Week 3

Date
January 17, 2017

Distance
100 miles

Strava Link
Week 3

Route Map/Profile

Weather

Ride Video

Ride Report 
It's been a gloomy January. I did my last century on a Friday and haven't seen the sun in the 3 days since then. That's the bad news. The good news is that at least the roads were clear enough to squeeze in a ride today. I'm still on track. January will be a low month mileage-wise, but hopefully I can get out of it with 4 centuries and without any crashes.

The ride started out foggy, and I didn't even start until about 10:00 AM, which I figured was the latest I could start and still finish in the daylight. Eventually the fog went away and there was even a period of maybe 10 miles or so when the sun was actually shining. The rest of the ride was cloudy and cold.

There's one other positive to take away from the bad weather. I've had a little extra time to do more weightlifting than I normally do. I'm getting better at squatting. Maybe that will pay off in the summer.

Summer Plans Update

I'm flip-flopping a lot on my S-N ride across America. At first I was planning on this route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/17397532

It starts reasonably close to home and finishes close to Kalispell, so I wouldn't have to waste much time traveling to and from the ride. The main problem is Las Vegas. The city itself is fine. I lived there for a little while and there are good routes through the city. The main thing I'm worried about is riding on 93 north of Vegas. It's just a 2-lane road and it doesn't look like there's any shoulder. I might be going to Las Vegas later this year, and if so I might drive a little on 93 to check it out. I made an alternate route through St. George, UT, but that ends up being a little more mileage than I want to do.

I started looking at other options and I came up with this: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/18587885

Originally I had this planned out to where I could camp every night and go fully self-supported. I changed my mind on that and this is the credit card tour version. There are definitely some advantages to doing this route. First, I'll get to add a couple more states to my list. Second, I'll get to pass through Eagle Nest, NM again, which was one of my favorite towns along the Petoji route. I don't know why, but I really like the idea of both routes crossing like that. Third, I get to ride near Rapid City, SD. That's been on my list of places where I want to go for quite a while now.

The main issue with this route is the travel time. The start would be right next to an airport, so that part is great. However, there aren't any airports all that close to the finish and I have no idea how I'd get from the finish to the airport. I guess it's not that big of a deal. I just know I would need 1 extra day off for travel.

Any other routes I come up with end up being in the 1600-mile range. I'd rather keep it closer to 1500 if I can. However, if I need an extra day for travel on that second route, why not do 1600 miles in 11 days with no travel days instead of 1500 in 10 days with no full travel days? Maybe I'll start working on something like that. There aren't a lot of airports close to the Canadian border, though. It looks like mainly Kalispell and Vancouver.

I'm not sure why I'm so undecided on this route. When I planned Petoji the route came to me very easily. I guess I was a little more limited in that I knew I needed to start within driving distance of Reno. With this route I can start just about anywhere between San Diego and El Paso. My mind goes a little crazy and I'm always looking for something better. I have my 40 hours of vacation built up and January is almost over, so I need to finally decide on something.