Emus, airplanes, and 44 miles

Today Chelsea and I biked 44 miles! We went to the BWI Airport trail, which basically surrounds the entire airport. It's an 11-mile loop and we did it 4 times. The trail was GREAT and the ride was AWESOME! 

Loading up the bikes to drive to Baltimore.

Our bikes are AMAZING!!! This was our first time riding them other than around the parking lot a little. I seriously can't even describe how sleek and fast they are, and how much fun they are to ride. It makes a WORLD of difference from the mountain bike I ride around to class. Actually, I've been getting frustrated while riding to class lately, because I feel like putting in so much effort but still going really slow. I get passed by other bikers a lot, and I think to myself, hey, I'm the one biking across the country.. I shouldn't be getting passed. But now I understand that a road bike seriously makes an enormous difference. For the first few miles it was kind of scary - the bike felt really thin and light, and was totally responsive to the slightest movement. Of course, these are super good things, I just had to get used to them. I also had to get used to the riding stance (hunched over) which is different than what I'm used to with my regular bike.

The trail was beautiful! It was all paved and had some mild hills, but nothing too crazy. The weather was beautiful - about 55 degrees and sunny -- definitely the nicest day of the year so far, and there were a ton of other cyclists, runners, and walkers out. A lot of families with little kids too, a couple of which we almost ran over once or twice. We took about 4 hours to do the ride, with a 15-minute lunch break and two 5-minute water breaks in the middle. That's pretty slow, but a lot of times we had to be cautious of pedestrians, wait to cross streets, etc, and we were also still getting the hang of our bikes. We got progressively faster over the course of the ride, except for our last lap which was a little slower because we were definitely getting tired.

Us with our bikes on an overpass :) I believe that's the B/W parkway.

Chelsea gazing victoriously at her kingdom (BWI airport)

We also made a new friend! 20 miles in, a guy we had passed going the opposite direction a couple of times asked to join us and we did the last ~20 miles together. His name was Nick and he was a really good cyclist, and was super nice and friendly. We told him about the 4K and he was super supportive. He taught us a bunch of tips and tricks that would probably have taken us quite a while to figure out on our own. For example, one tip is that when you are going through a turn, put the inside knee up; if it's down, and the turn is steep enough, you can actually contact the ground and wipe out, so it's just a good habit to get into. He also gave us tips on shifting and told us about some other nice bike trails we can try. We were also way too slow for him.. so it was nice that he stayed with us! P.S. He told us we "looked the part" of serious cyclists with our awesome bikes and gear, so we considered that a major success ;)

A couple of interesting things we learned:
- There is an emu that lives on a farm on the side of the path, that paces back and forth along the fence between the hours of 3:00 and 5:00 pm every day... seriously.

Emu casually pacing next to bike trail.

- We get HUNGRY. Two PB&J sandwiches were barely enough to hold us over.

Pit stop. PB&J for the win!

- Biking outside is easier than spin class or biking on the stationary bike... because of downhills!
- Getting a new seat is necessary.... ow. The mega padding in cycling shorts is kind of embarrassing because it kinda looks like a diaper.. BUT it's 100% necessary. And I still definitely need a new seat. Luckily Andrew's parents ordered me a hand-made seat that has 4.5-star reviews and is specifically made for women. Super thankful, and excited to get that!!
- I need cycling glasses... glasses are 100% necessary not just for sun but also for wind and bugs (yeah I ate my first bug today). Today I wore my regular sunglasses but I may have looked slightly ridiculous biking in Coach aviators.
- A hobby exists that consists of photographing airplanes as they land.... there were 8-10 people waiting with fancy cameras and tripods set up that would photograph airplanes as they came in for landings. These people were there for hours!

We tried our hand at said hobby but decided to stick to biking.

