Day 22: Sunday, May 8 - Aberdeen, MS to Tuscaloosa, AL completed 100 of the route's110 miles for the day, 4659' up, 4621' down

Home of the Crimson Tide (Sorry, Spartan fans)

We learned "all y'all" is plural, "y'all" is singular. 

Again I knew today's route would be challenging, with a lot of up and down, some of it quite steep. 

So, I began thinking I would treat this as a light training day, and would be satisfied with as few as 50 miles ridden. The up and down, with several decent size hills ascended only by dropping into the granny gear and grinding my way up the hill, really began to get to me. At the first SAG at mile 25.7, my goal was to get to mile 48 where there was supposed to be a store, where I could get a energy shot by buying some chocolate milk (which has become my drink of choice for an energy boost). However, when I came to the town of Millport, I saw no store. Bummer. I had had it with the hills, and had little motivation to ride much further for the day. I reverted to my thinking of looking at these remaining days of the ride as an extended training program, and thought 50 miles would be a good light training day.

Well, I saw no van either, so continued riding. I finally saw Mike in the van at mile 61.6 and gladly accepted a bump to the lunch SAG at mile 72. From there, I knew I could ride some more, so set up a plan with Karen to be picked up at mile 91.5. Before I got there, I caught up with Jerry, and we exchanged the leads several times over several miles, with me passing him on the steep hills and him getting by me on the level (what little there was) or downhill. I think the difference was I had a lower granny gear than he did, so it made it easier to spin up those steep hills than it was for him. At any rate, we reached Karen together at mile 91.5 and I was ready to stop. Jerry told me I should continue, as I was riding as strongly as he was. Karen told me to go for it. Well, go for it I did. There was some more ups and downs, but it was not too bad, and I rode with Jerry to the motel. It was beginning to get pretty warm by the end - 87 degrees, but at least it was not unbearably humid.

I thought Alabama was going to be flatter!

That last 19 miles was actually some of the most fun miles of the trip so far, as while I have ridden somewhere around 2000 miles so far, 95% of that has been all alone with no other rider nearer than perhaps a mile or so. I like to ride, but it just is more fun riding with friends.

The encouragement I received from Jerry and Karen illustrates how important it is that we be supporters of others and give others positive feedback and encouragement. It refreshed my view that we all should have some sort of support system, as we all have things we know we need to do or should do that for some reason we find it difficult to do or simply dislike doing so enough that we shy away from doing that. It is no sign of weakness to recognize those tasks and your tendency for avoiding them AND if you set up some kind of crutch to aid you in getting it done regardless.

A prime example is the Alcohol Anonymous support system of a sponsor to call when feeling the need for support, Another example is a personal or business coach who the client talks with periodically to discuss his/her progress. It sounds weird that we would allow someone else to get us to do something that we know we should do without such support, but the process works, so we might as well use it.

For everyday life, it is important to surround yourself with positive, supportive people. Negative people can just pull you down. So, for best results, sometimes you may need to disassociate yourself from the downers and find some new friends. Sounds cold, but.......

A crutch I used in my training program (and during this ride itself) is to have friends and family following my progress, and knowing they are doing so, that knowledge of them holding me accountable for following through on what I said I would do was motivating.

I had a few encounters with dogs today, but yelled off a couple, got off and walked past a couple and outran a couple. One was really a runner, not challenging me, but just wanted to run with me. He stayed with me for over 100 yards, over 20 mph!

Yesterday I wrote about breaking up the day's challenge into smaller bites. Well, today the bites were not 10, 15 or 20 miles. Sometimes it was, "Only 1.7 miles to the next turn." or "5.3 miles to SAG." and the like. But, the principle remained the same - setting short or intermediate goals which once achieved, serves as motivation to continue.

Thanks for following my progress, and putting up with my musings as I go. :)

Tomorrow looks like another fairly difficult day. The plan is that I will be bumped right from the start to mile 14, due to the great deal of climbing which I don't like. Then I will play it by ear, and if all goes well, I would still have another century done, but otherwise, I will treat it like a lighter training day. Day 23: Monday, May 9 - Tuscaloosa, AL to Prattville, AL 114 miles for the day, 2,466 so far, 6,200' of climbing.

I couple of days ago, I mentioned Phil's toughness. It again was challenged today, when his shifting stopped working, He rode the last 30 miles, with all of its ups and downs with only one gear! Wow, now that was tough.

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For the ride leader's take on today with photos, go here.