My goal was to cover 100 miles from Austin to Shiner on a cycle with my brother. Unfortunately, I did not reach my goal, covered only 73 miles, and 4 of 6 rest stops.
The Lessons Learned
Preparation is Key
Before undergoing difficult trials, usually you prepare. By preparing you mentally strengthen your resolve and set yourself up in ideal circumstances to succeed. Every lack of preparation goes against you and the Shiner Ride was no different, actually it exemplified why it is so important.
Training-wise, the amount of miles I put on my cycle before the ride was pitiful. Over the period I heard about the ride, I didn't even put a hundred miles in training. This alone shows that I could not comprehend the length of the course and the trials of long distance riding.
Having all the equipment ready also is necessary. I let my focus slip when we forgot our tags and a few other accessories. This is the main reason we started late and in my mind, I wanted to play catch up, which was a wrong strategy.
Respect the Ride
100 miles is quite far. To take this into perspective, while traveling in a car, you'd cover that distance in an hour and a half... going over 65 MPH. On a cycle, my average is 16 MPH with hills, which translates to over 6 hours on the saddle. We averaged 13 MPH, which means had we finished the tour, it would have taken over 7 1/2 hours of ride time... not including stops.
This experience was humbling, because my first tour was 46 mile Beauty & Beast Tour, with little preparation and training. Through sheer will, I finished, and thought I could do the same again. My ego got the best of me and has been put in place. What remains now is a renewed sense of determination.
The Obstacles
We came across various obstacles that are evident now, but unforeseen during the tour.
The number of rest stops and their distance between each other made the ride difficult. Altogether, there are 6 rest areas to refill on water and get some food. On average that's about 17 miles between stops, which is over an hour in travel time. The most punishing area was between stop 2 and 3, which spanned over 17 miles. By that time, I had almost no energy because I ate nothing before the event.
The heat posed an unfamiliar problem to me. Since my last tour was relatively cool, I wasn't used to how much water I needed while on this ride. So I ended up drinking more than I should and running out between stops. One very scary part was experiencing symptoms of heat exhaustion or even worst, heat stroke. Though I was very hot, I was shivering and though it went away when I cooled myself off, you don't want to be in that position.
Headwind was brutal from start to finish. First, this slows you down and makes pedaling harder due to the resistance. Second, this headwind wasn't a cool breeze, but felt more like heat coming from the oven.
Next Steps
So even though I didn't finish, many people have told me hitting 73 miles on my third tour is still an accomplishment. What I am taking from this experience are hard lessons and a hunger to finish 100 miles next time.
Training regularly will be key to keep my body conditioned and provide me more experience with different weather patterns.
Also, really keeping my head in the game before the ride is essential. Carb loading, breakfast, hydration, and knowing where my equipment is before the ride will give me an advantage physically and mentally.
Lastly, during the ride I have to scout the map and plan ahead. This way I can ration my supplies better and have a mental map of expectations between rest stops.
Here's to the next ride and next challenge!
-Mark
