Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Blythe, California to Wickenburg, Arizona

Wow! I have never been so tired in my life! It is a "good tired" feeling, not a "bad tired" feeling. Still, tired is tired. The challenge today, on top of yesterday, was basically at the level of my maximal physical ability. Today was really at my limit.

I guess that, if you are going to have two consecutive century bike rides, you might as well have it in the Mojave Desert! Makes sense to me! Yesterday was 101 miles and today was 115.

We left Blythe, California, this morning. At only 5.7 miles out, we crossed our first state line. I did indeed live to make it to Arizona! My anxiety level skyrocketed with the crossing of that state line however. I do have my Wisconsin Drivers' License, but no Passport. What if the Arizona border patrol stops me?

The weather was kind to us. It was hot, but not unbearably so. I wore my new long sleeve bright yellow jersey (thanks again, Marsha!) which really helped with sun and heat protection. The long and bright sleeves are nice arm coolers in the desert.

The scenery was similar to yesterday initially. As we climbed to the higher altitude desert however, we saw the larger Saguaro cacti. That was neat. Still, the basic view is desert on both sides of the road, leading to impressive mountains.

We had our first SAG at 40 miles out, in Brenda, Arizona. I arrived there early, drank some extra Gatorade, and left feeling really strong. For 10 more miles after that point, I was riding alone, with the wind, feeling great, and averaging 20 mph. At roughly mile 50, the road surface became miserable and the wind changed to a disturbing left sided crosswind. It became hotter by the minute, and I became totally drained of all physical and psychological energy. By mile 55 out of Blythe, I was reconsidering my entire life. A fellow rider mercifully showed up. He gave me the courage to make it to the next SAG. That was at Wendon, Arizona, at mile 66. After that, I got my proverbial "second wind". I made it to Wickenburg at 4:05 PM.

During this day, I have drunk enough Gatorade and water to probably kill a young child.

I am now clean. My Camelback and water bottles are clean. My bike is clean and the chain is nicely oiled. I want to pretend that I am ready for tomorrow. That is actually a joke. I will never be ready for tomorrow, as it is a short mileage day with huge climbs.

Whatever.

Parenthetically, I am learning now so much about autoregulation. I was taught about that in med school, but I am now experiencing it firsthand. On the road, all of us are able to shunt blood to our leg muscles preferentially, while shunting it away from less important body parts. The brain seems to be on that list of unimportant parts. I have probably 99% of my cardiac output going to my legs, with 1% going to the brain stem. Higher cortical functions are shut down. This actually leads to scenes which an observer might find amusing.

As an example, we pulled into SAG #3 at89.6 miles. One of the riders has a bike computer which is reading a bit low. He had riden the 89.6 miles, but his computer listed his distance as 88.4 miles. He was trying to figure out if there might be a number, one that he could add to what his computer showed, in order to have the true mileage.

He couldn't do it, and none of us could help him. One of the riders said that it could be done, but you would need to use "math". I actually said that you use "subtraction", but that only made everyone stare at me. I admitted that I would never do subtraction with numbers that large.

On a separate note, I now learn that Andrea's little one is a girl! (Thanks, Kelly) Congratulations Andrea!

2 comments:

  1. Hello!!! I am sorry I didn't get a message out to your earlier. Turns out..I am lucky if I get my teeth brushed or a shower in by 5pm:) It's so worth it though! So, as you heard (thank you Kelly) we did indeed have a girl. Just as Marsha predicted! Adeline Jean was born May 6th at 3:28 pm...6# 3 0z and 20 inches long. We are just crazy about her! It's great to get to read up on your trip right now. I just can't imagine doing what you are doing...so I am happy I have the blog to live vicariously through you. Best of luck with today....in a few hours you will be done with it;) Take care! And thank you so much for thinking of us.

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  2. Hello again,
    As I read your blog today I again found myself LOL ing and I love it!!!! It just sounds like you are having the time of your life and I am so happy for you! I actually am able to have some awesome visuals of you out there thanks to your wonderful use of adjectives ( ; well I can't wait to see what you say tomorrow, ride on! Pat says hi, and she hopes your legs dont fall off however, if they do, she knows of an excellent surgeon in Aspen, hahahahaha

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