Day 09 – June 25th

Keeping the rubber-side down, we headed out of Aberdeen, Idaho and made it a whopping 5 miles. I was having serious issues shifting, and my cyclometer wasn’t working. After getting the cyclometer operating, I attempted to tweak my cables and rear derailleur to improve the quality of my shifts. Apparently Brian has been rubbing off on me, as I managed to remedy it not in the least. I fought my gears the rest of the day; man would I be ecstatic (like a Christina getting a box of Peeps on Easter) when I got it into a bike shop. That was not to be our only maintenance issue of the day though; the support vehicle was also having problems. Around 38 miles in for the day, Larry took off to get the car looked at and Gary and I headed out solo. No worries, as Larry had provided us ample information to find our way to the hotel which was less than 30 miles away. After a quick lunch at Wendy’s (yeah I know, not the healthiest choice, but one can only eat so many turkey sandwiches before you need to mix it up a bit), the riders set out one direction and the support vehicle the other. Today was a planned ‘rest’ day; we were only doing 70 miles or so. We finished with about 67 miles logged; it’s a messed up situation, though, when a rest day is a metric century. We cruised into town around 1:00 pm and headed straight for a bike shop. An hour later both our bikes were tuned up, and they were shifting smooth as butter. I was pretty excited to have my performance machine back and listening to me again.

We then headed towards the hotel to drop off our bikes, take a shower, and catch a nap before Larry got there with the support car and supplies. Unfortunately, our plans didn’t plan out as quickly as we expected, something a lot more attractive caught our attention. Less than a block from the hotel we noticed a beautiful sign stating “Brewery”. I believe this was God’s way of saying 'take it easy for a while and enjoy a beer or two'. So I took the Big Guy’s advice and pulled in for some food and micro-brews; the summer-fest was heavenly.

It was quite nice getting into town early, and being able to get a rest in after a soul satisfying meal; I think we should try and make a pattern of this behavior. But alas, it will not last. Tomorrow we have a couple big climbs in store for us; we will be doing over 5,000 feet of climbing. The day after that is another day of climbing in which we will ascend 3,000 feet in about 17 miles. The summit for that day is 9,570 feet; this will be the highest elevation we battle our way up to on our sojourn for the East Coast. My knee didn’t do as well today as yesterday, but I think it’s just a minor setback. What it needs to be fully healed is probably a six pack of Shiner, a beach, and a novel. Yes that sounds just about right...

Day 08 – June 24th

Rolling out of Twin Falls, Idaho after a quick breakfast, I found the wind at my back and a mild June day just beginning; it looked like today was going to be a great day to crank. Gary and I were planning on knocking off another 100 miles on this beautiful June day in our quest for the blue waters of the Atlantic. The first few miles fell by the wayside in no time, but at mile 8 Gary blew a tire. We quickly realized the tire had a nasty gash in it and would need to be replaced (usually you just replace the tube and can quickly get back to riding.) Larry, always close by, stopped the support vehicle to drop off a new tire and tube and a few minutes later we were back on the road and rolling. At mile 9 we hopped onto Interstate 84 and started pounding out some serious miles. With a steady breeze encouraging us, we held a pace between 22 and 25 mph; things were going great. We remained on the interstate for the majority of the day; until mile 86 in fact. The interstate treated us well, only a 10 or 20 mile portion of it was rough pavement that sent vibrations pulsating down our arms and into our shoulders; luckily the rest of the ride was smooth and great for cycling. The miles were falling off quickly until around mile 50. I was crossing over the oncoming ramp lane, no traffic in sight (always a good sign) when my front tire was sucked into some loose gravel. This cycle-hungry gravel pitched my bike to the left and I soon found myself fighting for control of the bike as I was jarred over a series of deep grooves in the road. Being shaken like a baby (I know I know, that’s not politically correct) my rear light slid into my spinning wheel and the light disintegrated into a million tiny red pieces; my spokes were pretty pissed off about the entire assault. After stopping the bike to check the damage, I realized my wheel was no longer true (meaning it didn’t spin in a tight circle, but instead wobbled.) This required me to open up the entire rear brake; effectively eliminating its use. I was down to just my front brake, but all things considered, it could have gone a lot worse; if the light hadn’t shattered but instead locked up my wheel I would have gone head over heels over my handlebars; that’d have made for a fun day! I road on with my wheel wobbling for about 15 miles before stopping at our bike shop on wheels and switching out the entire rim and cassette for the spare that Gary had brought along (thank goodness for that foresight!) 2 miles down the road I picked up a screw and destroyed the tire and the tube on the new wheel I had just put on; great! Soon we were finally off again and the rest of the way was pretty uneventful. We ended up with 104 miles and averaged 20.6 mph; we are both pretty proud of that average considering the 800+ miles we’ve put in over the last 8 days. We finished our ride in Aberdeen, Idaho this afternoon and drove to Blackfoot, Idaho where our hotel is located. We will be driving back to Aberdeen to begin tomorrows ride.

