Sunday, December 13, 2015

Day 27 - Dec 11

Today was a day that will live in infamy.

I started the day with a choice.  Do I ride the bike in illness or ride the bus?  It certainly was the choice that is faced many times in life.  A choice of the lesser of two evils.  To spend agony in riding the bus through weaving, pot hole strewn roads and swaying side to side, to and fro?  Or strap myself on the seat of my bike and pedal my merry way through the throws of illness plaguing the group?

I chose the lesser of two evils, riding the bike...

It was a day which started out with a monstrous 20 kilometer climb.  The first 10k was the worst with steep grades and the second was of lesser torture.  I believed that if I could manage the first 20k, very specifically the first 10k, I could do the day.  
Did I mention that it was a 105 kilometer ride with 3,100 meters of climbing?  As I said, it was a tough day.  I started the climbing for the day and quickly discovered that I was not going to have a great deal of cooperation.  My legs felt like iron weights, my bike quickly threw the chain in defiance and the road reared up in daunting elevation almost from the start.  But on I endeavored.  I was passed by one rider after another until it was only I and the sweep rider.  That is an occurrence that never has happened on this trip.  I cranked and I cranked kilometer after kilometer and hour after hour.  I finally reached the top of the 20k climb with an average speed of 7 kph.  Yes, at one point there was a snail who called out:  passing on your left!
But that was all I could do.  Once upon the top I rejoiced:  only 85 kilometers to go!  Then I did the math.  OMG, I'm going to be out here all day until it's dark.    So I decided that it was better to ramp up the speed and give it all I had for as long as I could rather than slug it out like I had been.  I shifted gears, literally and figuratively, and began the pace to the lunch stop.  I stopped three times to slug down a coke, I know that it was not the brightest of ideas, but I needed something to gain momentum on the day.  It did work to a degree.  I slugged it out til I pulled into the lunch stop.  I literally let the bike fall where it may, stumbled to a chair and said... for the love of god I made it.  I sat there in a stupor for a good while trying to whip up the courage to eat.  But eat something I could not.  
So off I pedaled to tackle the last 55k.  I pulled into the first coke stop I saw and guzzled a cold beverage.  I astonished the poor locals.  As soon as I put the coke in, it roused a serious rebellion and mustered a mass exodus of anything I had partaken of.  It was something akin to the exorcist.  But I looked upon it in a more positive light.  Heck there was that much less weight to carry along and up the hills!
A group of riders had stopped at a coffee shop a good ways down the road.  I needed a break and was feeling a bit more settled by then and decided a bit of fuel was required since the tank was certainly empty.  A bit of cake and a coke was just what I needed to get me going again.  Or at least to get me 10 more K.  I stopped at the top of a long climb for a bit of water.  Then the pesky stomach rebels posted another mass exodus all over the side of the road.  But as you guessed, that just meant that I was lighter and it was going to be less weight to propel the last 35k.
Once again I did the math and came to the conclusion that I was going to be out there for three plus hours or more.  I knew there was no way I could last that long on the sun drenched torture highway.  So I decided that if I went for maximum effort, I could double the speed.  And that was what I did.  I squeezed every ounce of speed out of the downhills and maximized all momentum to eat up as much of the coming hills.  I cranked as hard as I could and pedaled as if my life depended upon it.  And I did it!  I finished the day in a little over an hour.  I walked into my room and collapsed on the bed.  It was an accomplishment that I have written lightly about here.  But that is because I am looking back upon it.  At the time it was certainly up there with the worst days on memory.
Some pictures that I took so that I could stop and get off the wretched bike:

A waterfall on the 20k climb.

The top of a volcano sticking above the clouds.

The lake as viewed from the climb.


4 comments:

  1. Bravo and then bravo again! From now on, if ever I feel like something is too difficult for me, I will channel my inner Mike to find the true grit to keep going. I am in awe. Debra

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am signing you up for the TV show "Survivor", you are a perfect fit AND you have a chance to win $1 million. I absolutely don't know how you do it.

    You missed your calling...you should have been an Army Ranger or a Seal Team agent.

    How do you EVEN do it????
    Luv pam and dan

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am signing you up for the TV show "Survivor", you are a perfect fit AND you have a chance to win $1 million. I absolutely don't know how you do it.

    You missed your calling...you should have been an Army Ranger or a Seal Team agent.

    How do you EVEN do it????
    Luv pam and dan

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mike, Kudos to you for having the fortitude to ride ill. I said we were in awe and we are even more so now. As a weight reduction method, I recommend spending money on the bike, not emptying you gut. Good thinking though! Scott.

    ReplyDelete