Tour de Camden

It has been a while since I have written a blog post. I’ll try to catch up on all the reasons why in posts that follow, but here is the short version. First, I took a part-time job as a valet—some friends needed another person for their valet business, I needed some exercise, and I thought the extra money would be nice. Then the semester started not long after that. Adding the extra job has made time short and made me feel that any writing I do should be for work—publications, lectures, grants etc. I haven’t done much of that either, either.

I’ve continued to ride the Granny Cruiser, although my weekly mileage has gone down a fair bit. I started trying for longer distances and made it as far as 53 miles on Granny. In preparation for buying a road bike I also started renting various brands and models. First I rented a Specialized Allez, then a Trek 1.5 Alpha, and finally a Specialized Secteur. I did my first two metric centuries (100km) on the Trek and Secteur. The first one on the Trek hurt a lot. I came limping home with my quads killing me and really out of gas. After talking to my two cycling gurus (Clem and ChesterPhil) and my exercise physiologist father-in-law, I figured out details of eating, electrolytes, and cadence that all helped. My second century was pretty good. I felt great throughout the entire ride and even finished with some energy. The Secteur is made for longer rides and is supposed to be more comfortable. For me, it was a lot more comfortable.

That second century happened after I had my birthday. For my birthday, my wife and kids got me some cycling gear. I got a nice jersey, a pair of the ass-pad shorts, and gloves. Now you would think that getting all tricked out with the crazy cycling clothes wouldn’t make a lot of difference, but you are wrong. This is especially true for the ass-pad shorts. The road bike saddles (seats) are small and hard. They aren’t made for unpadded butts. No one in their right mind rides 100km on one of those saddles without ass padding…except for me. No wonder the first century I rode hurt! On my second century try I had the Secteur and my spiffy new outfit, plus lots of good info about eating, etc. I set out with great hope that this ride would be better. Still, 20 miles in my ass was killing me. When you butt hurts, it makes you squirm on your saddle which means you pedal funny and then your legs hurt, too. I finally decided I needed to stop and adjust my ass-pad shorts because they weren’t working properly. I was in Gadsden, SC. If you have been there, you might not have noticed. It was early Sunday morning, so no one was really out on the road. All good Christians were in church or getting ready. The rest of us….well, we were sleeping or something. I was on a rural road (redundant for Gadsden) with few buildings, but I came upon a small cement block building all alone—a rural beauty shop! I parked my bike, strolled around back, and pulled my ass-pad shorts off. It occurred to me that if anyone had come upon me at that moment—helmet, cycling jersey, shoes, and nothing else—it might have been awkward…or dangerous. I discovered that in my haste to hit the roads I had put my ass-pad shorts on backwards. Yep. I am a dope.

With those shorts on, and on correctly, things went much more smoothly. On my return from a loop out away from Gadsden I stopped at a small, rural convenience store to get a drink. Keep in mind I had on a tight lycra jersey and padded shorts. This is not the typical attire for such a place…and especially not on a Sunday morning. It was like walking into a rural bar—all eyes quickly shifted to me. As I waited in line to pay for my drink a small child turned to look at me. Her eyes got as big as saucers and she quickly hid behind her father. Then, when I got to the counter the clerk looked down at me and fought back a smirk while taking my money. Yep, I’ve gone completely over to the other side. I am willing to don clothes that are too tight to be worn by me in public…and then go in public…in front of strangers in a strange and small town…and parade around like I am perfectly normal…all in the name of riding a bike.

All along my goal has been to ride the Tour de Camden metric century and that happened this past Saturday in Camden, SC. Camden is only 30 minutes from my house, so it was a good first ride for me. I rented a Specialized Secteur, this time with a compact double crank (a big and small chain ring on the front) instead of the triple I had used before. Shifting from one chain ring to another can be hard to do when you are pedaling hard on the fly (just ask Andy Schleck), but you really want the smaller ring for hills. The compact double gives you a greater range of lower gears without having to shift down to the smaller ring more than once.

I drove to Camden by myself—leaving my wife and kids to sleep until I finished the ride. I arrived to find about 100 cyclists milling about in brightly colored lycra attire. Not surprisingly, most people knew at least some of the other people there. I may have been the only newbie without at least an experienced riding buddy. Undaunted, I got my gear on and pulled my rented Secteur out of the back of my minivan…never mind that everyone else had cool bike racks on the backs of their cars.

After a few minutes of instructions, memorials, and raffles spoken through a bullhorn the ride started. I hung near the back of the pack and slowly picked my way up as I rode the first 10 miles or so. When we came to the first hill I was just getting passed by a couple of big, tall guys. I shifted down to my smaller ring and easily rode back past the big guys and up the hill. On the descent someone in the group ahead of me crashed and I came upon that group stopped with one guy on the ground bleeding. I learned later that he had broken his collarbone…I think he hit a pothole.

After that one hill it was pretty flat and we rode through some of the nice countryside of Kershaw County. In a couple of places we rode by big fields of golden vegetation bathed in sunlight. It was really beautiful and reminded me of the fields of sunflowers that are always on view during le tour…I know, I am a total sap. Somewhere around 25 or 30 miles I noticed that I couldn’t shift back down to the small ring on the front of my bike…something was jammed. I knew hills were looming at 35 to 40 miles, pretty big ones, and I wanted to be ready to shift back into lower gears. The problem was, I found, that something was jammed…and I didn’t know how to fix it. I stopped for a sports drink, cookies, and a banana at 35 miles and pushed on. I continued to mess with the shifter in hopes that I could un-stick it, but I was afraid to break something. It, after all, wasn’t my bike.

Somewhere after mile 40 I came upon a really big and long hill with a pretty steep ending. About three quarters of the way up I stopped, got off my bike and tried to move the chain to the lower ring. I am sure I could have, but I really didn’t want to make it so I couldn’t ride it all so I got back on and finished the hill. Really, the second half of the ride was all like that…up hill. They were hills like I hadn’t ridden before…long and steep and one after another. The hills really didn’t stop until about a mile before the finish. It was challenging (cruel) and it was made no easier by the fact that I had to stay on my “big ring” throughout that latter half of the ride. That meant I really had to jam on the pedals and get out of the saddle a lot to make it up the hills. Pedaling like that takes a greater toll than pedaling fast in a lower gear with less resistance. Honestly, the last 10 miles were pretty hard mentally. I never really thought about giving up but I really, really wanted it to end.

It did finally end and at the end I found my wife and kids on the roadside cheering and taking pictures. It was a very welcome, very nice sight for me. I ended up finishing the ride in 3:55, which was faster than my previous best at that distance of about 4 hours. All told, I am very happy with the ride and with the experience. Like all good experiences, it was not easy or always fun, but I learned a little and accomplished something I had wanted to accomplish.

One of my cycling gurus Clem reminded me not long ago to make sure I paid attention not just to where I was going but to where I had been. Ten months ago I weighed over 200 lbs and couldn’t ride a bike more than a mile or two. Now I weigh about 180lbs and can ride a bike 100km in less than 4 hours without dying.