Three thousand mile bike ride...done that.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

After a hard night of bike riding, I decided it was time to take a night off and do my part-time job checking for boaters wearing life jackets on watercraft. I went to the break wall along the mouth of the Grand River in Fairport Harbor and took up a strategic position where I could observe all watercraft coming in out and out the river and still see boaters in harbor just off of Fairport Beach. I was able to document 33 boats and actually saw some life jackets on one sailboat of three adults and two others with young children wearing (but not the adults). Statistically, that was only 10 life jackets on 120 boaters…about average for the nation.

My sister was trying out the newest craze on the water…stand-up paddle boards. She invited me to try them, which I wanted to do and said I would if they were still out when I returned from my observation point. They weren’t. I talked to the guy who owned the boards…and avid canoe/kayak guy and he said he thought it might actually be a better way to cross the Lake on my triathlon. “You can change positions so you won’t get so sore just sitting in a kayak all that time. Standing obviously, but you can sit, lie down and move all around…and it’s just as fast,” he said. I was having troubles imagining that it could be as fast since you couldn’t put a one blade paddle in the water as quickly as a double blade, but he’s done both and I’ll have to give it a try. He claims it’s a great core workout, as well.

Kim stopped by late to share her stories of a 3,000 mile cycling trek and the many pictures she had taken. She’d finished her ride in Utah because she needed to get home and on to graduate school and would be leaving Saturday morning. I could tell she’d had the time of her life…she was so animated when describing what I was seeing in the pictures…and sad that she was no longer on the road. I’ve had similar feelings every time I leave a longer backpacking trip. It gets under your skin and you never want to stop. She’s already planning her next trip. She commented that the cyclists she was seeing on the road were all older. “There was hardly anyone my age…they were all old…like you,” she said. She really felt that anyone could do what she had done. Sure…a little training was necessary, but if a person paced themselves, there was nothing so physically demanding that it couldn’t be done. “I think the time it takes and the discomforts of the road are what would keep most folks away from such a trip,” I said, “but if they could only know the feeling of fulfillment and achievement that comes with the effort…they’d give it a try.” I told her the next big adventure should be backpacking the Pacific Coast Trail. “That’s the trip I want to take,” I said.

I know her trip was a lot to do and that few are willing to…or interested in…the kind of commitment it takes to achieve. Still, there are so many opportunities to create your own smaller, less time-consuming adventure trips that would commit you to a level of fitness hard to achieve in any other way. Bike, backpack, hike, kayak/canoe trips of one to two weeks would necessitate a commitment to training and a conditioning level that would leave most people pleased with themselves. Finding the time…committing completely to something for yourself and your good health…hard to make yourself do, I know.