I realized something ironic today in regards to my riding. Before this adventure began, I had only completed 3 rides in excess of a hundred miles. I had done the HHH( a century ride in Texas), Reach the Beach (a century ride in Oregon), and a 12 hour time trial with Martin a few weeks ago (it was held in Washington State and we completed about 180 miles that day). These are the only three rides of 100+ miles I had ever done prior to this ride; Gary has dozens and dozens that he’s completed. I think it’s a good thing I didn’t point this out to him prior to the trip, as he probably wouldn’t have asked me to accompany him if he’d known. Oh well, no time like the present to rack up some centuries. Tomorrow should be another fairly flat day, and then we will have some long climbs to ride our way into Wyoming; should be a good time. It’s a sick world where climbing up mountain passes is fun. The knee held up really well today; it didn’t really get painful until about mile 70. Definitely a vast improvement over what it has been.

Day 7 – June 23rd

We started the ride today outside of Mountain Home, Idaho. Within a couple of miles we hit an ascent that we weren’t expecting; it hadn’t shown up on our maps. With the legs still a bit tight from the last few days of riding, this was not the way I was hoping to start the day. However, after a few minutes of finding my cadence and a good tempo it was a breeze getting to the top; the descent afterwards was a nice reward. On the way down I noticed that Larry Hart, our support guru, was in the other lane of the highway taking pictures of the surrounding bluffs. With his picture taking completed he began making his way back across the highway. Since I was in a descent doing in excess of 28 miles per hour I had a brief flash of ramming into him; which would not have been good for either of us. It never got that close, as Larry was well out of the way by the time we got to him, but still it inspired a moment of humor. Not fear…but humor. You see while I was descending, and Larry was moving across the road, I looked over to Gary, who was riding beside me, and told him he better be careful or he was going to have a Hart (heart) attack. Ok so maybe it’s not nearly as funny now as it was at the time; but we both got a good laugh out of it for the next 10 minutes. I think our minds are starting to lose the blunt edge they had; we find ourselves saying and doing some pretty dumb stuff. I guess after a week in the saddle your mind starts to deteriorate along with your body. Oh well, it gives us something to talk and laugh about. Case in point: I am having an issue with my seat stay, and I was able to secure an extra bolt from a bike shop. The bolt won’t last, however, as it’s already slightly stripped. I was happy to get it though, as now I could pass it onto Larry and when he is in the next town with a bike shop, he can try to secure a new one for me. Gary at dinner the other night asked “Matt, have you given Larry your screw yet? “ I am sure you all can see where this is going. I looked at Gary, dead serious without a hint of a smirk on my face and told him “Gary, that’s a rather personal question.” We laughed for much longer than we should have at it. Like I said, our minds are becoming more akin to blunt spoons than sharp knives. Cest la vi…a utensil is still a utensil. Hehe.

