We're biking across the United States to raise money for Gallaudet University's Personal Discovery Program, a 501(c)3 charity. If this is your first visit, please read our welcome page and how you can help page.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Rough day in a bad mood

So this morning I woke up in a bad mood and it went down hill from there.
I remember reading several books, blogs, and stories about other people who
do this sort of thing. I do not remember hearing about being in so much
pain from anyone else. Perhaps that is the reason I was in a bad mood.
Poor Heather has had to put up with me all day. I think near the end I was
making up more things to complain about.

Many of you may not know this but this is actually my second attempt at
bicycling across the US. The first attempt ended in ohio (started in
Washington, DC) with a bus ticket. That was an ill planned trip. I was
not properly equipped and on the wrong size bike. I attribute a lot of my
discomfort to the bike being too big. I ended up in so much pain I could
not continue riding anymore. It took about 3 weeks of not touching my bike
before the pain started to go away. My current bike is the proper size of
course but still the pain persists.

As I have talked about before the bike only touched you in 3 places.
Hands, feet, seat. If it hurts then one of those must be wrong. I can
ride my bike all arround town all day long and just get a little stiff in
the end, but touring is a whole world apart from riding in town or doing
races. With the extra weight and the constant riding every day little
annoyances become serious adversity. I am in the process of replacing my
saddle now. I hope that helps.

unfortunately cynergy dropped the ball on this one. I will try
harriscycles.com owned and run by sheldon brown www.Sheldonbrown.com.

He
really seems to know his stuff about bikes.

today we ran into two other tourists heading the same way as us. They are
staying in hotels every night and eating out all the time. Consequently
they do not have to carry much stuff. They pulled up on us as I was
repairing a flat on the BoB trailer (first one). Heather and I tried to
keep up with them. We were not succesful. Their name are Bob and
Christine. In talking with Christine she mwntioned the iron man she
recently completed. Well at that point folks I stopped giving it my all
trying to keep up. I was pulling more weight and hello they are Iron
men/women, I can't compete with that. They were planning on being in
Dighton, KS (we did 70 miles today) tonight which is where we are. We are
sleeping in the city park and I am sure they are showered and tucked into
the nice warm bad right now. I think next time I tour I will either have a
SAG or tour by credit card!! So many people we meet are doing it that way
now a days.

I did get new biking shorts this morning. Thanks in large part to a
coordinated effort from my dad, brother, and steve at cynergy. They look
really cool. I rate them at 2 extension hours. So now I have a 4 hour
ride that is minimal on the pain. After 4 hours I moan a lot. That couple
we .et today said they are going to swap theirs out for brooks saddles as
well. Heck if an iron man can't take it then of course ordinary mortals
like me can't handle it. I have another edition of things you learn on
the road sorta ready but I have fallen asleep 3 times while I am typing
here so it will have to wait for a later date.

One funny thing. After I changed the BoB I forgot to really tighton the
wheel onto BoB. Cruising at 17 mph I lost the wheel. The funny part was
the wheel kept going. I searched for 15 minutes and finally found it on
the other side of theroad in tall grass. Lucky it had reflectors.


good night


-dana

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Soon you guys will get some TLC and things will look up. I hope the weather will continue to be nice. We have been getting a little rain shower every night so I hope you guys are staying dry. We are really looking forward to seeing you on Tuesday. Everyone wants to see pictures of you again. Keep up the good spirits and I will bring the scotcharoos! Love, mom and dad