So, It Has Been a Year

September 4th....why does that sound so familiar to me?  It's not my anniversary, not a birthday, Close to a holiday, but not quite.  Hmmm, why does that date stick out in my head?  Oh yeah, I remember.  It was the first day that I got back on a bike after ten months away from cycling.  Now that I remember the significance of that date, I can remember that day so clearly now.  Man, it sucked!!!  I thought I was going to die....but I had survived and figured that was a good sign of things to come.  I had a lot of questions back then, and I really wondered what kind of progress I would be making on the bike over time.  Looking back over the last 31,536,000 seconds, I have most, if not all of those answers.

This part of my life journey began with a bang.  Go big or go home as they say.  Having sold everything cycling related at the end of 2013, I had to start anew.  So I hocked the house, and sold my first born (just kidding, I would never sell my first born.  I just rented with the option to buy) to buy a bicycle and some cough....cough necessary items to go along with it.  Why did I go all out you ask?  Toni made me.  That's right, you heard me.  My wife kidnapped me, and took me to the bike shop, forced me to fill out a credit application, and made me sign my name on the dotted line. Seriously.....ask her!!  Looking back on that day, she might be reconsidering her position on things though.  Oh well, whether she liked the outcome or not, I was back into cycling again.  Whether or not I would be a "cyclist" again was yet to be determined.

You never forget how to ride a bike they say.  I guess that is right, but when you rode at the level that I had, you really question if you can come back at a similar level.  What I mean is, when I stopped riding in 2013, I had become an ultra endurance cyclist with a double century under my belt, and a total of 11 century (100 mile +) routes over the year.  I had climbed a category 1 mountain, and ridden the Blue Ridge Parkway.  In the calendar year, I had logged almost 6,000 miles!  My average speed was in the high 18's and I was into the 19's for shorter routes regularly.  This was after only two years of cycling, and I was 39 years old.  As I was returning to cycling, I was nearing the end of my 40th year.  I was feeling old, and just didn't think that I had it in my body to repeat that kind of performance on a bike.

That was probably my biggest question as I gave in to Toni's wishes (demands) to get back on the bike.  What would be reasonable to expect?  I knew that I would be slow, and would not have the endurance that I once had.  That was a no brainer.  But, would I be able to improve enough to match what I had once been able to do?  I doubted it actually.  I had promised myself that I would be happy just being able to ride, even if my rides were between 25-50 miles each, and my speeds stayed in the 17-18 mph range.  At least I would be able to get exercise which was a very big factor in my wanting to ride.

I started to make goals for myself and tried to set reasonable expectations.  First among my goals was to get rid of the extra weight I had packed on which was making me feel very uncomfortable.  I had grown to a solid 205lbs, roughly 20lbs in 10 months.  This played a large part in making me feel like crud.  I also knew that when I was riding, I had no problems with acid reflux, which had worked its way back into my world.  This added to me feeling like crap, and was just no fun at all.  Lastly, I was feeling a little less mentally balanced than I had when I was riding.  I wasn't sure exactly why, but would soon figure that out.  I found that for some reason, cycling really helped me deal with my PTSD, and the stress from being a police officer.  I wanted all of these issues to be addressed by riding, and felt pretty sure that they would be.

The next part to think about was my aspirations.  What would I reasonably be able to do on the bike this time?  I had all but given up on endurance riding, and was looking at just fitness riding.  I wasn't going to really know what kind of expectations I would have until I actually got on a bike and rode it.  That's right, you heard me.  I had just paid a stupid amount of money to get back into riding, and hadn't even been on a bike in close to a year.  I'm impulsive like that.

The smile is just there because I was finished!

September 4th, was that first ride on the new bike.  It was an interesting ride.  It felt familiar and comfortable, yet terrifying and exhausting all at the same time.  Yes I could still ride a bike, but about 30 miles was all I had in my legs.  After that, I was struggling.  I was slow too, slower than I had ever been on a road bike.  But I now had my starting point, and could start with the aspirations.  I felt confident that I could get at least a portion of the endurance back since I had ridden 50 miles on my first ride (20 of that was just no fun at all).  I was sure that my speed would increase...I mean I didn't even shift out of the little ring for the entire ride.  I saw potential though, and figured it would be possible to build my speed back to close to where it once was.

For some odd reason, I got in my mind that I was going to actually think about doing the Double Down to the Beach ride again in 2015.  I must have been crazy, that is 200 miles in one day...FOUR TIMES what I had just ridden.  I guess that is just the kind of guy I am though.  I go big or go home.  The more I rode, the more I started to plan out my coming year.  Not only did I want to do Double Down, I also wanted to do the Assault on the Carolinas.  I had done both of these in 2013, and figured that they would be an excellent litmus test to see how I was comparing with my return.  To those, I added A Ride to Remember, a three day 252 mile ride across South Carolina, and finally the Carolina Century, which I had done in 2013.  For training purposes, I decided that I was going to aim for 12 century routes (one more than 2013), which was one per month.

