A Most Unusual Day

Today is my birthday and I officially turned the page into the Septuagenarian phase of life.  That's right, I turned 70 today.  

Months ago, I started getting a wild hair idea.  As I mentioned back in 2019, in my right sidebar's About Me box, it has included the term "roadie cyclist" for as long as I can recall.  Cycling used to be one of the main activities Mrs. Graybeard and I engaged in; our main exercise/outdoor hobby.  After I started the blog, we went into a phase of riding less often, less distance, and eventually stopped riding altogether.  I'm not sure when we stopped but I made a reference to riding in late 2010 and some other posts into late 2011 make me think we were riding then.  I started riding by myself again in 2018.  

Back around late August, early September, I started getting a wild hair to do one of those things we did in the '90s and '00s.  For our birthdays, we'd ride our age.  While I was riding three days a week in the range of 13 to 14 miles/ride, I got the wild hair to ride 70 miles today. Because we had ridden the local (-ish) club's century ride every year for a decade (100 miles, not km), I had a pretty good idea of how to add miles, and the experience that told me that if you can ride your one day ride's mileage in a week, you'll probably be able to finish your goal ride.  Starting in September, I set a goal to increase my weekly mileage by 3% every week which would get me to 70/week by the first of the year. 

My bike - a 2005 Airborne titanium bike.  There's a bit of a story behind it, at that link up at the top.

Things were going along pretty smoothly until the start of the cool months, when we started getting weeks of really unpleasant weather to ride in, alternating with better weather.  Not "cold" - we've been nowhere near any extreme cold - just either rainy, very windy, or both.  My mileage ridden in December was five miles less than October, and about 70 miles less than November. 

There's a ton of small stories in here, but I'll spare you.  The bottom line is today was the day, the weather was probably the best we've had since November, but I didn't make the 70.  On top of that, it was because of things I should have done automatically - without having to think or plan - and probably would have if it hadn't been nearly 20 years since the last time I did a long ride like this.  

I messed up my hydration and electrolyte balance.  The old rule of thumb about drinking was "drink before you're thirsty" and I didn't obey that.  On top of that, I had nothing like those sports drinks - you know, the ones that are horribly sugar-laden and they dump some table salt into them.  That's not fair.  They put in more than just table salt.  At around mile 62, as I was planning how to get the last 8 miles, I decided to stop for another drink at a gas station/convenience store and had to step off the bike.  I couldn't do it.  I got a horrible leg cramp as I went to pull my leg over the bike.  And then I couldn't pedal because of the cramp.  I eventually called Mrs. Graybeard to come drive me the last 2-1/2 miles home. (Yeah, getting the full eight miles I needed would have been a different route.) 

So that's how I spent my birthday.  As well as much of the last five months.