"Where did you find these roads?"

Monday, September 13, 2010

John wanted to get together at his place to go over the final details of our trip. Although I’d done this with him four times already, he doesn’t remember that he doesn’t remember so I’ll do it again. I packed my bike since we always ride from my place, I thought I’d give his routes a try. He lives in Twinsburg and says the roads aren’t nearly as good for biking and I suspected he was right.

We rode some side streets from his place to, well, I don’t know where he was headed. When we came to one stretch where road crews were doing construction and the water truck had just passed through to keep the dust down, I knew I was in trouble.

“It’s all mud up there,” I said, knowing there was no way around the mess. John was riding on grass, gravel and anything he could find to avoid the muddy street. I just plowed ahead, covering my legs, the bike, and sending a beautiful stream of mud up my backside all the way to my neck. I was looking fine.

“I’m going to be rusting like the Tin Man in no time. Do you have my oil can?” I asked. He didn’t and I began to squeak.

We rode on busy streets…it was around 5 p.m. after all…and when we turned off the main artery, it was only to ride a road that had more potholes than Cuyahoga County has crooks working government jobs. My teeth were rattling and I was trying to maintain a pace that wouldn’t have me blow a tire…or a bike frame.

“How in God’s name do you put up with this shit? There has to be better roads to ride,” I said.

“Um…I actually don’t know the roads that well around here and I’m always in a time crunch so I just head out and ride hard to wherever…” he said. Shrewd. Give John books and he eats them. Fortunately for him, he has me when we go into the woods. He’d die in six hours otherwise.

We finished the ride bumping over roads that became never seemed to get any better. If I’d have known, I’d have brought the mountain bike I don’t own. We rode 20 miles in a little over an hour, which is pretty fast considering the conditions of the roads. I was caked in dried mud and he was clean somehow. We went in and discussed the climbing we’d be doing on Saturday when we would be hitting four major peaks. John kept looking at the map and then to me.

“Are you sure about this? It’s how many miles of hiking and climbing?”

“I don’t know exactly. Maybe 16 miles? Hey…you’re a lot younger and lighter. If I can do it…so can you,” I said. He looked concerned, though. I also outlined how we’d be climbing another two major peaks on Monday after a day off…the day we’d only climb one smaller one with my cousin, Donnie.

“I’ve been warning you for two months. You knew the plan so ‘man up’. I don’t want to hear anymore whining,” I said…as if that would ever happen. John said he’d sleep in the car the entire ride up…to conserve his strength…and then rest when we got there. Good plan. I’m not worried. He does whine, but he’ll handle it just fine. If not…there’s plenty of cliffs from which to push him.

Bike duration: One hour and 5 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 125.
Calories burned during workout: 900.