January 21st to February 6th

Ok, we have been down in Florida for two weeks so far and I'll try and reconstruct my rides from then until now.

In general, it has been cold and windy -- cold for riding that is. I am a fair weather biker -- I like to ride when the temperature is above 60 degrees (ideally above 70) and I don't ride in the rain unless I get caught out there. If the weather looks iffy I check the doppler before going out to try and ensure that I don't get caught. I have ridden in the rain before -- most notably with Aaron in MS150 charity rides -- once doing most of the 100 miles in a heavy downpour, but it is not fun.

Speaking of wind, according to weather.com the wind has been mostly from the North and mostly over 10 mph eg. 13 one day and 15 another day, from the NNE.

The upcoming ride across America will be rain or shine, cold or warm, windy or still ... so, I have been riding every day except for a couple of days when it rained consistently all day. I'll deal with that when I have to and not before !

January 21st to February 6th -- I missed two days due to rain. As I said earlier, it has been windy -- never less than a consistent 10 mph from either the north or south, and then gusts of course stronger than that. It has also been cold -- with only a couple of exceptions I have been riding with a jacket on since the temperatures are generally in the low 50's in the afternoons when I'm riding. I like to ride in the early morning but have not been doing that since the a.m. temps are generally 45 or so.

I have three routes that I ride -- if the ride is planned to be short I ride 2 miles south on Saxon (where we live) to A1a; 4 miles on A1a which ends at the Canaveral National Seashore park entrance, then 6 miles on the park road. I did the park ride, which ends up being 24 miles round trip, fairly frequently in November but have only done it 3 times in this period.

Saxon is tree lined, mostly straight, no shoulder to speak of but good visibility, older homes; A1A is straight and wide open, wide shoulder albeit with glass and tacks (I was averaging a flat a day in November); then the park road is again fairly straight, 2 lane, little or no traffic, no shoulder but that is not a problem. In the wind, Saxon is fairly sheltered and easy riding either way; A1A is a steady blow; the park road is like a wind tunnel -- it has dense growth on both sides of the road and the wind, which is generally from the north or south anyway, is channeled down the road.

The route north is simple -- north on Saxon two miles, west across the causeway 2 miles to the mainland, then north on US 1. North takes me through New Smyrna Beach, across an open section that crosses Ponce Inlet, through Port Orange, Daytona Beach, Ormand Beach (25 mile mark) then the road opens up and 5 more miles north and US 1 crosses I95 and is wide open, 65 mph speed limit wide shoulders.

The route north is not much fun. Traffic is heavy. There are many traffic lights so it is stop and go through most of Daytona and Ormand Beach. The shoulder is wide, but that is also where the cars park so I have to squeeze between the parked cars and the traffic. The drivers are used to cyclists it seems and give wide berth, but ...

There are two alternates for going south -- again I have to ride north on Saxon, across the causeway, but then south on US 1. After 6 miles southbound with very few traffic lights and a wide shoulder, the road opens up and I have a few miles before Oak Hill (Hill, there are no hills in Florida, what a strange name !). Oak Hill only has a couple of gas stations so it too is wide open riding, then when I get to mileage 18 (4 to get to US 1, then 14 more) I either continue on US 1 which is great riding, wide shoulder, 65 mph speed limit for most of the next 17 miles (that would be a 35 mile turnaround) or turn onto the road that goes into the Merritt Island Wildlife Sanctuary. The Merritt Island road is completely without services for the next 17 miles and then you reach an intersection -- left to the southern end of the Canaveral National Seashore, straight to Kennedy Space Center (I would get shot going straight), or right back towards the mainland again -- two miles down that road is the visitors center which is where I go to get more water, use the facilities ...).

The Merritt road is the best. There is little traffic and a convenient turnaround point. The lack of services on the road caused me a problem once though -- I reached the aforementioned intersection and there was a police car there directing people back down the road -- there was a fire along the road towards the visitors center and so they were stopping traffic from going that way. Well -- that's ok for cars, but to turn a biker around to go back 17 miles ? Yikes -- I was just about out of water; it was one of the few hot days (it figures) and I was really concerned that I would be very dehydrated before getting back to US 1 and finding a gas station 2 more miles north of that ... since I'm writing this I obviously made it.

The wind and the cold have governed my rides. I've been riding in the afternoon so that it is warmer and ride into the wind on the way out then with the wind on the way back. Since the wind has been from the north, I have mostly been riding north first and then returning with the wind.

Back to the diary -- we have been down here 17 days, not counting today:

-- 2 missed two days due to rain,
-- 1 x 20 mile day north into a fierce headwind late in the day waiting for rain to pass
-- 5 x 24 mile days (the first three days I had to stretch out my legs -- skiing hard for 8 days bulks up the wrong muscles)
-- 1 x 40 mile day - I rode north through Daytona and then for variety turned east on 92, across the northern Daytona Beach causeway; south on A1A in Daytona Beach, then back across the Port Orange causeway to US 1 and then south to home.
-- 4 x 50 mile days - north to Ormand Beach
-- 1 x 60 mile day - north past Ormand Beach to where US 1 hits I95
-- 2 x 70 mile days south (one of those days was the day that I ran out of water due to road closure)
-- 1 x 70 mile day north (yesterday).

The other thing that I want to record here going forward is my food and liquid consumption on each ride to build up a diary of what works for me.

I have been ok most of the rides -- for the 50 mile rides, in the cool weather, two water bottles work well. For the 70's, I generally need four bottles. I've been experimenting with food -- I bought two containers of carb-boom -- difficult stuff to drink -- it takes exactly like the stuff that Sandy and I had to drink before our colonoscopys -- full of electrolytes, especially sodium, and hard to keep down. It is hard to drink on the road, albeit good for you. I have to find another solution for sodium intake or get used to this stuff.

I used to need a cliff bar or something on a 50 mile ride -- if I didn't eat something around 25 miles I started to bonk at 30. It's interesting to see the transformation that your body undergoes -- now I don't need anything for a 50 mile ride -- the body does get better at storing glycogen.

I do need something for a 70 mile ride. Yesterday was a bad day -- I ended up using just two water bottles one of which had carb-boom. It was cool so I had not gone through 1/2 of my fluids before the turnaround point -- also, I was drinking some of the carb-boom and that puts me off drinking (not good). How did I feel ? I was expecting to completely bonk but it did not happen. I guess that the one bottle of carb-boom gave me enough gas along with what my body has stored up -- but I should have had more fluid. Luckily it was cool.

The gas stations in Daytona where I might stop for more water are very busy and I hesitate to leave my bike unattended. Losing the bike would definitely spoil my day. I need a south wind !! the ride south is a) much more pleasant, b) the gas stations / convenience stores are easier to access, c) the Merritt route has a built in turnaround point at the visitors center.

Average speed recorded by the cyclometer -- 16.5 -- that's ok, because a) that is what the cross country ride organizers are looking for and b) that is a depressed number because of the many stops and starts for traffic lights. The computer does not count actual stopped time, but there are a great many minutes included where I was slowing down for a light or speeding up after getting the green light. Actual elapsed time for yesterday's ride was about 4:45. Southbound rides are better for consistent speed and less difference between cycling time and elapsed time.

Upcoming events

-- tomorrow I hope to put some real miles under my belt riding south towards my uncle's place in Hobe Sound. Their place is about 160 miles away but Sandy is going to pick me up along the way -- how many miles I do depends on the wind -- I'm guessing that it could be anything from 70 into a headwind to 100 or more with a tail wind. We shall see ...

-- February 24th -- I hope to do a 200km (120 mile) brevet in northwest Florida -- more on that later.