The Funny Thing About Conditioning

After yesterday’s very successful start to the journey, I was feeling surprisingly good about my conditioning – again, considering I hadn’t really done any training. That optimism MAY have been jumping the gun a wee bit. Yes, I felt good when I woke up this morning (and it didn’t hurt that the sun was shining once again). And yes, today was to be a slightly shorter ride than Day One. However, today definitely felt like a slog (Side note: I’m not sure but that may be the first time I’ve ever used the word “slog”.)

The day started off well. Legs felt good. Wind was non-existent. And navigation consisted of about five roads – well, initially anyway. I even took a break for some food and water after only 28 km. However, it wasn’t long after that break that it became clear that my legs didn’t quite have the energy of the day before. But I pedalled on. After about another 12 km, the energy in my legs did not improve. They were still pedalling but they weren’t happy about it. It was as if this was the first time in 642 days that I had done back to back days of riding a loaded bic …. ohhhh, right. Sigh.

With my legs feeling less than enthusiastic about the day’s mission, I did the only thing that made sense. I decided the day needed a drone shot! I’m not saying it was a logical decision … it was a decision based strictly on distraction. And perhaps a little bit of fun! The more I was focused on not crashing the drone, the less I was focused on my legs. Plus, the scenery with the wind turbines in the background was just calling for the drone.

Between setting up, flying, and packing up the drone, my stalling technique filled about ten minutes. But a fun ten minutes. However, it was time to get my legs moving. Like it or not, I still had 50 km to go.

Despite the relatively flat terrain, the remaining 50 km seemed to pass slowly. In reality, my average speed was actually slightly faster than yesterday – but I certainly felt that I had to work harder to achieve that. Plus, the lack of any wind in the morning was replaced by a bit of a headwind that crept in as the day progressed. Oh, and there may have been some disagreement between my Garmin GPS and Google as to what my day’s route should be. By the way, it only took two days for Google to put me on a gravel road. As you might have guessed, the aforementioned five road route became more than five roads. As for my Garmin, in its defence, part of the reason for its navigational issues MAY have been because SOMEONE forgot to transfer the recently downloaded maps onto the device. Hypothetically speaking. However, at times it was attempting to lead in me in circles. I did not oblige its attempts.

All things considered though, it was a successful day. Not my best day in terms of hydration and eating but FAR from my worst. I arrived at my Warm Showers host earlier than anticipated and my hosts, Ned and Cary, have been fantastic.

My planned route for the next few days is more than a little up in the air (no, that’s not a drone reference). Much of my long term route will be dictated by what I do tomorrow. At the moment, it looks like I’ll be going through Detroit … not sure where I’ll be staying though. I’d rather not head deep into the city because, well … pedalling in big cities is typically unpleasant. If I can find accommodation along the water, that would be ideal. However, as yet I haven’t been able to find a place that isn’t too far from my current locale – I’m not quite ready for a 150 km day. Give me another week for that. As such, I might have to settle for a motel … and it’s only Day Three!

Oh, and did I mention my main goal is the Grand Canyon? Well, my main goal is the Grand Canyon. I wasn’t excluding that information intentionally … It was mentioned a couple of times on my Instagram account and then just sort of got left out of my previous update.

Today’s totals:
Distance: 88.38 km
Ride time: 3:47:38
Average speed: 23.29 km/h
Maximum speed: 43.32 km/h