The bike ride that made me hate bike riding

Earlier in the year Tony and I had this brilliant idea that we would take Schlepp to Shenandoah National Park.  We would ride 50 miles out, camp, and then ride back the next day.  Later we realized that we wanted to car camp and make gourmet campfire food, which you can't do if you only want to haul 25 lbs.  We decided to get up early and head to the campsite.  We parked and headed north with Schlepp.  The first half was pretty good.  The hills were tough but we managed.  We knew we would have a hard time coming back.  There was a huge hill that would take close to an hour to get to the top of.  The downhill was fun though.  On the way back Tony took Schlepp.  We had to ride through a dark tunnel.  The speed limit is 25 mph, but people like to drive fast so you could say the speed limit was 50 mph.  As I approached the tunnel I became nervous.  There had been many cars now and I had to be very vigilant about where they were.  In the tunnel I became scared.  I tried to move over a little and that was when I realized that there was a curb.  I immediately fell off my bike.  Of course I couldn't get up because I was clipped in.  The cars in the tunnel were then forced to slow down.  I am lucky that I didn't get run over.  I came out of the tunnel walking (and crying).  A nice couple stopped to see if I was okay.  My knees were bleeding but I was fine.  Tony was a bit ahead but he quickly realized I was not behind him and turned around.  I took a few minutes to compose myself before we rode on.  After about 10 minutes the pain set in.  My knees hurt!  We started our way up the big hill.  It took over 30 minutes to go three miles.  With about 9 miles to go Tony mentioned his knee was starting to hurt.  He slowed down and I was too close and I panicked, couldn't unlock in time, and fell again!  This time ending up with a bloody elbow and my other knee taking the blow. After I recovered and took off in front of Tony.  His leg was really hurting and he needed to take it easy.  I made it to the campground, but the minute I entered I had to walk.  I was so tired from falling and the hills.  I eventually (3 minutes) got back on my bike and headed to the car.  I picked him up at the gas station at the entrance to the campground.    

Culpeper Fondo

We decide to do another Fondo.  This one was a 62-miler through central Virginia.  It had smallish hills and wasn't too terrible.  I managed to keep it at about 15.4 mph.  I was able to finish in just over 4 hours.  There was a good lunch afterwards.  We didn't stop to eat goodies this time.  Decided to save all the burned calories for the BBQ lunch and of course our standard Slurpee which we always have to have now. 

Skyline Drive and bears!

We live about 25 minutes from Shenandoah National Park and the two lane 100 mile road that winds it's way through the park is very nice for biking.  What isn't nice are the long hills.  Early in the morning you might get to see wildlife and relax on the nice low-trafficked road. We had been riding this with a friend of ours who has been into biking for many years. 

The last time we went up there he was riding ahead and saw what looked like a man standing in the road. As he got closer he realized it was a BEAR!  The bear was walking around like a man on two legs.  There were some other bear sightings that day.  The people in cars were very nice to tell us ahead of time.  The black bears of Shenandoah really mind their own business.  Probably because the people do.  Fun Fact:  There has never been a bear attack in the park!

 *We can now say that we have drove, biked, and hiked this park!   Plenty of exploring left to do. 

Our friend Allen enjoying the scenery, before he saw the bear!

Eating it!

It appears that the four of us have had our fill of falling experiences.  Mom ran into a wall early on and bruised her shoulder.  Shortly after this incident she decided she would not clip in while in Maine.  I think we all thought this was a smart choice for her.  Dad decided that he would play on a recreational soccer team where he bruised his leg really bad and had to take a couple of days off. Tony fell a few times on small rides from simply not paying attention or forgetting that he was clipped in and leaning the wrong way when he stopped.  I too had a few falls but those are for another blog. 

It's never fun to fall down.  We are hoping for no falls on this ride and we will be as safe as we can be while riding the roads of Maine.  We will all definitely be looking out for each other.

