My First Triathlon Training Road Trip
At one point, my journey to reach my goal of completing an Olympic Distance triathlon transitioned from just common book knowledge to applying everything I learned about triathlons to developing and maintaining a daily training routine. Although, I pretty much rode my bike every day, at first my strategy was very haphazard. It may be that the casual intro to triathlon training is what helped it to remain fun enough for me to be so dedicated to it.
My first long bike ride.
Whenever I had spare time during the day, I would ride my mountain bike hoping that it would make my legs stronger. I remember my first long ride. One relatively warm summer night, I decided I should do a 60+ mile bike ride. I rode past cornfield after cornfield. I remember it was summer because in between two fields of corn I noticed that there was a little league baseball (or softball) game with really bright lights--right there in the middle of nearly complete darkness in farm country.
I planned the trip with a state map created by the Department of Natural Resources. I got the map from my local bike shop. Little did I know, though, that many of the county roads on the map were actually dirt roads. The roadmap was very outdated, and the map's roads could have been labeled a little better. Some of the county roads were dirt roads--good thing I didn't take my road bike. Every few miles or so, I would stop and pull out the map and try to figure out how to not have to ride my bike by a house where I could hear dogs barking or not have to ride on a dirt road.
What I should have done...
This was my first long ride and looking back, I probably should have put a little more thought into planning that ride. I should have mapped out the route well beforehand. This was back before the time of smartphones. I would have had to buy a GPS unit to get better real-time directions.
I probably should have also put a little more effort into inspecting my bike. The bike had a problem with the rear cassette. Some of the gears weren't working correctly; no matter how much I would have wanted to I couldn't go from a standstill to a sprint without there being a problem with the gearing.
So, with the old map from the DNR, I continued to ride into the unknown. I did not end up getting to my destination. I remember getting about 20-30 miles from my starting place, and it was about 2:30 in the morning. I had not gotten as far as I would have liked, and I realized that maybe this had not been the best idea. I hadn't even reached my planned destination; I still was still about 10 miles away from it. Feeling lost and tired I decided to pull out my DNR map and starting planning my way back home.
I remember it was 7:00 am and I was feeling exhausted. I was about 3 or 4 miles from home. I was riding pretty fast; as fast as could be expected seeing how it was that my bike had nobby tires which limited how fast I could go. I remember being so tired that I was dozing off on the way back. Every once in a while in the last 5-mile stretch, I would slowly drift to one side and really have to struggle to keep my eyes open even though I had probably been riding at 15 mph.
So what did I learn on that trip!?
My first long bike ride.
Whenever I had spare time during the day, I would ride my mountain bike hoping that it would make my legs stronger. I remember my first long ride. One relatively warm summer night, I decided I should do a 60+ mile bike ride. I rode past cornfield after cornfield. I remember it was summer because in between two fields of corn I noticed that there was a little league baseball (or softball) game with really bright lights--right there in the middle of nearly complete darkness in farm country.
I planned the trip with a state map created by the Department of Natural Resources. I got the map from my local bike shop. Little did I know, though, that many of the county roads on the map were actually dirt roads. The roadmap was very outdated, and the map's roads could have been labeled a little better. Some of the county roads were dirt roads--good thing I didn't take my road bike. Every few miles or so, I would stop and pull out the map and try to figure out how to not have to ride my bike by a house where I could hear dogs barking or not have to ride on a dirt road.
What I should have done...
This was my first long ride and looking back, I probably should have put a little more thought into planning that ride. I should have mapped out the route well beforehand. This was back before the time of smartphones. I would have had to buy a GPS unit to get better real-time directions.
I probably should have also put a little more effort into inspecting my bike. The bike had a problem with the rear cassette. Some of the gears weren't working correctly; no matter how much I would have wanted to I couldn't go from a standstill to a sprint without there being a problem with the gearing.
So, with the old map from the DNR, I continued to ride into the unknown. I did not end up getting to my destination. I remember getting about 20-30 miles from my starting place, and it was about 2:30 in the morning. I had not gotten as far as I would have liked, and I realized that maybe this had not been the best idea. I hadn't even reached my planned destination; I still was still about 10 miles away from it. Feeling lost and tired I decided to pull out my DNR map and starting planning my way back home.
I remember it was 7:00 am and I was feeling exhausted. I was about 3 or 4 miles from home. I was riding pretty fast; as fast as could be expected seeing how it was that my bike had nobby tires which limited how fast I could go. I remember being so tired that I was dozing off on the way back. Every once in a while in the last 5-mile stretch, I would slowly drift to one side and really have to struggle to keep my eyes open even though I had probably been riding at 15 mph.
So what did I learn on that trip!?
- I learned that fresh-cream-corn-on-the-stove smell you smell when riding in corn country on a hot summer night is probably not someone cooking sweet corn on the stove with the kitchen window open--it is actually the smell of corn coming from the cornfields.
- I learned that before embarking on long rides alone, it makes sense to ride in familiar places.
- I learned that old maps from the DNR might not be very up-to-date, and it might also be challenging to distinguish dirt roads from paved roads from them.
- I learned that is probably pretty easy to fall asleep when trying to complete an overnight ride that is longer than just a few hours if you usually sleep at night.
- I learned that it is probably a good idea to not ride at night by yourself.