It's Mike here. Arrival day for PacTour Northern Continental 2010 riders (unless they showed up early to get over jet lag); everyone is to report to the first of our 30 motels for a rider's meeting at 3:00 and then an opening banquet (at a motel?) at 6:00. Kathy, Kim, and kids will attend the dinner and then head back to Seattle while I'll stay there for early departure tomorrow morning. Unlike Tom I have no intention of riding from Seattle to the motel (30 miles north), not that it's far but I think I'll see plenty of my bike in coming days.
Including Monday the last week has been 175 miles of maintenance riding, when I finished yesterday's ride I called Tom, just a big sense of relief that the training at least was over. Nothing left now but the show. Most body parts seem to still be attached but the knees are definitely sore, more than in the past, will have to see how it goes.
What I am thinking about all this: 1) the miles seem so easy right now... 40, 60, 80, whatever, sure let's go. Incredibly natural to just go ride and they melt away. 2) sooner or later those easy miles have to add up, 3,500 of them in a row is a lot! 3) the weather is going to be huge. We had a cool, wet spring in Seattle, lots of riding in 60 degree weather, if not rain, and then this last week was 90 something and all across the country it's much hotter than that. Just that one week of heat was enough to remind me that temperature matters a lot. 4) how will i ever stop eating so much? Tom is lightest he has been in 20 years, I am probably close to that, and that is despite eating everything in sight. Steak dinners, ice cream, cookie dough, big breakfasts... snarf, gobble, munch. Scaling back is going to be tough!
So now need to put things in my official PacTour bag (they send you a tour bag in advance to make sure you don't bring too much stuff). It's definitely not the clothing that's the issue as Tom says, it's those dang liquids (chamois cream, bag balm, sunscreen, etc) and the spare bike parts (chain, seat, tire, tubes, extra bike shoes). I am going way lighter on the electronics, just PC and cell phone. Now just need to get the last couple errands run and things in a list for Kathy, then drive on up to meet the next 30 days.
No comments:
Post a Comment