days
to
Atlantic
Beach!
I will have been in Florida almost a week on July 25th, doing shakedown rides of my bike every day and adjusting to the sun and heat. Thirty days from today I will dip my tires in the Atlantic Ocean and start riding west.
Pre-ride
If I wanted a motorcycle…
…I’d buy one. How the heck does somebody ride one of those things?
In other news, I found a pair of shoes! More about that coming up.
I’d’ve worn rubber gloves too…
But they’re my feet. I’m, err… kind of attached to them.
So several pre-ride appointments this week. Yesterday I met with a dietitian, and that will be the subject of an upcoming post all on its own. Today I saw the podiatrist. Not because my feet have any real issues, mind you, other than being gigantic and 63 years old along with the rest of me. Well, yeah- I do have some peripheral neuropathy, especially in the left foot, likely as the result of a car accident almost 30 years ago. So I took the doc’s time to describe what I am setting out to do in about a month and hear her recommendations. They were common-sense, but very helpful to have them organized all at once.
- Check feet frequently for issues. The moving bike and the motion of the legs and feet in turning the pedals will tend to mask things.
- Don’t let a small problem turn into a big one. Deal with stuff like irritation and redness before blisters and sores develop. Deal with a small blister before it becomes a big one. That sort of thing.
- Maintain daily foot hygiene. Wear clean socks every day. Let feet air out after a ride. Make sure nails are trimmed and do not become ragged.
- If a problem develops, give it time to resolve. Consider staying off the bike if necessary. Some delay is better than pushing things to a ride-ending injury.
There was more, but those were the high points. If those feet are going to get me across the country, I’d better treat them right.
On a related front, we ran my feet through a Brannock Device during the visit. What’s a Brannock Device, you ask? One of these gizmos.
These are actually a pretty interesting part of American ingenuity, dating back to just after the First World War [linkie]. When it gets used by a shoe salesperson, well, that’s just part of selling you something. But when your foot is “Brannocked” by Trained Medical Personnel, hey- that’s the answer, right?
13B/C.
I can’t get my foot into a size 13 shoe at any store, even with a shoehorn and someone pushing the shoe in the other direction. And what about this?
Now, I allowed a one size fudge-factor, upping the Brannock results to a 14. There’ve been 14s I have fit my feet into. I don’t remember when, but I have. Follow the red line down, though, to where it crosses the EU adult sizes (which I have highlighted in yellow). A 49?
Uh-uh. No way. I’d have to cut off my toes. Same with a 50.
So do I doubt Mr. Brannock and his device? Not one bit. I think that my problem with finding bicycle shoes- any shoes, actually- can be laid squarely at the feet (DYSWIDT?) of the vendors that make the shoes for the various manufacturers. Like I said before, I think they take every hundredth EU48 shoe off the line and label it an EU49. Then they take every hundredth one of those and label it an EU50. It’s the manufacturers’ fault, too. My feet don’t magically turn into size 52s when I put on what should be a properly sized shoe. “They run small” doesn’t explain anything.
I’d like to see a single bicycle shoe brand that could prove me wrong, but I’m not too worried about that happening.
David Edgren
A Flying Bike?
No, not quite. But it reads like one of those “Brain Puzzler” problems:
You live in Alaska, your bicycle is in Portland Oregon, and you need it in Jacksonville, Florida by the start of next month so that it can be ready for a ride across the United States. What do you do?
Well, as far as I’m concerned you get on the web and go to BikeFlights [linkie].
In about 30 minutes and for a very reasonable amount you’ll have it handled. Of course, that length of time and the “reasonable amount” part doesn’t include coordination with two bike shops and the cost of disassembly and boxing at one end and reassembly at the other, but hey. It is great to know that this part of prep is completely handled, and all I need to do is turn up at the Zencog store in Jacksonville [linkie]
on July 19th with ID and off I go.
David Edgren
30 Days…
…and counting ’til I head from Alaska down to Florida.
I’ve picked up some postcards to put up here when I cross each state line.
Getting lots accomplished. More about that tomorrow.
David Edgren
Lunch
A cup of green seedless grapes equals 110 calories.
We arrived back in Alaska on Monday evening. I have pretty much lived out of a suitcase for the past three months, after packing to accompany my wife down for the first 10 days or so of medical treatments expected to last for four weeks. Heh! That went well.
One of the things I planned to do after I returned home for the month during the month preceding heading to Florida to start the ride is to eat more frequently each day and keep the overall amount I eat within a set caloric limit. I’m going to start with 2,000 calories per day. That’s an arbitrary number, and I know I’ll require more when I start logging daily miles. So it’s not a diet- it’s just an effort to routinize what I eat and get used to many small portions over the course of a day. I’ll also be logging everything I eat or drink except water, and I may start keeping track of that as well.
I would be really pleased if the long-distance cyclists reading this would make recommendations concerning trip food- good stuff, stuff to stay away from…
..jalapeños, five alarm chili, food covered in Sriracha sauce…
any “dining out” suggestions (remember that I will not be taking anything to prepare or heat food with), that sort of thing. I don’t intend to make a Tour Gastonomique out of this ride- food will be fuel, and that’s pretty much it. That said, if you think a place is just too good to pass up, let me know.
More about the next month in a bit.
