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D-Tour 2007: Glendale, AZ to Del Rio, TX

Day 10, 11, 12: Flats, Fatigue, Finish Line – Oh Yeah!

Ok, sorry for not posting in the last few days, however we had no internet connection, no cell phone service, and even no TV for one of the hotels – which wasn’t a bad thing.

Day 10: Slept In

So, after my ordeal with the hail storm and Texas farm hands, I had a hard time getting to sleep early enough to get started at my usual 5-6am start time. So I slept in. I ‘thought’ it would be no big deal because I had a short 50 plus mile day. I got up around 8am and took Zander for a morning walk. We saw all the damage from the hail storm and Zander found a swing set on the camp ground we were staying at (we had a ‘cabin’ which was advertised as a luxury suite but turned out to be a cramped hotel room with a concrete floor shower.) Zander enjoyed the swing and I enjoyed the time I spent with him. Later I helped Stephanie pack the car and sent her up to the McDonald Observatory for the 11am tour as I finally hit the road. The elevation on the map showed a mostly downhill day. It seemed like a lot of rolling hills, a lot of climbing, and a few fun downhills. I actually enjoy the rolling hills more than the flat days, but it slows me down a bit.

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D-Tour 2007: Glendale, AZ to Del Rio, TX myThoughts

OK — that’s better…

It felt like I couldn’t get on the road for anything the other day. I had a flat tire Wednesday morning that I didn’t discover until after I had suited up for a bike ride, packed my work gear into my pannier, and headed out to the garage. I drove the car to work that morning but not until after I fixed the flat. That night I was determined to ride the bike for at least a few miles. I grabbed Zander, put him in the baby bike stroller and hit the road. After I got a couple of miles from the house – the wind picked up – going in the ‘other’ direction and the bike stroller acted like a big parachute. I only got about 7 miles like that.

So I brought the bike in the house, put it on the bike trainer and rode another 5 miles. The next morning I rode the entire 19 miles to work AND I took the long way home for another 21 miles. Now that’s more like it! After this week on the cruise (whaaaoooo!!!!) I only have three weekends left before my 1000 mile bike ride. One of those weekends, my Columbus friends are headed to Vegas which is only a five hour drive — I really want to head that way but that would take another weekend out of my training time. We’ll see — in either case, I have a lot of riding to do between now and May 26th.

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D-Tour 2007: Glendale, AZ to Del Rio, TX

What is going on here?

I rode for 26 miles on Friday and then for 30 on Saturday. I intended to ride on Sunday but with church and family functions I never got out there. Monday I wasn’t feeling well and I was actually going to call off work, but I had just too much to get done before my vacation starting this weekend, so I worked from home: translation – no bike ride. Yesterday I had to go to another building several miles from my normal work place, so riding the bike was out of the question. So, although I had intended to ride my bike for four days this week with at least 20 miles a day – I haven’t been on the bike yet. So today was going to be different. I went to bed early last night, I got up on time to ride the entire way to work without having to catch the bus, I got dressed and headed to the garage to get on the bike… WAIT FOR IT…. That’s right – I have a flat tire. Arrgghhhh!!!!

If I’m going to ride 1000 miles in less than six weeks, I need all the training I can get!