Sunday, July 19, 2009

Tandem Tour 2009 Is a Wrap

Friday we did our final ride of the trip, a 32 mile roller-coaster loop to the north and west of Monticello. It was a pretty ride – all our rides in North Florida have been – but the humidity the last couple of days has been off the scale, so even a short ride like this one left us pretty wrung out.

I forgot to mention: toward the end of Thursday’s ride, Kathy decided to see if setting our pedals in phase, the way most tandems are configured, might help control her rocking upper body. Steve and I were both skeptical, but lo and behold, it really seemed to have a significant effect! Friday we did the entire ride with the pedals in phase and it really seemed to help. On the other hand, standing is more difficult for us with the in-phase setup, so we will have to unlearn/relearn our standing technique. We are committed to staying in phase for at least a couple of months to give it a fair try. At the end of that test period, we will weigh the pros and cons and decide to stay IP or return to OOP, as we have been for the past nine years or so.

Well, we are now back home after another fine bike vacation. Both locations, Apalachicola and Monticello, have unique attractions for cyclists. The contrast between the two is quite dramatic, so it made for a week that had it all. Either place might have gotten old if we had stayed an entire week, but a half-week in each location worked out perfectly.

After a day of relaxing (if you can call two and a half acres of mowing relaxation) I will begin several weeks of serious training for my next bike event: a long August weekend climbing high mountains with Fred in Colorado. That will be an entirely new experience for me. I am looking forward to it.