David Edgren
A Second Check-out Ride
Yesterday I took the bike out for a second check-out ride before I return it tonight to Bike Gallery in Portland for disassembly and shipment to the ZenCog bike shop [linkie] in Jacksonville, Florida. I won’t see it again for a little bit more than another month. This is unfortunate, but bringing the bike back to Alaska for the next four weeks would cost me about $400 that isn’t in the budget. I’ll have to make do with the stationary bike and possibly a rental from a local bike shop for my continued prep rides before I head for Jacksonville around the 19th of July. I’ll keep you posted.
Everything went great on the ride, which was a shade under eight miles/15 kilometers in just over 50 minutes on a gravel path. I’d estimate that the loose surface on the path slowed my pace by about 20%. The loose gravel gave me the jitters in a few places, too.
The path was on top of a flood control dike along the Coweeman River, a minor stream that drains into the Columbia just south of where I started. If I looked to my left for the first several miles, I had down-at-the-heels industrial scenery. To my right I had the river, which is mostly a high-banked ditch, and Interstate 5. The last mile or so of the ride before the turn-around point was prettier- through a park on the left and with the river much more natural looking in the other direction. It rained big drops for a few minutes, but I dried pretty quickly. Each of my days the first week will be on average five times this distance on pavement. I’ll need to get up super early, as the July summer in north Florida will be brutal if I’m not done (or most of the way with a short evening ride remaining) by mid-morning. I figure if I’m sustaining 12 miles/20 kilometers per hour by the day I start the ride I’ll be in good shape.
I can do this.
David Edgren
Donations? Heck yeah!
Several (well, two) of the readers of this blog have messaged me asking how to contribute to my ride. I really appreciate that, and I encourage folks here to give generously.
Just not to me.
While you are in the giving mood, though, let me make a couple of suggestions.
The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy has done work all over the country that is near and dear to my heart. The organization provides funding and other resources in seeking to preserve abandoned railroad rights-of-way as multi-use trails. Bicyclists are a primary beneficiary of the RTC’s efforts, and its website [linkie] is a wealth of information about and links to the growing network of rail-trails out there. If you would consider giving to the RTC, click here [linkie] or on the logo above.
The Nature Conservancy, despite the fact that I couldn’t get a job there after graduating from law school, is another favorite of mine. I like the way it does business- instead of knee-jerk opposition to land development and the use of tactics like lawfare and back-door lobbying to tie the process up and to make things so expensive that the developer finally just gives up, if TNC sees something worth preserving, the organization buys it or buys the development rights. Over the years, it has compiled an incredible track record of preservation of some of the key remaining natural places all around the country. If you would consider giving to TNC, click here [linkie] or on the logo above.
Shifting gears (subtle bike pun, sorry)-
My grandchild Aidan died of an aggressive cancer of the brain in 2011 two days short of his second birthday. He was treated at the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta, where he received incredible care from some of the most compassionate doctors and medical staff in the world. While the situation ended so very sadly, we know that the SCH is on the forefront of work that will give some future child and her or his family hope for a normal life that is cancer-free. If you would consider giving to the SCH, click here [linkie] or on the logo above.
The Massey Cancer Center is part of my grad school alma mater: Virginia Commonwealth University. A great friend from those days participates every year in the Massey 10K fundraising run with Aidan’s name on her T-shirt along with that of her husband, who also died of this terrible disease. Massey is one of the leading cancer research institutions in the country. If you would consider giving to the MCC, click here [linkie] or on the logo above.
No pressure, folks. I’d be really pleased to know that my ride has resulted in even a single donation to any of the places I have listed. Or you pick a worthy place. And thanks for doing that.
David Edgren
One Point Two One Gigawatts…
Well, not quite. While I am looking for a bit of onboard power on my bike, it’s kind of impractical to be tethered to one of these.
Chief Joseph Dam, Columbia River, Washington* – Image credit: Wikimedia
A few posts ago I wrote that my ride was not going to be about how many tech gadgets I could bring with me [linkie]. I have to admit that I’ve found there’s a fine line, though, between bringing just what you need and going full Navin Johnson.
But I do want bright reliable LED lights front and rear without the hassle of carrying extra batteries and keeping up with them and enough auxiliary power to recharge small electronic devices, like my iPhone and Bad Elf GPS unit [linkie] on the fly. So I added to my bike build one of Schmidt’s P-238 filled hubs.
…heh, just kidding about the plutonium part…
You can read real facts (and probably more than you ever wanted to know) about the Schmidt dynamo hubs here [linkie]. The big thing for me is that the hub sounds bulletproof. I just need it to last about ten weeks without any issues. It sounds, though, like it will still be functioning after I’m not.
To pull off power to charge electronics I had one of these included in the build.
Yes, it’s an honest-to-gosh USB port on a bicycle. Swiss-made, too, by a company called Supernova. There’s more information here [linkie]. The little rubber cap hanging open in the photo covers the port, which delivers cleanly regulated 5 volt power at 500 milliamps. That just happens to be the spec power for USB 2. The only catch is that I have to be riding at least 12 kilometers/about eight miles per hour. Something about “engaging the flux capacitor,” probably.
But enough about tech. In the next post we’ll talk about why my ride is different from this guy’s [linkie], and how I intend to keep it that way.
David Edgren
* I have to admit that having the bike built in the Pacific Northwest, where pretty much everything runs off hydro power, put me in a “if they can do it, I can do it too” frame of mind. I love wild rivers as much as the next guy, but the hydro dams up here are, by and large, magnificent pieces of civil engineering.
They say once you’ve ridden a bicycle…
Well, that’s out of the way.
Just a little less than 1/10th of one percent of the distance of my upcoming ride. In 20 minutes.
I can do this.
David Edgren
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