Getting in Shape

Starting a week ago last Thursday, Jordan and I have been training. The first day was about 15 miles in a steady rain, which went just fine. We rode up to the north end of the Olentangy River Bike Trail. The next day we increased the mileage to 20. Last Sunday we rode out to Rick Fredecker's house in Muirfield. That was a 36 mile round trip. A couple days later we did 25 miles, took a four hour break, and then did 25 more. After that ride, I pronounced that Jordan will be able to handle the trip. The hills will be difficult, particularly with a full load, but she can do it.

A couple days ago we rode from my place through downtown to Town Street. We took Town east past Nelson where it becomes Bryden Road. Bryden runs right into the Alum Creek bike path. We took that south all the way to the end. It meanders through several parks (3 Creeks) and finally dead ends. The round trip was 40 miles and it was about 90 degrees. I had to take my hybrid because my touring bike was in the shop. The right pedal would NOT come off. Dave Baer is working on it. I ended up having a flat on the Alum Creek trail, but repaired it without too much trouble. We took yesterday off so we could move Jordan's stuff out of her house and into mine. Today we plan on riding up to Delaware. Should be a 50 mile round trip.

I have been getting more familiar with my Garmin GPS. I am logging in WayPoints for each of our stops. There seems to be several standards for lattitude and longitude coordinates. I had it wrong at first and had us camping in the middle of the English Channel! I finally found a web site that converted the coordinates to the format that Garmin understands. The amount of technology I have on this trip just astounds me!