Day 6: Friday, 9/14/07

What’s Really Going On

Today was another spectacular day in my life and in the life of our 13 person team. We journeyed 161 miles from Durango, CO to Alamosa, CO through Pagosa Springs, Wolf Creek Pass, The Continental Divide (10,857 feet high, our highest), South Fork, Del Norte, Monte Vista and Homelake. We did 7,890 feet of climbing today, but more significant, was that we did 3,000 feet of this climbing in an 8 mile stretch in 82 degree heat. The Bucknell Team of Walt, Kyle, Jay and me did this entire climb while averaging over 6 MPH on this climb! As I tell the team, “We were burning hot.” I averaged 90% of my max heart rate (144 beats per minute, with a max heart rate of 160 beats per minute) for the time on the climb.

I have primarily given readers all the “facts” of our bike accomplishments in my blog. I thought you might like to know what is going on in our heads, bodies and spirits right now.

Let’s start with our heads. Most of our 10 person fulltime team lives near sea level. We biked to 10,857 feet today, and are now sleeping at 7,580 feet in Alamosa. We all have headaches, and have had them for most of the day. Although it only got to 82 degrees today, the sun shined brightly all day. We had very little appetite today, and tonight.

We left our hotel in Durango at 7:30 am this morning. We did not bike into our hotel parking lot in Alamosa until 6:30 pm tonight. That’s 11 hours in the sun today (and the same has occurred the prior 5 days). Being in the sun this long tires us and gives us headaches.

Our bodies. The continental breakfast’s have not been very good at any of our hotels. The Bucknell team has not stopped for lunch yet. We eat trail mix and power bars for lunch (we do not have to stop for lunch, and we seldom have choices for lunch given our remote locations). This has cause digestive problems for most of us. We have eaten dinner together as a team every night, and this meal is what is sustaining us.

My back is sore, and my legs are very tired. I have biked 45-50 miles every Saturday for 12 years with my Silverback Bike Riding group. I have never biked 50 miles per day for 6 days. I think my legs are getting stronger, but they are still tired.

My wrists, elbows and shoulders start hurting after about 2 hours of riding. I use my aero bars to relieve pressure on my wrists and elbows. When I do, I have to lean much more forward on the bike. This creates pressure in my lower back, and then back pain. Sara pointed out to me yesterday that I have not been stretching enough after riding. I stretched more after riding the last two days, and my back feels a little better. I used Motrin last night, and my back hurt less this morning.

My legs are sore. I mean everywhere. From my rear end all the way to my feet. The 109 degree temperatures in the desert made my feet feel horrible. My socks got real wet, and they never dry out. I don’t think my bike shorts ever dry out either. I wear a heart monitor everyday to try to pace myself, and I have a rash under the plastic of the monitor (near my heart).

By the time we get back from dinner, it is usually 10:30 pm. This is when we work on our blogs. Jake and Jess (our multi-media professionals) are working on video and still pictures every second we are not in the van. Jake has not been to bed before 2 am since 9/7. We all get up at 6 am. It is now 11:30 pm, and I have to wash my biking cloths in the sink for tomorrow. I also have to back up my still digital pictures onto a storage devices before I go to bed. None of our hotel rooms have enough wall sockets. I need one each for my 1) notebook computer, 2) cell phone, 3) video storage unit, 4) battery charger, and 5) short wave radios. I have averaged 3 wall sockets per hotel room. Otherwise, I have to unplug the alarm clock or the lights in the room.

Bruce Lederman (the Penn team captain) woke up this morning with no voice. Jess drove him directly to Alamosa this morning so he could rest today. He still could barely talk at dinner tonight, so his recovery is an unknown. We had not replaced Keith Moore several weeks ago when he fractured his clavicle in a bike race. When Bruce and I decided not to replace Keith, we knew we had less margin for error if someone else got injured or sick. Well, we are there. Stay tuned.

Our spirits! Our spirits could not be higher. And, I mean all of us! We are all excited about what we are going, and feel very fortunate to have this opportunity to see unique rural areas of the U.S., while raising money for a very special purpose: financial aid to qualified students of Bucknell and Penn.

We also are excited to have each other. Read Pat and Kyle’s blogs about our life in the van. We cover many things – families, friends, our unique opportunity, drinking on college campus’, music, history of Bucknell, women, careers, children, adversity, classes at Bucknell, intermurals at Bucknell, varsity sports, politics, Iraq, use of the military, 1st Amendment, study abroad at Bucknell, future of Bucknell, patience, delayed gratification, leadership, value of education, poverty in America, etc. Call it male bonding. We have it and we love it!

We are indeed thankful for what we have. And, we are indeed grateful for what our fellow alumni and friends of Bucknell and us have done in only six days: over $900,000 in gifts and pledges for scholarship at Bucknell! What an accomplishment by you!! We thank you!!