6 - Breaking down my days

I would like to take this time to quickly plug the podcast my teammate had created. It is so impressive to have time for this and it's pretty accurate to our lives on the road. The podcast is called NoTiers (like no tears and northern tier). It can be found on iTunes or wherever else you can find podcasts. Pretty sure notiers.com will also get you places you want to be.
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I digress. A day in the life of a cyclist is what I want to talk about. Well, this is in fact a lot harder than I made it seem when I was preparing to leave and maybe even when I was calling home. "All I need to do it wake up and bike from one place to the next." False. I'll take you through the process, as it might be called (It seems more like a freeform ritual to me. A process is too structured and repetitive). Because of the random structure of a biker day, I'll go through 3 days in 3 segments. These segments of the days can vary so much, that order of this doesn't matter. I just want it to seem logical.
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Night 1.
Just got to camp. Find a pretty tree or pavilion to put your bike against. Hopefully, it's going to be a dry night (it isn't). Set up your tent and move almost your entire cubby of bags into it. Organization is key, because a tent only has so much space. The sleeping bag, clothes for tomorrow, snacks and water, and whatever else you might need to get some sleep. Then the clouds roll in. Great! Rain makes everything so fun. You hurrily grab some tuna, crackers, and maybe a piece of fruit of you're lucky enough to have one that's not spoiled. Time to seclude yourself in the tent, eat, and get some sleep. Goodnight!
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Morning 1.
You wake up bright and early. 6am was the alarm, but you snooze it until you hear some other bikers stumbling about. By the time the early crowd is ready to leave, you emerge from your tent. Everything is wet. Cool, it's frigid outside, too. You quickly roll up your sleeping bag, put on your padded shammy shorts, and start hauling your things to your cubby. Tetris begins. How did it fit last night? Yeah, the tent goes on top of the duffle bag and sleeping bag. Once it's all in, it's breakfast time. Bridget is already 30 minutes into her meal. You'll just have a few granola bars, peanut butter, and maybe a banana. Oh wait. You ate that last night. Oh well. Time to throw on the arm warmers and head out for the day.
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Day 1.
30 mile legs between rest stops today. A bit long with only fields to look at. At least the biking is keeping your body temperature from plummeting. Once the sun comes out, it changes. Sweat dripping. Why didn't you leave at 6am with the early crowd? Why did you spend so much time at rest stop one? Why did you choose to put myself through this? Questions run through your head. You can't turn them off. Some are about the day ahead, some are about your life, some are about your past. Drown them out. Drown them out with music/podcasts. Freakonomics podcasts? Nerdy, but it works. You zone off to Stephen Dubner talking about whether cheap wine really tastes worse than expensive wine. Next thing you know, you have 10 miles left!
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Night 2.
A church for the night. This is nice. You always love staying indoors. You're a lot less likely to get rained on indoors! You move my things inside and find a location near an outlet. Success. You get a shower as people are rolling in. The team all arrives and a few people want to get food and a beer. Food is much better when it's not canned or cold. It's expensive, too. You burnt 5000 calories today, but it will cost how much to get that back? I guess you'll go with a burger and fries. That's a lot of calories. Back at the church, you decide to catch up on blogging, Facebook uploads, and general conversation with loved ones. It's 10pm and you forgot about postcards and never got to the blog. That was the first thing! Well... Alarms are set. 6hrs and 42 minutes of sleep if you pass out right now. Goodnight.
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Morning 2.
Snoring, alarms, indoor voices... Control them! It's 4:30? It's a long day, but that's crazy. Time to put in headphones. You need to drown it out. An hour more sleep is all you can muster. The commotion is getting louder. There is a delicious breakfast place in the first rest stop 20 miles out. That's not far. You pack up your things much like yesterday and get on the road. Breakfast is crucial. You need good fuel for today as you've got a lot of hills and distance to travel. A helping of French toast with a side of hash browns will get you there.
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Day 2.
It's 9am and you've knocked out a quarter of your day. This is nothing like it was supposed to be. You have been jamming to eminem and drake all day at 17mph. At this pace you'll be at camp early. After a lunch of peanut butter on a bagel, you hit a wall. The speed you had isn't there. Music is just making you feel like you're not as fast as you normally are. Now there is self doubt. Are your legs finally done?Maybe you needed more to eat. Some stashed clif bars and trail mix gives you a boost. Seems like 12mph is your new pace as teammates are passing at 16. You try to tag along. Conversation gets going and you finish the day with a compromised 15mph.
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Night 3.
Camping again tonight, but it's supposed to be beautiful! You take out and set up your tent, much like you always do. It smells. It smells awful. Oh that's right, your tent was wet when you put it away 2 days ago and the last thing in it was tuna and a smelly unbathed biker. Open the vents and get on with the unpacking of your cubby. No food in the tent tonight, though. You go out to a restaurant in order to charge your phone, because the trailer battery isn't working, again. You even find Wi-Fi. On the way back, groceries are bought. You now have stuff for a few days. How will this fit in your food cubby? It won't, but you make it work. Hanging out with teammates for the rest of the night will give you energy, but bedtime rolls around and you feel a days worth of biking sneak up on you. You stumble into your sleeping bag and crash.
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Morning 3.
Good morning world! You've had a good night's sleep. It was chilly and your tent was on a great patch of grass. You are ready to go much earlier than the others going out to a cheap breakfast joint with you. You sit around and realize how much more of that great sleep you could have had. Oh well. Breakfast is worth it. French toast and hash browns, again? If it ain't broke, don't fix it, I guess... Everyone is at breakfast, so it takes forever to get food and pay. You leave the diner at 9am and there are supposed to be headwinds!
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Day 3.
First time in a while, you're leaving with the others. They pace much faster than you want to go. You hold strong, because falling behind means you can't draft. The wind is too brutal to not have some blocked for you. 30 more miles left, but legs feel like cooked noodles. You drop off. Music blasting, you chug at a steady 9mph pace. No need to hurry. Arriving to camp at 4 is not worth the pain. You arrive at 5 content with your slow and steady choice, because you still weren't last! You catch up with the gang that you let slip away and you realize that the day is over. No worries. No wind resistance. No regrets. Not until tomorrow, at least.
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It's tough to bike across the country. 3 days of biking can be so different, but in the end it is so worth while. I am blessed to be on this trip and with the people I'm with. Time for bed, though. I chose this blog post over an appropriate bed time tonight. Oops. Good thing it's a short day tomorrow. :)