- Little kids don't understand "on your left" and will probably just run directly into the path of your bike no matter what

As we were collapsing next to Chelsea's car after finishing the 44 miles, an ice cream truck coincidentally pulled into the parking lot. It was an amazing stroke of luck. We ran with reckless abandon to the ice cream truck and got the best ice cream of our lives. A man sitting nearby had the nerve to say "It's a little cold for ice cream, isn't it?" Yeah... not when you just biked 45 miles.

Post-ride treat :)

The best part about the day was that we were really having FUN the entire time. It was seriously enjoyable to cruise along on our bikes, and I enjoyed "feeling the burn" when it got tough. I think it's safe to say I'm extremely excited to be able to do this every day this summer :)

Training otherwise: Has been going very well! I've been sticking to my plan and was thrilled to actually see results today while biking. We were pretty proud of the fact that we were able to do 44 miles with pretty much no problem.. I don't think we would've been able to do that one month ago. We are on track to do at least an 80-miler before we leave. Also, the training game is fun and is keeping everyone motivated. Unfortunately, being off of Facebook until Easter, I am missing the updates in our 4K Portland Facebook group about who is winning! I rely on Chelsea to keep me updated. Last I heard, Team Dan (which Chelsea and I are on) was losing to Team Andrew by ~300 points, but Chelsea and I each racked up 142 today, so we are hoping we may have been able to pull Team Dan into the lead!!

Fundraising: Current total is $5413!! Thank you everyone who donated in the past week :) I'm behind on my thank you emails but will catch up with those tomorrow!

Leg Leader updates: Sometime in the middle of this week I stopped what I was doing on the computer and realized the irony of the tabs I had open. For example:

Casual email

Normal

Indeed, in the past week Chelsea and I have begun our Leg Leader duties and have started planning the route from Chicago to Jackson Hole! It is going to be a lot of work but it's really exciting. I'm really happy to have this leadership role, as it's been probably 3 years since I've had a super exciting thing to plan. Having this diversion from school is also great. I love being able to divert my attention to something 100% non-bioengineering related. It keeps me from going crazy and getting overwhelmed by school. I get really excited about route planning and all the possibilities, and it's going to be a ton of fun, albeit also a ton of work.

Chelsea and I began by reading the 2011 Portland Ride Summary, which is a google doc that documents where they stayed, amenities they had available, and how each ride and overnight stay went. This was extremely helpful because it tells us what we should keep and what we should change from their route. For example, they went through a town in Wyoming that had a population of 5. They noted that there are no amenities and the people have had bad experiences with cyclists, and that the 4K is not welcome back in this town anymore. So, we will be routing through this town when we get to this area. We also talked to Dan (ride director) about potential larger changes to the route. For example, we want to get to Arches National Park in Utah, as well as Cedar Point. We also need to figure out the start and end dates of our leg so that we can plan specific dates and begin calling potential hosts. 

The 2011 Portland ride summary contains daily summaries..... such as this

Chelsea and I are in charge of Chicago, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado (just a little corner - we go into Denver and then north), and Wyoming -- a span of approximately 23 days. From what we've heard so far, the roads in Iowa are terrible and we need to find a better route - but there are very few options in Iowa. Last year's route through Nebraska was great and we will be copying most of that, but we need to be wary of keeping daily mileage below 100 as much as possible due to the heat. Their route through Wyoming is also good and hosts were great, but the elevation gets tricky and changes may be seen in riders' health. We will probably not reroute through Utah but will plan a rest day in Colorado and will take a day trip to Arches National Park by car. By my next blog post, I should have a rough route to post here :)

Also, on Friday, all of the UMD 4K riders (from all 4 rides) as well as a few alumni gathered for dinner at Jason's Deli. It was great to meet fellow riders.. there are actually about 14 of us from UMD! We also got to talk to one of the Leg 2 leaders from last year's Portland ride which was extremely helpful... he gave us some very useful tips.

Well, that's all for now! One week from now is Spring Break, and I am going to Chicago with Alternative Breaks and will not have access to a gym, so I will need to get creative in my training. More on that later. Thanks for reading and for the support, and have a fabulous week!!!

XOXO,
Mary