Fall is coming and that means enjoyable cycling temperatures are in my future.  My next Century ride is already on the books and that means training time is the current focus.  Having completed my inaugural Century ride I know much more about how to train and what is important.  Fortunately, my lessons learned with food and nutrition are all behind me now as my hydration and food intake did not create any issues.  A week’s worth of vacation time was added to my 154 mile two week period yielding a total of 7,703 miles into my virtual journey.

After four weeks of everything but riding I had a strong urge to surpass Midway Island as my next virtual waypoint….mission accomplished after an 85 mile week.  It had been since October 12th of last year since I last saw Johnston Atoll, that is probably why swimming seems a natural right now.  Roughly equidistant between North America and Asia, Midway is the only island in the Hawaiian Archipelago that is not part of the state of Hawaii. From 1941 until 1993, the atoll was the home of Naval Air Facility Midway Island, which played a crucial role in the Battle of Midway, June 4–6, 1942. In 1978, the Navy downgraded Midway from a Naval Air Station to a Naval Air Facility and large numbers of personnel and dependents began leaving the island.  The World War II facilities at Sand and Eastern Islands were listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 28, 1987, and were simultaneously added as a National Historic Landmark.  So, what’s next? Northern Mariana Island at mile 8,790. At my average pace I should be there in about 29 weeks in the middle of March of next year.  After that the vast distances of ocean will subside and shorter stops take over until I get to Cape Verde, off the African coast of Senegal and start working my way across the Pacific. I felt so good about passing a long sought after waypoint I followed up the following week with a102 miles.

Let’s see I think I just experienced the ‘Trifecta’.  A vacation followed by a brush-by hurricane, followed by a bout of sickness.  We’ll that chewed up four weeks.

You know what, it’s hot out in the early morning!  We’re at that time of the year when so many people ask: “How can you tolerate the heat and humidity?”  I just say I’ll wait six months and then ask them “How can you handle the freezing cold?”  What I do enjoy about riding in the summer mornings is the sweat and the blowing breeze as I zip along the bike path creates a natural air conditioner. Yeah, that might be stretching it a bit but it works for me.  After a week of vacation the following two weeks showed 103 miles on the Garmin to add to my total and 4.8 miles of swimming. Blub, blub.

A couple of light weeks just flew by as I logged only 66 miles….other things just seemed to get in the way.  I did notice on one of my rides that a neighbor got a new TV.  Of course I don’t know this for a fact, but the photo evidence sure says so.  Recently, visions of a mini-triathlon next April have been assembling in my head.  Of course the cycling is a no-brainer and I do have a background of running long distances so that leaves the swimming leg that turns out I do quite frequently already.  I dipped my toe in the community pool and it said to ‘come on in’.  It’s 50′ from one side to the other and my 246 laps yielded 2.3 miles.  This is enjoyable with such warm morning temperatures…I think I’ll make a few more waves in days to come.  I ended this week at 7,262 total miles with my sights still on my next virtual waypoint: Midway Island in the Pacific.

Disney has a song: “Someday my prince will come…”.  In cycling that translates to: “Someday my crash will come…”  We’ll it looks like my someday arrived.  In a description that leaves out all the obvious adjectives, a rider on the asphalt path was going slow and weaving all over the place.  I’ve seen it way too many times.  As usual I announced “Behind you on your left” as I slowed down to approach him.  He turned around a looked at me which to me meant he knew to stay to the right.  BUT, nope…right when I got beside him he swerved over right in front of me.  After pushing him to avoid hitting him I drifted into the grass on the left side of the trail with my wheel getting caught in the groove beside the asphalt to which my front wheel turned and threw me off the bike.  Good old ‘tuck and roll’ saved my aging body with only a few road rash scars. The other rider was pretty banged up to where he walked away with his bike as he couldn’t get back on.  Of course, the next day I had a few sore muscles but overall I was surprised I was in good enough shape to get back on the bike and ride another day.  This is an example of where proper clothing is a must for cyclists.  My helmet didn’t have a scratch so it didn’t seem to hit.  My gloves saved my palms as both were worn through the fabric saving my skin. My jersey came out unscathed while protecting my shoulder. I think back of the days when I used to ride in a tank top, yikes.  The bike had a couple scratches on the handle bars and peddles but you’d never know it.  We all think it will never happen to me.  Well now I can check the experience box and hope I don’t have to check it once again!

