles?
