Well it's been a long time coming, but it's finally time to go on that long "death ride" that I've been planning all summer long. Just an outgrowth of two things really. One being the desire every summer to go on a long, long, all day bicycle ride. In the past these attempts at cycling overload would result in hours of zombie-like behaviour afterwards due to dehydration and a total lack of an understanding of nutritional needs. ( What?! You can't ride for hours and hours fueled only by a bag of Doritos at the halfway point?) The other factor leading to the incarnation of this ride was the experiences that I have had at both Trans Iowa events and at the Dirty Kanza 200 this past May.
That's pretty much the whole reasoning behind the initializing of "The Death Ride". Now I also have a small test model for what is going to be Trans Iowa V3. It'll be not only fun to throw myself into an all day cycling frenzy, but it will be all for the cause of research!
Speaking of research: I have been doing almost all of my training/ recon rides for GTDRI on my Midge barred Karate Monkey single speed. Hand problems are always one of the issues with long rides and the Midge bar is good, but I wondered if I could maybe make it better. I have been playing with gel pad strips and gel tape which has yeilded a set up that is going to see it's first big test tomorrow. I also am pretty scared off of wearing cycling gloves due to the fact that most of the models I've tried tend to be so compressive that my fingers go numb in a matter of minutes. Also, the openings around the fingers tend to pinch off the blood flow and are just plain uncomfortable for me. Well, I got a tip from a seasoned veteran of endurance and it's pretty low tech/ retro. I'll be testing that out this weekend too. Results might be revealed later!
So the weather might be a bit sketchy. We'll see. The few "B" level roads that are on route could prove to be interesting though. Especially with the constant nature of the rain over the past few days. Only about three to three and a half miles to traverse over the entire course though. The B roads won't kill us, but if they are mucky, they'll sure slow us down! Tell you what: I'd rather that it be cool, partly cloudy, or even that we get rained on sometime during the ride than have it be sunny, humid, and 90 degrees all afternoon. Talk about death!
I'll be posting audio blogs tomorrow from the pass through towns of Traer, Gladbrook, and Steamboat Rock. Look for those later in the morning tomorrow to start popping up. Until then, have a great day and ride your bikes!
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