Day 1 / May 27 Summary

The Inauspicious Start

OK – Give me props for using such a cool word right at the opening! So, the morning started with me checking out of the hotel. I was rolling my bike and had on my backpack. I turned to ask a question and caught my leg against the pedal somehow. After some flailing, I completely fell over and slammed on the ground halfway on top of my bike.

I ended up with a bruised left elbow, a bruised chest (from falling on the handlebar), and a bruised right knee. I am sure I looked like a total idiot and was just relieved that the bike was not hurt. 

The Weather

The weather was great. It was in the low 60’s when we rode. Sunny on and off. While that’s chilly this time of year back home, it is a good day here, especially given we dodged any rain. In fact, the forecast looks like we might escape the first week with no rain even as we traverse a typically very rainy part of the country.

The Ride

It was a short and flat ride. A good warm up. We had to go super slow for portions due to some bad surfaces and a path with lots of roots at one point.

The only item of note outside of getting to the ocean is that it was really windy at times. Crossing a 1 – 2 mile bridge we had big crosswinds. There was a bike lane that was just big enough with cars flying by. When the wind gusted, it took some effort to keep from blowing sideways or even falling down.  I was white knuckling and pretty nervous for a while there.

You’ll see a huge canon behind me in one of the pictures from an old civil war era fort. I am going to claim that I paid the $100 fee to shoot a 6-inch diameter missile from the canon into the ocean. Go ahead and try to disprove that somehow! Until you do, the claim stands.

The Food

We had lunch at a local deli. I got a gluten free pastrami sandwich. Dinner was a GF pizza and cider at a local brewery. Not many snacks during the ride since it was so short.

Leg Update

The leg felt ok today. I am cautiously optimistic.  There are just a few steeper, 1 – 2 mile hills tomorrow. I am planning to have the van take me past 2 – 3 of those since hills are what really aggravates the leg. If I make it a few more days in, I may give a big hill a try. But, I’m planning to play it safe.

One thing working to my advantage is that the pace today was pretty tame. If people continue to ride at slower than my usual pace, I will be happy because it will help force me to take it easy.

Today, I had over 1/3 of the ride in heart rate zone 1, under 20% in zone 3, and only averaged a 117 heart rate.  I never that much zone 1, and typically have a lot more zone 3, so today was a very easy and sustainable pace and effort level.