I was aiming big, and I knew that I might not be able to accomplish these aspirations.  Honestly, I was OK with that.  I just needed something to motivate me to get out and "train" when I was in such bad shape.  While I was formulating all of these hopes and dreams for the coming year, I ended up in a crash with a car.  While this should have put the brakes on all that I was planning, it actually fueled my desires for some odd reason.  While my bike was in the shop to be evaluated, I tried running so I didn't loose the momentum I had started.  What I found out was I'm not a runner.  I don't even think I could run away from something.  Maybe my feet are too big and cause too much wind resistance.  Maybe its because I have the form and flow of an electrified basset hound trying to run with two legs tied together.  Either way, I ran for about a week and that was all I could manage without needing to be hospitalized.

To make a long story short, I ended up with a new bike, and my damaged one back in my possession for use on a trainer.  This was just in time for the "off season" and I was able to take my riding indoors with interval sessions.  Despite this self imposed hell (still better than running), I found that my fitness was increasing by leaps and bounds.  Hey, I might actually be able to participate in the different events that I was hoping for!  Recalling the correlation between speeds on the trainer and speeds on the road, I was starting to see that not only was I going to be able to match my average speeds from 2013, but was actually getting faster.  The weight was coming off as well, which was making me feel much better overall.  This was really working out for me.

Looking a little more comfortable in the saddle in November

By November, I had my new bike, and I was able to get out on the road again.  It was on this ride I saw the results of the time on the trainer.  I was back, and pretty close to where I had left off a year previous.  I was well ahead of schedule in my training, and that fueled me to go at it harder than ever.  As the warmer days came, I tried to get out and ride for as much time as I could.  Exactly a week after my first ride (a metric century), I actually rode a full 100 mile century on November 12th!  This was about 5 months ahead of my expectations.  It was really looking like I would be able to tackle the double century, as well as the three day stage ride across SC.

Goals and Aspirations Realized

A healthier me!

Lets start with the most important part of this...my health.  Mentally, I was much more balanced.  My PTSD was very much under control after getting back on the bike.  I was no longer having irrational panic attacks before going to work, and while at work.  I was sleeping better, thanks to a calmer mind, and the lack of acid reflux.  I swear, it was like magic once I started riding again.  I had only one attack of acid reflux shortly after I started riding, but after that, it was gone for good.  A full year later and I haven't had a single attack, not even a light one.  That alone was worth the price of admission to ride again!  I was feeling better about my body as well, having dropped down to a pretty steady weight of 165-170 lbs which was a bit lighter than I had been before.  This made my clothes fit better, made me feel better in my own skin, and made me feel younger to boot.  I felt like a 20 year old kid again, and that was pretty cool!  I'm pretty sure I have found the fountain of youth, and it is called a bicycle.  My knees no longer creek, I don't get out of breath near as easy doing simple things like climbing stairs, or pushing cars out of the road.  I'm just generally in much better shape than I have ever been in before.

As before, I became addicted to speed on the bike.  I am always wanting to go faster, not necessarily talking about bombing downhill sprints (actually, I don't care for fast descents at all), but average speed over the course of a ride.  My one and only goal of 2013 that I didn't accomplish was to achieve a 20 mph average over the course of a 50 mile route.  Well, I missed that mark by a wide enough margin in 2013, that I couldn't even say I was close.  Now, a year after having my slowest ever 50 mile route, I have seen metric century routes in excess of 20 mph regularly!  In fact, I consider my training speed to be 20 mph now, and I have done 25 mile routes well over 21 mph as an average speed.  I would have never considered that a possibility before.  For my training rides around home, I was seeing on average a 2 mph increase in my average speeds from 2013.  I was still able to do the distances as well.  As of the writing of this blog article, I have completed a total of 11 century (100 mile +) routes so far.  I'm planning on another century tomorrow, to celebrate my first full year back in the saddle which will give me a total of 12.  Hey, that was my goal for 2015!  Counting the November one from 2014, I'm looking at 13 centuries in a year's time.  Another record broken!

2015 Assault on the Carolinas

So, my health and fitness levels were surpassing where I was at my peak in 2013.  How did that translate into the real world of cycling?  Well, my first test came early in the season with the Assault on the Carolinas.  This 100K route though North and South Carolina would test my climbing ability more than my endurance ability.  There were two significant climbs on that course.  The first one was Walnut Hollow, a short, but intense climb pictured above.  On that climb in 2013, I had almost cracked and I barely made it over.  This year, I had no problem, and actually passed a bunch of riders as I made my way up spinning relatively easily.  The second climb was the category 1 Caesar's Head which was about 7 miles of climbing totaling 2000 feet.  It was still a hard climb, but I averaged about 2 mph better than I had before, and didn't need to take a break at the top as I had before.  While my average speed was about the same at 17 mph, I actually did much better on the climbs than I had done before.  It was an outstanding experience, and it proved to me once and for all that the stationary trainer is worth its weight in gold!

