Riding Day 6 - Ryan
Posted by ajmoreland | Filed under Uncategorized
I definitely received mixed reports concerning the expected geography of today’s ride. Some people said to expect the first 4 miles to be difficult. Others said there were approximately 10 miles before the final decline down the remainder of the Shenandoah National Park road. According to my calculations, there were a solid 20 miles of up hills and down hills before the final decent that I had Oh-so-much been looking forward to!
Just for the record, I have been super stoked with the ability of my muscles to keep pedaling. With all of the pain I was having in both my Achilles tendons, I had to pedal all day using my heels to push down on the pedals. This basically isolated my quadriceps as primary muscles and completely removed my calves and hamstrings from the process. And even on days like today when I wasn’t completely sure how I felt about riding my bike for 6 hours, I would somehow become extremely motivated and find myself cranking through each gear with pure pleasure on every rotation.
I know I’ve already said it once before, but I have to say it again, It is obvious to me that there is a lot more at work this week than 150 riders making a long journey. For me, I have felt that Robert Lamar Goss’ dog tags have kept me pedaling hard, day in and day out. The jingle jangle of the two tags around my neck had the effect of Robert himself riding next to me, cheering me on farther and faster with each mile completed. The greatest statistic that stuck with me today was that I reached 49.7 mph coming down the mountain. I was straight cruising! Robert must have cleared the stones from my path because I had a nice and smooth ride the whole way. Unfortunately, another rider took a spill and had to make a trip (c-collar, head bed, and backboard included) for stitches to the local hospital.