More interruptions to my riding schedule arouse during the first of the month sprinkled with some extremely windy days and few that I could ride but my mind took over and said “Not Today”. The latter half of the month saw my routine pick back up with a total of 121 miles on both the mountain and road bikes…both with new chains.  Yup, the mountain bike had about 3,000 miles on it and the handy-dandy ‘chain length’ tool in the new repair kit told me it was time for a change.  My total miles to date from the start at the Statue of Liberty of my virtual trip around the world shows 7,039 total miles.  That is about 402 miles short of my next virtual destination stop of Wake Island in the Pacific.  At the pace I’m going I should be there by August 1.  No matter which bike I select, my shinny new chains will glisten in the sunlight as I pass through the neighborhoods and see all the colorful displays.

After the Ride Rock and Brew Century Ride I took it easy for the following week with only 26.8 miles passing by.  The following week my plans were to assume the typical week’s rides until Wednesday came along.  After just starting out my chain broke on the road bike while attacking a hilly section of the ride.  So it looks like chains are good for about 3,000 plus miles then they demand to be replaced.  That goes in the Lessons Learned Column! I thought I had this one covered as my bike tool kit included a new connecting link and a multi-plier tool to conduct the repairs.  However, it appears that when I put the multi-plier tool from my kit it really was a scissors based multi-tool which doesn’t do any good when pliers are needed.  Then I realized that I truly didn’t have what I needed because the broken link wasn’t at the joining link.  This means the only way I could put a new connecting link in was to be able to remove the pins and take the two broken link pieces out.  A phone call to come and pick me up and I dropped off the road bike and took off on the mountain bike.  Research taught me that I needed the proper tool kit for chain repairs that included a pin removal tool, specially shaped pliers to open and close the connecting link, a gauge to measure how much a chain has stretched, and of course instruction.  Amazon, here I come and a new chain was soon at our doorstep.

CAAM Events put on their annual “Ride Rock and Brew” group ride and I was right there to take on the Century 100-mile ride.  While many, including myself, would look at a Century ride as a major effort there were over 35 that wanted even more of a challenge so they took on a Double Metric Century or 200 kilometers.  To me this is a long way of saying 137 miles or: YIKES!  We started west of Sanford, Florida and road out near New Smyrna Beach towards the Atlantic Coast.  I managed to stay with the Peloton for the first 15 miles then they slowly disappeared with their faster pace.  A good portion of the ride was on the Florida Coast-to-Coast Trail which means dedicated pavement and no interruptions with cars.  The rest stops were all familiar to me from previous rides, but the 50 mile turnaround point was at a kayak launch ramp into the Indian River area that parallels the Atlantic Coast.  It made for a good picture backdrop and a place to have lunch and hydrate up.  Towards the end Lake Monroe provided a backdrop of bright red birds to go with my shirt and the Orange County Brewers Tin and Taco served up ‘the best’ tacos around. We were blessed with a lot of great people to meet and ride with, very little wind, and a very enjoyable scenic route.  It was a great accomplishment, fantastic ride, and yes….I’d most certainly do it again.  My total virtual mileage around the world stands at 6,851 miles with 590 miles to go to reach Wake Island as my next virtual destination.  According to my charts, that should be around July 21st.

While on a recent ride in a setting reminiscent of Maybury RFD a very large Farmers Market takes place just as it does every week. What we’ve noticed over time is how its popularity gradually grows to where there is now a lot more than just a few booths here and there. While on a training ride on the West Orange Trail I ended in the downtown area that if it were in black and white I’d be looking for Sheriff Andy Griffith, Barney Fife, and of course Opie Taylor while expecting to smell Aunt Bee’s apple pies. But, everything was in full color as I ran across a colorful parrot ready to show his colors. My recent rides have accumulated over 160 comfortable miles as I’m keeping the body in shape for my upcoming Century ride. To date I’m at 6,649 total miles on my virtual tour around the world with my next waypoint being Wake Island in 792 miles. I wish I could actually stop and check out the history of such an important island.