Holland 100

While in Michigan this summer we happened upon the Holland 100.  This event was only $40!  We couldn't believe it.  Nowhere in central Virginia can you ride in an organized ride for that cheap.  We decided on riding the 67-miler.  We had only ridden 50 up to that point so I was a bit nervous.  After 30 miles they had a breakfast of pancakes, coffee, juice, and muffins.  We stopped for the novelty, but I am not sure I can call this exercise when I stop every couple of hours to eat junk food.  The junk food, by the way, was awesome!  They had PB&J, M&Ms, Oreos, etc. I think I'd rather work really hard and have a nice cold beer and some nachos when I am done.  I can see why people may gain weight from biking!   TOO MUCH GOOD FOOD!

While we were biking the clouds began to blacken up.  The forecast for the day was supposed to be perfect for a bike ride.  This storm was not on the satellite.  The wind picked up and it took all our might to keep riding until we found shelter.  We had not planned on stopping again, but once the big drops, lightening, and wind hit, it was time for a break.  Thank goodness they had cookies waiting for us!  After the scary part of the storm passed we got back to it.  When we hit 68 miles and hadn't finished we both became inpatient.  Don't say 67 miles if the course is really 70.  We both were done when we rolled into the parking lot.  There isn't much to see in Holland on bike....unless you like corn.  We did see a black squirrel and that was cool.  We just have plan gray ones here. 

Nice and Flat

Awe, Williamsburg, VA.  They have an awesome bike trail the takes you all the way to Richmond.  It's paved, it's flat, and it's fast!   Of course we went to see Williamsburg, but biking this trail was super fun and made us start thinking that we were starting to enjoy it.  It was even cooler that is was in Sherwood Forest.  Too bad we didn't see Robin Hood.  We were able to ride 16 mph that day.  That really is about as fast as I can go.  It was raining a bit and wet but it didn't matter, everything is so much better when you can just ride your bike worry free.  No hills, no traffic, no stops.  Just put that peddle to the metal, so to speak.

 Speaking of flat, we had our first flat tire on the road just north of Charlottesville.  That's a pretty intense rip. 

Posers

We did it!  We joined a bike group!  This is unusual behavior for us as we typically do not go out of our way to meet people.  This group is great though.  We fit right in with our spandex padded shorts, our bike jerseys, and our clip-in shoes.  I like to think of us as posers.  We look the part pretty good though.  The first long ride we did was 26 miles.  The group was impressed that we were able to do this. I think it helped that we were still in shape from the marathon in May. 
I am still super slow though and struggle keeping up with the "SLOW GROUP"."  We are learning the bike lingo which is helpful when you want to stay alive on the roads, especially in Charlottesville.  The more we bike the more we aren't sure this sport is for us.  There seems to be a LOT of sitting down.

 Mom and Dad bought us cool new jerseys to help enable our poser status!

SCHLEPP

Meet Schlepp!  He is our trailer buddy.  He too will come with us to Maine and haul all of our equipment and personal items.  We are amateurs so we didn't know if the trailer or panniers would be better.  Oh well, we have Schlepp now and we are going to let him see the country too.  Schlepp fits nicely in the back of the car when the seats are down.  He can hold up to 100lbs, but we are looking at only hauling 25lbs for 4 people with equipment.  Doesn't that sound like hiking all over again?  Tony and I have been taking turns working out with him.  It's tough, especially with all the hills.  Our best route is around the neighborhood 6 times.  Can someone say boring?  This is safe though and allows us to get comfortable with him.  We will take him out for longer rides later in the summer. 

Schlepp is not quite ready to go in this picture!

Apparently road bikes ARE BETTER

In our quest for bike gear and figuring just how we planned on traveling through Maine on bike we went to the bike shop.  Now the bike shop is a lot like a car dealership.  You can go in and look and you will be lucky if you leave empty-handed.  Tony and I had planned on riding our Kona hybrids on the trip.  They are lighter than a mountain bike and can handle most terrain. 
We walked in and 2 hours later we walked out with two new road bikes and helmets!  We are now officially ready to start training.  The question is how do you train for a bike-ation?  Your butt needs to be ready that's for sure.  We have experience training for marathons and long distance hiking trips so this shouldn't be too complicated, all we have to do was ride our bikes.  It takes up a big chunk of the week getting the miles in, but we will be happy on the trip.  Charlottesville with all of its hills will help us too. 

I think these new beauties need a name!

This is our homemade PVC pipe bike rack!  It fits three bikes nicely.