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August 29, 2006
Urbana
From here ...
To here ...
To here ...
Is seventy-five miles. Just a bit over actually, and to pull it off you have to make two two-mile side trips. I chose to make my side trips between Mutual and Urbana, Ohio. I was pretty sure that if I made it back to Hilliard and I came up four miles short that the ride would have been 71 miles instead of the desired 75.
Oh, please excuse the bicycle-helmet hair.
How did I know to add four miles? On the way out I decided to get off Rt. 29 and shot up a side road. That side road ended at Rt. 36. Since traveling down 29 is preferred to 36, I went back to 29. Thirty-seven and a half miles put me right at the Rockin' Robin Diner in Urbana, so I stopped there and just made a point to add two miles on the way back to keep the out and back distances equal. I averaged 16.7 mph. And, I burned up something over 5000 calories with a pedaling time of 4 hours and what ... fifteen or twenty minutes.
If you follow Google's directions from Hilliard to Urbana it comes in at 46.8 miles. On a really sweet Schwinn it is, as I've explained, about 35 on the back roads.
I planned my outing earlier in the week. I woke up Wednesday and thought I might be able to crank out 75 miles the coming Saturday (August 26). I was eager to give it a shot with some applied pre-planning. That is, I wanted to see how I'd fare if I took some snacks with me and ate along the way. I did some reading on the subject and found that I should try to consume about 60 carbs per hour and that I should drink one bottle of water per hour and one bottle of a Gatorade-like fluid each hour.
I bought some Cliff bars and Gatorade at Kroger. Saturday I outfitted the Schwinn with three full water bottles, four bottles of Gatorade, three Cliff bars and some gel packs I had left over from a previous outing. To round all this out I stopped at the Rockin' Robin Diner in Urbana and had a grilled chicken sandwich; I refilled the water at the Speedway next door. In Mechanicsburg I made a second stop, at Castle's, and had a buffalo burger, apple pie and scoop of vanilla ice cream.
How did the eating-while-riding thing work out? Very well. When I arrived back in Hilliard I didn't have that wiped-out feeling I'd had on other rides. I was still ready to sit on my ass -- in all it's Mel Gibsoness -- but I wasn't beat.
I celebrated the end of the ride by having a small pizza -- sausage, mushroom, onions and green olives -- at Mama Lia's in Hilliard.
Do I know how to spend a Saturday or what!
Posted by delmer at August 29, 2006 8:33 AM
Comments
That's a nice ride. Although I think I could do the distance (In very un-Armstrong time), I'm still a little too uncertain of myself to get that far from home. Good on you, delmer.
Posted by: Rob at August 29, 2006 4:25 PM
That's quite an effort. I can see by the photos why people don't recognise you. That overweight photo with the beard looks nothing like the guy standing with the bike. Your posts are an interesting read.
Posted by: Toni at August 29, 2006 10:20 PM
I like to ride in a CAR when going farther than oh, say, 5 miles, but good for you!
As for asses, my father likes to tell people he has a George Strait ass, which in these parts i guess is hot, but from where I stand, huh uh.
And so, I like your blog. Will blogroll ya.
And, I have seen the bio-cleanse infomercial with the bad acne guy - thanks for REMINDING ME!!!
Posted by: Tish at August 29, 2006 10:54 PM
Rob: As I peddaled through Urbana I considered how screwed I'd be if a thunderstorm blew in, or I bent a rim or something else unseemly happened. I take some tools with me, a patch kit (though I can't patch to save my life) and a spare inner tube. Still, you never know.
Toni: You know, I never felt heavy. I was coming down the hall at work one day ... we have a glass door at the end of it ... and I noticed a group of people coming toward me. "Who are these guys," I wondered. As I got closer I could see it was nothing but my reflection in the glass door.
Well, maybe I made that up. It's one of my favorite about-me fat jokes and with the right amount of arm waving and a beer or two it's rather funny. It may not read as well. (Read it again waving your arms around a bit and see if it seems better.)
Tish: I can see how a George Strait ass might have some appeal. And I say this as a manly man complimenting the manly man I'm sure your father is.
Posted by: delmer at August 30, 2006 10:55 AM
Del,
The enormous size and cut of your triceps is startling and apparent in the photo. I think, however, you need shorter shorts to fairly portray your equally impressive quads.
Posted by: Joe at August 30, 2006 11:32 AM
Fantastic effort. My longest ever ride is 50 miles. You're doing really well.
Posted by: Michael at August 31, 2006 6:28 AM