Day Six - Rest Day

No ride for the crew today, instead Tuesday offers a chance to sleep in, catch up on laundry, alleviate soreness, and possibly find a breakfast that doesn’t include standard hotel waffles.  Every year CBS Sports spends time with the Brigade of Midshipmen documenting a day in the life of your typical football player.  We lived the experience, but this tends to blow the minds of the football personalities who grew up with different obligations.  With that in mind….

A typical day for a G2G Cyclist (experience may vary):

0600:  Alarm goes off

0601-0629:  Wake up, try not to hit snooze button, brush teeth, question life decisions, check on football score from last night in game I was too tired to stay up to watch.

0630:  Coffee

0620:  Pour second cup, it’s job is to figure out why the first cup failed to accomplish its mission.

0715:  Breakfast.  Usually consists of hotel waffles, peanut butter, maybe some fruit (subject to availability), cereal, pretty much anything with carbs and calories.  Breakfast boredom--the struggle is real.

0745:  Kit up and get up.  Dress for ride, swear at yourself for forgetting to lay out socks the night before.  Dig through mostly-packed suitcase for socks.  Re-pack now-unpacked suitcase again for the final time.  Apply lots of Chamois Butter (why?  don’t ask, just look it up, how?  this can get kind of personal), sunscreen, and load out pockets with gels, and bike pumps, camera, phone, etc.  Set up bike sensors, fill water bottles and cage them on bike.

0800:  Bag drag.

0801:  Man, this elevator is painfully slow.

0802:  Still waiting on the elevator.

0803:  Take the stairs because the challenge of carrying a bike down two flights of stairs in cleated cycling shoes adds a little excitement to the morning and it’s faster than the elevator.

0810:  Figure out how to load Garmin or just ask someone for technical assistance.

0815:  Group photo, recap route, any questions?

NLT 0830:  Commence ride.  Time to be awesome.

0900:  Consume first gel/gu of the ride.  Keep energy levels constant, drink water as chaser.

0925:  Fifteen miles into a 65-mile ride….whoo hoo!  Almost a quarter of the way.  Baby steps.

0945ish:  First water stop.  Don’t eat too much, just a light snack to keep the hungries at bay.  Don’t linger too long, legs will need a while to re-awaken once back on the bike.

1015:  You lingered too long and now your legs are unhappy.  Give them a few minutes, they’ll come around.

1130ish:  Lunch, usually around the half-way point on the day’s route.  Stop, pause Garmin, wash hands, bathroom break (not necessarily in that order).  Recharge water bottles, apply more sunscreen.  Eat PBJ or ham/turkey sandwich.  “No one will ever starve as long as there’s PBJ.”  

1140:  Recap ride beginning with roadkill bingo:  “Did you see that armadillo roadkill?”  “Which one?”

1145:  Add more Chamois Butter.

1200:  The longer you hang around, the harder it becomes to get back on the bike.  

1220:  Get back on the bike.  Un-pause Garmin.

1221:  Stop bike, remove cleat covers, NOW get back on bike.  Garmin laughs at you.

1315ish:  Water stop (may not happen if ride distance is less than 60 miles).  More water, light snacks.  We’re almost there, don’t linger too long.  Back on the road with minimal delay.

1400:  Rain.  Awesome, this cools us off, I love how this sucks.  

1408:  Okay, now it just sucks.  Rain in my shoes.  I’m chewing on road grit.  Negotiation begins.  Two miles to next turn, you got this.  3.1 miles to finish.  That’s a 5K.  That’s only five-thousand meters.  That’s easy.  I’m going 15 miles per hour, that’s four minutes per mile so twelve—now eleven—minutes remaining.  There are nine power poles per mile so that’s 27 power poles to the hotel.  OOOH!  Watch out for that armadillo. 

1410:  What’s a seven-letter word for inconsiderate motorist that starts with a vowel?

1420:  The turn into the hotel is ahead, is it on the right side or left side of the road?  I can’t tell.  

1428:  There are the cones, and there’s the rolling SAG, this is the place.

1430:  Ride complete.  Beer me.  Man, my sit bones are tired.  Good ride, let’s do it again.

1445:  Beer in hand, check over bike.  How do my tires look?  What did I decide needed attention back at mile 22?

1530:  The gang’s all here, happy hour in progress in the hotel parking lot.  Who knew beer and chocolate milk went so well together?  

1600:  Bags are in the lobby.  Two trips between luggage and bikes.  Nice enough room, but where do we put our bikes while maintaining a clear path to the bathroom.

1601:  Locate working electrical outlets (this is more difficult than you might imagine), plug in Garmin, tail light, and any other sensors that need juice.

1605:  COMMEX greatest hot shower since yesterday’s greatest hot shower.

1620:  FINEX hot shower.  

1630:  Download pictures, begin sort and edit process, hopefully upload and complete blog entry before dinner.

1730:  Route meeting for tomorrow’s ride.  What went well today?  What feedback do we have?

1800:  Dinner

2000:  Return to hotel.  Lay out clothes, don’t forget the socks this time (but likely misplace cycling gloves).  

2100:  Lights out, time to slee………..zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.  

Life on the road is awesome.  Tune in tomorrow for more G2G Adventures.  Bring on Week 2!  Go NAVY!