Cycling Coast to Coast

This past weekend, I went down to Providence on Saturday to watch my little sister play in the NCAA Div III Softball regionals, and then on Sunday, Devon, Jess and I biked back to Boston.  My sister is a pitcher for Tufts, and this is the second year that she’s gone to Regionals with the team (she’s a sophomore).  Last year, however, she tore her ACL while pitching in the NESCAC championship game (right before regionals), so she didn’t get to play during regionals.

I watched the Tufts vs. Wellesley game, which Tufts won 5-1.  They played an excellent game, scoring 3 runs in the first inning and then the remaining two off of a home run in the 6th inning.  Advancing from this game, Tufts went on to play St. Joseph’s College, whom they had lost to earlier in the tournament.  My sister was the starting pitcher, and held St. Joseph’s scoreless for 4 innings before they brought home 3 runs in the top of the 5th inning with a home run.  After that inning, the game was halted due to darkness, to continue the following morning.  Since we left Providence on Sunday morning, I didn’t get to see the end of the game, and sadly, Tufts lost, 1-3. : (

I only had a point-and-shoot with me and the lighting conditions weren’t great, so all the photos I tried to take turned out a bit blurry.  Here’s a photo of her pitching.

We had planned on hitting the road around 10am on Sunday, but we were slow and lazy about getting out of bed in the morning, so by the time we actually got started after breakfast, it was already 11:30am.  It’s about 47 miles from Providence to Boston, and it took us almost exactly 6 hours, including breaks to eat some Clif Bars, refill water, and some unplanned surprises.

This was Devon’s first ride on her new Dolce, and her first ride with clipless pedals.  She did much better than Jess and I did when we first started, and didn’t fall once.  Her bike, however, had some derailleur issues.  Soon after we started riding, it became obvious that the front derailleur needed to be adjusted, but none of us knew how.  I hope to remedy that problem soon by learning how, but unfortunately Devon spent most of the trip only being able to pedal in the biggest and smallest chainrings.  Partway through the ride, we also stopped to adjust the Jess and Devon’s saddle position to be more comfortable.

The route we took was pretty hilly.  There were a few tougher climbs that I had to push really hard to get up, but I’m proud to say that never once did I have to get off and walk my bike.  For most of the trip, it felt like we just kept climbing hills only to pedal hard on the downhill, trying to get enough momentum to propel us up the next one.  Overall though, I had a lot of fun, and at the end of the 47 miles, I felt like I could have kept going.  One of the most rewarding moments of the trip was cresting the top of a small hill on Washington Street and seeing before us a long straight downhill and the skyscrapers of downtown Boston in the distance.  I wish I’d taken a picture.

In general, I don’t think I took enough photos on the trip.  When we were riding, I was reluctant to stop for a photo-op.  When we entered Massachusetts, I wanted to stop and take a photo of the “Welcome on Massachusetts” sign, but it was on a steep climb, and I knew that if I stopped then, I wouldn’t be able to get back on my bike and keep climbing.

Some things that worked/lessons learned:

• My bike!  My bike was in great working order and fit very comfortably.  The Allez was awesome to ride, and nothing hurt or was uncomfortable.  I think I may want to adjust my cleat position slightly, but everything else was fine, including my saddle. The same couln’t be said for Devon or Jess though.  I spent $65 on a professional bike fit at Belmont Wheelworks a couple weeks ago, and I think it was well worth it.
• Eating once an hour.  After the first 20 miles, we stopped to eat a Cliff Bar roughly every 10 miles.  Usually, I don’t like to eat during exercise and food is rather unappealing right after a workout.  For cycling, it’s very different.  I thought that I would need to remind myself to eat regularly, but my body told me when it was starting to get hungry and needed fuel. So far, my favorite Clif Bar flavor is Chocolate Chip, thought anything chocolately will do.
• Staying hydrated.  I have a 3L Camelbak, and we stopped to refill water about 20 miles into the trip.  At that point, I’d already drunk about 2L, and a total of ~5L over the course of the entire trip.  It was a warm day, in the mid-high 60s, but it makes me a bit worried about running out of water on the really hot days in the desert this summer.

This Providence trip has got me really excited for this summer.  Still have 6 and a half days until I’m all done with school stuff though..

Below are some photos that I did take on the trip:

Spring has come to New England.  Flowers are blooming, and I have allergies.  I’m not sick, but I am going through a box of Kleenex as fast as if I were.

Yesterday, one of my classes was canceled because our guest lecturer couldn’t make it, so I went for a short ride on the Minuteman instead.  It felt really awesome to get out on my bike again, thought I felt a bit slower and sluggish at first.

Slowly, I’m crossing off items on my to-do list.   Only 11 days left until I’m done, and 36 days until the start of the trip.

This weekend, I’m heading down to Providence.  My little sister is pitching in the NCAA softball championships, and I’m going to go see her play at Rhode Island College on Saturday.  I’m going to take the commuter rail down, and bike back on Sunday.  It’s about a 50 mile trip, so it’ll be my longest ride yet, and my first half-century!