6 Days of riding !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello folks, I know it's been a while, but let's just say I've been busy riding a bit.

I've never done so many hills in my life! Ironically, I tend to make it to lunch and the host site in the lead group. Guess I still learned a thing or two from racing Purdue and Ohio.

Three highlights from the trip:

Highlight 1: Granby --> Kent

There has been a huge heat wave through the east coast, so the first few days of riding were brutally hot. The riders would talk about how many camelbaks of water they went through throughout the day. There was one incredibly long hill we climbed during which we basically baked in humidity and sun. And then ... we sat in Kent Waterfall !!! (Think: ice cold water beating over our heads) What a lift to our moods.

Highlight 2: Poughkeepsie --> Roscoe

Joe, the trip leader in charge of the cue sheet for this ride did not have internet access, and thus put together our route from a topo program that has roads of some sort on it. Unfortunately, it was incredibly vague, and we got lost pretty early on in the ride. People kept their chill though, and the first half of the ride was hilly but much cooler and dryer than previous days, so everyone was pretty upbeat at lunch. AND THEN ... We hit some hard climbs. The first, I got up, but then the second, which we all simply called Hunter Road, I only made it up the first INCREDIBLY STEEP part, after which, I was so out of breath (because I basically sprinted it, thinking it was short ...) I had to walk up the rest of the way. I'm still a little miffed at myself for it, but then again, after that climb, we still had another 20 miles of rolling terrain before we actually made it to Roscoe. By that time, it was a group of 6 of us, (Ashly, Peter, Shira, Jake Schorr, Hana, myself), were pretty much on autopilot. And then we saw the sign for Roscoe on the side of the hill, and we all screamed. 82 of the hardest miles I've ever completed in my life. And then we got REAL BEDS to sleep in, as well as dinner and breakfast !!!!! Rick, the head of the chamber of commerce of that town, is our savior. Thank you, Rick !!!!!

Highlight 3: Roscoe --> Binghamton

Jamie joined us for the ride today !!!!!!! I was so happy to see him, for a familiar face and also because he has the best sense of direction out of anyone I know (besides maybe Tony Vo), and we weren't going to do another fantastic 10mile detour. Things were going pretty well until a stretch of road we were going to go on were shut down entirely, leaving us either a 30 mile detour or the highway which was illegal for bikes. A really REALLY kind state trooper gave us a police escort for about 4 miles until an exit. For the rest of the ride, Jamie (er, Dr. Kimberley) and I caught up on news and breezed past other slower riders ahead of us. Rather, he'd breeze past (for example, talking on his cellphone) making it look so easy to go up hills in a double (!!! and I thought it was bad in my double compact ...) and I'd slowly crank my way up to him. Hana and Chad were excited about the paceline we got drafting off of his wheel on the last stretch of road. And now we are in Binghamton !!!

Overall Experiences so far:

I'm amazed at the fact that so few people here have an established base of cycling, and are yet able to ride through the days. After having friends such as Dillon and Jamie, I feel like such an expert on bikes for once. The mood in general is pretty upbeat so far, but of course, it's only the first week of riding. Jamie warned that it'd probably in the second week that we were really going to start feeling the miles, and that we'd probably adjust soon after that. Then again, I'm generally just so happy after a ride. I've been getting great highs afterwards, and then the rest of the evening is great, even though I haven't been sleeping that great.

The hosts are amazing. All of them have simply been so accomodating so far, especially Roscoe, where the host actually contacted Jake and requested to be a host, and then put us up in a golf resort. Thank you so much!

I'm amazed that I'm handling the hills this well, even with the double compact rather than a triple. My bike fit is great so far. The only thing I'm having some minor problems with is my big toe. I guess this is termed hot spots on the feet. I'll look into it. The views from the tops of the hill are just magnificent. I can kind of understand why people get addicted to road trips around the country.