Last Minute Preparations and For Ride Itself - Hydration, Breaks, Communication

Equipment

As any long distance cyclist will tell you, "hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!". The rule is, "drink before you get thirsty and eat before you get hungry!" More about long-distance nourishment in a moment.

I have eight water bottles and a Camelbak (backpack with a soft plastic bladder inside and a long tube with a bite-tip at the end running out the top, over one's shoulder clipped onto one's jersey).

Tonight (the Wednesday before the ride) I am cleaning all my bottles and my bladder (the one inside the backpack, okay?). One teaspoon of baking soda, one teaspoon of bleach, fill the rest of the space with water in each bottle, shake and let sit overnight. The next day, empty, rinse, let them all air dry, and they're clean, disinfected and ready to go. The bladder has special tablets one drops one inside, for the tube there's a thin scrubber so it all gets cleaned - even the soft rubber bite tip. The Camelbak is a standby in case the crew has to leave me to have some major repair done on the Trek1000 while I continue on the spare bike. It will assure that if I were to empty the bottles, I will have 72 more ounces of liquid on my back. The bottles will be prepared and put on ice by the crew, and the signal for more will be holding one empty over my head.

I have 2 cages on my Trek 1000's frame to hold water bottles, but I have decided this time not to use them. I will instead place both bottles into the large compartmentalized pockets on the back of my jersey. My reasoning for this is, I don't want to take a chance of losing my concentration by reaching toward the cages to pick up and replace the bottles. It's much easier to reach backward for me than to reach downward.

Before each ride come the stretches. These I never cheat on. I do three sets of three different exercises while I meditate on the ride ahead. Never skip the stretches, whether you're running or cycling.

A short word about the bike and its weight: the lighter the bike the less weight you have to pull, so I have taken most of the tools out of the tool pocket attached to the back of the seat post. What's left is a small pump, spare tube and the tool called a tire lever used to remove the tire in the event of a flat in case I'm riding alone (when the crew has to take bike 1 to a shop).

So what am I drinking to keep hydrated?

It's a product called Rehydrate (duh!) which Allen Griffin at Perpetual Motion Bicycles, Inc recommended to me. It is a powder and each tub makes 50 bottles of fluid. Its electrolytes and 300 grams of carbs (based on a 2,000 calorie a day diet) get into one's system really fast and will keep me from "bonking" (becoming too tired to pedal further). As a back up, I have nuun tabs which also contain electrolytes, but less than one gram of carbs, which, while slaking thirst, doesn't help endurance very much - hence the "backup".

Nutrition?

Velcro'd to the top of my "top tube" (that bar which differentiates a "boy bike" from a "girl bike") is a stand-up pocket known as a "Bento Box". It will contain 2 baggies of Fig Newtons, which I will pop while riding, again at the suggestion of Allen at Perpetual Motion Bicycles, Inc . He and I had a discussion one day about PBJ's (peanut butter and jelly sandwiches) and we decided that it takes the peanut butter a while to absorb, while the figs are much quicker.

Communications?

One other thing in the Bento is my cell phone, with which I will use a blue tooth. We tried Walkie-Talkies in 2008, but mine proved cumbersome and dangerous to use.

Breaks?

No longer than 5-10 minutes. Any longer than that, it gets harder to start again because your legs will feel leaden or worse, they may start to cramp and there goes your ride. You know what cramping is and if you've ever had one you know it's not fun.

More on the mechanics/logistics of the ride later. Incidentally, I have to say that not every cyclist does everything the same way and I am no different. I had to find my own "style", as it were.

Bill Craig - Georgia

The Road, Traffic, Navigation, and Me

In 2008, when I did the Dallas to Dallas Ride for Wet Noses, I had a brain storm: take I-20 out of Texas into Georgia and almost to Paulding County Animal Control in Dallas, GA. It seemed so simple. Too simple, and since I've never had much luck with Occam's Razor (the simplest, most obvious answer is usually the correct one), I decided to call the office of the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles to make sure I could ride my bike on the Interstate.

It Turned out the call was a very good decision, because no, you cannot ride a bicycle on an Interstate Highway.

My plan was not complicated and very safe ... I thought. The van was going to follow me on the shoulder (break-down lane) straddling both the highway and the lane. "Not a good idea", wrote back Texas DMV. "First of all it's illegal, and secondly you'd be holding up traffic with that van and one of our good ol' boys is likely to shoot you right off that bicycle!"

So we re-mapped the route and went the "scenic route", which also happened to be the route with the roughest roads and the narrowest shoulders. It was during those "white-line hugging" times I was at my most nervous - especially when an 18-wheeler came blasting by.

Texas and Louisiana roads were rough with many potholes to avoid, but the roughest road of all was down the "Natchez Trace". That road contained big chunks of granite, causing me me to have to pedal even while going downhill. We are avoiding "The Trace" this year. (Incidentally, The Trace is also a Mississippi State Park and I almost had to take out a million dollar life insurance policy on myself until they discovered I was riding for charity and gave me a waiver).

As for me, I must admit I was a bit overwhelmed as my cycling experience to that point had been on my beloved Silver Comet Trail in Paulding County, where my most dangerous "enemies" were "the killer squirrels" who have caused many a cyclist scrapes and even broken limbs by darting in front of the bike from the side of the trail.

Riding in heavy traffic requires a calm and focused demeanor and I learned to acquire that right away. I have to say for the most part, the drivers were friendly, didn't mind sharing the road, and even gave me a friendly wave as they went whizzing by.

By far the "hairiest" places in traffic were the multi-lane roads when I had to let the van pull directly in front of me if we needed to make a left-hand turn. I'd follow close behind and make the turn right along with the van. Many times I'd get caught by a traffic light, and the crew would have to wait, but never did they lose sight of me.

After the first 5 miles we decided the use of the bulky walkie-talkies was dangerous and went with hand signals. The right hand with 5 fingers splayed meant "I need a break - pull over". The same hand holding up a water bottle meant "I need a refill". Making a circle with my hand meant "Pit stop, please". Two fingers raised with the back of the hand facing an overtaking 18-wheeler meant "you came way too close, buddy"! All in all, the hand signals worked well for us for the rest of our journey.

We were welcomed at all our stops and were well-fed. Each shelter was asked to provide me with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for energy food and they did so with a bemused smile, no doubt recognizing the "little kid" which still exists as part of my personality.

All in all 2008's ride was a lot of fun as well as a learning experience and my crew and I (Dondra and Marty) will remember those mistakes and correct them this time around.

Bill Craig - Georgia