Second Month of Training

We completed our second three-week training phase last Wednesday. We have taken three days off for recovery and will begin riding again today. Our goals for the second phase, as stated in my last post, were about 217 miles and 27 hours of riding. Here's what we actually did:

Total miles - 305.7

Total riding time - 35 hrs 55 min 

Riding days - 15

Average ride - 20.4 miles, 2 hrs 23 min

Longest ride - 30.2 miles, 3 hrs 55 min

Average speed - 8.5 mph

Total miles on trikes to date - 507.9

For those of you following Garth's blog posts about environmental awareness, please note that we covered that 305 miles without burning a drop of gasoline. We did, however, burn about 19,000 calories (kcal) of oatmeal, chicken stir fry, pinto bean soup and other edibles above and beyond our basic metabolic needs. I've lost about 4 pounds and Patti is getting noticeably slimmer. I'm not sure what the net trade off was in terms of reducing our carbon footprints. I'm also not sure what the net economic benefits were. Driving our car 305 miles would have burned about 14 gallons of gas. At $3.50/gallon, that would have cost us about $49. I suspect that I probably have paid about as much for the extra food I've been eating! What cannot be evaluated are the intangibles: the value of improved health, the joy of spending a day with the wind beneath an open sky, the deep sense of intimate contact with the world that comes with riding "low and slow" across the face of Mother Earth. Besides that, we're having a blast! 

In addition to riding, we also have been getting our gear together for long-distance touring. We've gradually been replacing our old (antique) camping equipment with new stuff (tent, sleeping pads, cook stove, etc.).  We've added some new safety features to our trikes (new flags made by Patti, big "slow-moving vehicle" signs on the back of our trikes). We also made a set of panniers (saddlebags) from several large, plastic cat litter containers donated to us by Garth and Megan. I researched the basic design. Patti, of course, did the actual fabrication. We also will be making some major upgrades in our trike's drive trains over the next week or two.  We will be replacing the entry-level chain rings, plastic idlers, and standard derailleurs that came stock on the trikes with high-performance internal hubs and titanium idlers. We've also put on some better quality, high-performance tires. These upgrades should significantly improve our trike's performance characteristics and durability on the road. They also should significantly increase the number of miles we can ride in a day on a bowl of oatmeal!

Our schedule for the next three-week phase is going to be a little erratic. Patti will be leaving on the train on May 6 for a trip to Idaho to visit family. She will be gone for 11 days, returning on May 16. That means we will have only 9 days we can ride before she leaves (depending on the weather) followed by an 11-day "recovery period." Nevertheless, we're shooting for a 40-mile trip this coming week and hope to do our first 50-miler by the end of the month. If all goes well, we plan to begin some actual touring early in June. These will be "shakedown" tours in the local Northern Indiana area; overnighters that will give us a chance to test and refine our equipment list.

We've been planning a trike trip to Albany, New York this summer to visit with Karl, Jolene, and our new grandson (whose name Jolene won't reveal at this point). Our original thinking was that we'd probably do it in August or September. But, who knows? It looks as though there might be a chance that we could make the trip in July ... just in time to be present when our grandson makes his entry into the world. On the other hand, there also might be a chance that Jolene won't want to deal with a couple of crazy old people when she is otherwise preoccupied. Whatever. We're easy. New York is beautiful in the fall!