Sunday, May 1, 2011

One month until the Geezer Geyser Tour

Training has gone pretty well this month in spite of two weekends that other commitments prevented me from riding at all. I rode most weekday mornings, usually 17 to 20 miles over the hills on Cherry Lake and Villa City Roads. These hills are not terribly steep, but approximate the grades that I will be riding between Colorado Springs and Yellowstone, starting on May 31. I did 20 rides in April, totalling more than 450 miles and including one 75 mile day. I did another 75 miler today, May 1.

Next weekend I will be able to do my own thing and I plan to do at least one more long ride. The two weekends after that, however, will be taken by the MS ride (two 50 mile rides on the tandem) and the Georgia Tandem Rally (another 100 or more tandem miles). I have this idea that I will increase the level of my weekday rides during the month by strapping on the panniers and putting ten pounds of gear in each one.

My buds in Colorado are still dealing with very cold weather and even snow! They have been gleefully reminding me that it is going to be pretty cold on this tour, at least in the morning hours. The result is that I have been obsessing about the clothing I should take on the bike. I will be taking just my little 7 inch Archos android tablet, a little folding bluetooth keyboard (on which I am writing this post), and my android  phone, rather than a "real" computer. That should work out fine for blogging, internet access, and photos, and should reduce the weight of my electronics by about two and a half pounds, but it looks like the additional clothes will eat up that weight savings.

Within the next week I plan to finalize my packing list and I will share the list and weight here.