2015 Double Down to the Beach

My second aspiration of the year came in June, and it was another repeat from 2013.  This was the Double Down to the Beach ride, the double century from Alamance Regional Hospital to New Bern.  I had really set my sights high for this ride, thinking that I would make it at an average speed of 20 mph.  With record heat that day, (my Garmin recorded a high of 113*F) I had to slow it down, and even then I was showing signs of heat stroke at the finish.  But finish I did, for a total ride of 201.62 miles at an average speed of 19.4 mph!  Even though I missed my 20 mph mark, I still blasted my 2013 pace of only 18.1 mph, so I consider that a win of the largest magnitude!  With the completion of this ride, I was comfortable calling myself an ultra endurance athlete once again.  I had proven to myself that I was still capable of riding that kind of distance in one day, and that had been very important to me.  To have done it at the pace that I did, in the heat I dealt with, was just amazing to me.  I love this picture because it shows so much in the expression of my face.  I was so close to passing out here, and I was in tears for having finished the ride with absolutely nothing left in the tank.  I had given it my all, and pushed myself to the breaking point which I had never done up to that point.  I knew exactly what I was made of, and what I was capable of.  It was much more than I had ever imagined.  There is something very emotional that happens when you reach that point, and quite literally meet a "you," that you have never known before.  I found out I'm a badass by the way!

Day 3, 2015 Ride to Remember

The next item on my bucket list was the Ride to Remember in South Carolina.  This three day stage ride across the state totaled 252 miles, with the 100 mile ride on the last day.  To be honest, this ride had me worried.  Not so much because of the distance, because I knew I could do the distance.  What worried me was the demands I would put on myself to ride hard each day, knowing that if I pushed too hard, I would have a miserable time in the latter segments.  This was a new ride for me, but an important one that I really wanted to do well with.  You see, it benefits the Alzheimer's Association, and Toni has a family history of this disease.  I was fortunate to be able to raise over $2500.00 throughout the year for this cause.  The ride itself is more or less the party at the end of the fundraiser, but I was going to make it into a personal challenge to push myself through.  The first day was pretty spectacular, not so much in distance (only 65.38 miles), but in my average speed.  I finished the day with a 20.9 mph average which was extremely strong for a metric century, with a fair amount of it done solo.  The second day was a longer day, at 88.49 miles and it was a bit hillier.  I made some bad decisions that left me out in the wind for pretty much the whole day as I refused to ride with any of the groups.  My average speed dropped to a moderate 18.9 mph largely due to me cracking in the last 20 miles or so.  I had been around 22 mph for most of the first half.  I regrouped, and returned for the last day which was just over 100 miles in length.  I rode like a man possessed that day, and had an average speed of 22.3 mph!  Not only that, but I ticked off my fastest 40K time ever at 59:46, an even 25 mph!!!  Only in my dreams would I have been able to accomplish that in 2013.

While training for these different events, I started to realize something.  Each month, since April, I had been riding over 800 miles a month. This was further than my longest month ever before, and I was doing it monthly now.  From April to July, I had ridden over 800 miles each month, and had done at least one century each of those months.  August started out as a recreational/fitness riding month and I concentrated on riding shorter, more fun routes mainly.  That was until I decided to start training for the Tour to Tanglewood in September.  Then I started adding distance routes again.  By the third week, I had set yet another goal for myself.  I was going to ride over 1000 miles in the month of August.  With a day to spare, I had logged a total of 1,004.02 miles in a single month with only one century ridden!

I don't know where I am going from here, but I can say that I'm now almost 42 years old, and I'm in the best shape of my life, and feel better than I have in my entire adult life.  Cycling has given me so much, and has introduced me to the coolest version of myself I have ever had the privilege of knowing.  I can't say enough positive things about cycling.  It is my fountain of youth, my therapist, my doctor, my church, my sensory deprivation chamber, and my safe place to blow off steam.  How something so simple can do all those things is beyond me, but there is no reason to try and figure out the why behind it.  I just bask in the results.

A year ago today, I had no idea where buying a bike would lead to.  Now that a year has passed, I can't imagine where I would have been without it in my life.  I am truly a cyclist in all respects.  I knew it would be a lifestyle change, but I never knew how much it could change my life until I saw both sides of the coin.

Now I have to get to sleep because I have an anniversary century to ride tomorrow!