A refurbished bike...a new shoe

Monday, August 12, 2013

I’d received a call from Performance Bike that UB Express was ready to go.  Since I had a bike I’d borrowed from a good friend and was planning to use on Tour Ohio, I took it with me to have them give it a once over.  Braden, the mechanic that had worked on UB had graciously loaned me his rear wheel as it was more durable and a better choice for the Tour.  He’d done all the work at no charge and was happy to take a look at the other bike.

I quickly went home, switched to my riding outfit and headed out on the Waite Hill course.  I was concerned about detraining since I’d spent so little time on the bike lately, but found that I hadn’t lost anything.  I needed to hurry the ride because I had a meeting scheduled with Mark Mendeszoon, owner of The Achilles Running Shop, to go over a fitness challenge he wanted me to set up and monitor for the store’s employees and to discuss sponsoring Tour Ohio with shoes.

After a cleansing swim in the cool waters of the neighbor’s pool, I headed for the store.  Mark described what he was hoping to accomplish with his fitness challenge; a carrot to get people (him) in shape before the holidays.  “I work better when I have a goal and a deadline,” he said.  I told him I’d do fitness tests on all contestants, help them with training programs, retest at the mid-point and monitor and compare final outcomes.

“I also need a good pair of hiking shoes for the Tour.  I’d certainly be talking about them in my updates and promoting you guys throughout,” I said.

He was more than happy to put me in a pair of trail running shoes that would serve as an excellent hiking shoe. I tried on several pairs and settled on the Brooks Cascadia 7, a light-weight sturdy pair of trail runners.  I questioned him on the proper approach to blistering during the hike, he’s a podiatrist by the way, and his advice surprised me.

“Duct tape.  Put it over the sore spot, use talc and spray antiperspirant on your feet to keep them from sweating too much,” he said.

I headed to the North Chagrin Reservation for a short walk to break them in and ended up going for 50 minutes and finishing in almost total darkness.  They were like walking on pillows, though I still had the hot spots on the balls of my foot from the previous day’s hike.  It was a nice double and left me feeling a little more confident for what was coming.

Hike duration:  50 minutes.  Bike duration:  Two hours and 5 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  85 hiking and 120 bpm on the bike.
Calories burned during workout:  250 hiking and 1750 on the bike.