Yup, I've talk to a bunch of people before, and they've all assured me it's not only possible but that it's even a lot of fun. And most of the time, I believe 'em - but so far, 70 miles seems like a looooong time to spend pedaling! (And I crawled back into the car, exhausted, after 38 miles! Geez! I'm gettin' old!)

The good part is that the weather's starting to improve, so we can log mo' mileage.

Seppuku is a Japanese form of ritual suicide to avoid shame. Strictly speaking, it's a samurai thing, but I just kinda liked the word.

Good luck to you, and hope to see you on the ride! We'll be slow pair on the trikes that you'll pass every day!

Rod

Before my first week-long ride, I had never ridden more than 48 miles in a day.  So, the first time I did 56 miles, I was estatic!!!  When I got up the next day and did it again, I was even happier.  On the third day, however, I "hit a brick" wall of fatigue, but was rescued by an experienced and knowing group of bikers who recognized that I was not eating and drinking well.  They took me into town, got me some good food and road with me that day (and all the rest of the days)--telling off color jokes and other good stories along the way.

So, keep in mind, you have to eat, drink, take in electrolytes and tell off color jokes.  That helps.  It also helps to stop and enjoy all the attractions.

For the kindness and encouragement, thanks - based on what I saw at Edenton this year I would expect no less! And we'll keep soldiering on - 40+ miles this weekend, one way or the other.

To West Jeff, then!

Hey Rod!

I'll hang with you, buddy.  I've discovered that the biggest problem with trikes is that they are so darn comfortable that I tend not to stop and get off enough, especially early in the ride.  We'll stop and smell the flowers.

I saw a quote on Feasting on Asphalt on the food channel this weekend.  It will be my mantra for this ride.  Here 'tis:

"Destination is merely a byproduct of the journey"
                                    Eric Hansen

You may hear me muttering it under my breath to remind myself that the object is to relax and enjoy the ride instead of focusing on getting to the next camp.

Slacker: brilliant idea! Get some prices and maybe we can pool our funds to outsource this training thing!

Trikester: thanks, Jerry! Since that disastrous 38 mile ride, I've become positively OBSESSED with flowers. The only drawback is that at the rate we're going now, it may be a bit of a challenge to get into camp before twilight. Note to self: fresh batteries for the headlamps.

Tom: you're so right, my friend, and I think/hope I've got my boom length dialed in pretty close now. And while I thought I had spinning down, turns out I was using my hip flexors and back waaaaaaaay too much, leading to post-ride backache and hip pain. Didn't figure that one out until about a week ago. Us un-natural athletes always have to discover stuff the hard way.

The 38 mile ride that prompted this post was, well, really, really bad. The kind of bad that leads to "bike for sale - cheap" signs. I managed to combine excruciating knee pain, dehydration and bonking into one cheery little wakeup call that had us trying to work out how to shuttle our cars to stow one half way along every route, just in case.

But the news is good: I've made a lot of changes in my riding style, and our mileage is up and my pain is down - almost gone, in fact. No more dehydration, no more bonking.

And no more secret car stashing.