Getting ready to head west

Shipping the bike west

Earlier in the week I packed up my bike and took it across the river to Soo Michigan so I could ship it west to California. If all goes well it will arrive about a week before me and will be assembled and waiting for me at a bike shop in San Diego. The Southern Tier tour will start in just over a week so it is time for me to finish packing up my gear, take care of paper work and details at home and get ready for my flight next week. It has been very cold for the last few weeks so I’m looking forward to the change in weather.

When I signed up for the tour in late November I made plans to follow some cycling specific training to prepare for the trip. I had just returned from a one week cycling tour in west Texas and had done a fair bit of riding throughout the spring and summer. My plan was to ride 4 or 5 times each week for an hour or more to maintain my cycling fitness while getting out regularly to cross country ski and run. As it turned out, I slacked off on the cycling. The skiing was too good from mid November to early January and I skied almost every day and just didn’t have the energy to spend much time on the indoor trainer. I backed off on the skiing for the last few weeks of February because of bitterly cold temperatures.

The type of winter we had with lots of snowy days and snow covered roads made outdoor cycling too much of a risk for me. I’ve crashed before after hitting a patch of ice and didn’t want to take the risk of sustaining an injury before the bike tour. From November 2014 to early March 2015, it snowed on 80 days in Sault Ste. Marie and the total snowfall amount exceeded 493 cm (or just over 16 feet of snowfall). Over the course of the winter I did manage to ride about 3-4 times each week on the indoor trainer for about 30 to 50 minutes or so. I guess I’ll find out in a few weeks if my training was sufficient. I’ll be relying on muscle memory to help me out for first week or so until my legs get used to cycling again.