Back to the ride; we ended up putting in 98.5 miles this afternoon. There were no serious climbs along the route; though we did do some gradual ascending and hit a few small, but stiff, climbs. All in all we ended the day with about 3,000 feet of climbing. We rolled into Twin Falls, Idaho at 3:30 pm; which is great as it’s the earliest we have been off the bike all week. We were able to get some food earlier than usually, which left us time to start planning our strategy for going forward. The consensus is in and we need to build in a couple days to help spread out our overly aggressive ride, such as trying to do a 150 miler followed with a 160 miler. Right now it looks like we will be adding in two more days to help allocate some of those miles and give us a chance to really enjoy the ride and keep our bodies and sanity in tact; relatively speaking of course. My knee seems to be healing; the pain didn’t get worse today. Yesterday there was about 30 miles where the pain was pretty intense; I have been getting a burst of pain on each down-stroke with my right knee. If you didn’t know, there are a hell of a lot of down-strokes over a hundred miles of pedaling! But today during the majority of the ride the pain bursts were not quite as intense; I had it compressed wrapped, so that may have helped. With the way today went, I think it may be healed within the next week or so. At least that’s what I keep telling myself. As far as the scenery for today, the highlight was seeing ‘The Place of a 1,000 Falls.’ The bluff face literally had 1,000 waterfalls along its edge (at least that’s what it said, Gary tried counting them but I think he lost count at 3). There was one waterfall that really stands out in my mind. It was one of the larger waterfalls; white water rapidly spilling over the brown stone bluff and that split into two long and distinct tendrils of churning water. In the middle of those parting waters stood an elderly massive tree; it looked like something you would see in a movie; the tree standing proud over its waters was so serene, powerful and majestic. I think it’s a picture that will be forever burned into my mind; I pray it is. What a gorgeous country we live in.

Day 6 – June 22nd

Today we started the ride in Ontario, Oregon and within a couple of miles we had left Oregon behind and were now propelling ourselves over the surface of Idaho. One state down, and less than a dozen to go. The first 60 miles of today’s ride were fairly uneventful and the legs felt good; not too deep yet, but still fairly fresh considering the 500 miles we’ve put in already. The knee is still giving me problems, though, but I believe my wife has diagnosed it. It appears I have tendinitis of the quad tendon. It hurts, but its still good news; it means I probably haven’t messed my knee up too bad. Over the next couple weeks I will continue to ice it, elevate it, take ibuprofen to help with the inflammation, and start using a compression wrap while riding to assist the knee in staying in place. I am hopeful that in a couple of weeks I will have this behind me and can get back to riding pain free; well as pain free as any century ride can be.

On the ride today there were not any climbs that were overly difficult. We did go into a gradual climb around mile 63 and were out of it by mile 80. The legs felt fine during the ascent, and my heart rate remained in the 130’s, which tells me in wasn’t very hard on my body; always a great sign. In fact, only a couple of sections of the gradual ascent had any real substance to them. After reaching the summit, Larry went ahead of us to get the hotel room ready and Gary and I set out to do the next 40 miles without support. It wasn’t too long after that the heat started to take its toll on me; around mile 83 I started to realize I was getting too hot; the temp had soared to 94 degrees and was draining me fast. After living in Portland for nearly a year, my body is definitely not used to the heat. But once I got some more fluids and food in me, I was back on form within a couple of miles. The next 30 miles went fairly quickly, as it was a flat course with some minor descents and only a couple bumps to climb over. Overall the ride went well, and I was quite pleased to be off the bike before 6 pm. I was hoping to be done earlier, but unfortunately we crossed into mountain time, and thus lost an hour this morning. Ahh well, it was still a good day in the saddle. In regards to the topography of the course today, I spent the majority of the day following the Snake River through the high deserts of Idaho. I can’t say I’ll be overly disappointed to leave these arid plains behind me; though I realize the Midwest is going to be just as hot. But at least there should be some green; out here the only green was immediately adjacent to the Snake River. Everything else is a dull, lifeless brown. Don’t get me wrong, it still has its own unique beauty to it. But when you are hot and fighting yourself to keep pedaling, the last thing you want to see is an arid landscape; it does not inspire like a lush green backdrop. In regards to miles ridden, I have knocked off over 600 of the 3,600 miles this trip requires. I am looking forward to completing the remaining 3,000!