7/23/09: Segments 62 & 63 http://www.4thehealthofit.net/segment_htmls/Segment62.html http://www.4thehealthofit.net/segment_htmls/Segment63.html Lachute, Quebec to Berthierville, Quebec; 72 miles.
Well, I thought this day might come, and today it actually did. Ryan could not make the day’s destination, and now we’re about 50 miles apart. And this was not the result of breakdowns, at least not mechanical. I’ll save the drama and just cut to the chase. Ryan could not make our predetermined destination of Berthierville, most likely due to a wicked headwind out of the northeast that was just amazing to deal with today. With that said, I sit here in a hotel in Berthierville, while he’s in Saint-Jerome. I got an email from him when I got my computer hooked up just a short while ago. Ok, so that’s the dope. Here’s how the day unfolded.
I slept like a total log last evening. I mean I was just jelly after the 80-miler with luggage. So the car’s headlights from the road that deadended right in front of our tents, the truck traffic down Rt 138, the people walking and talking on the sidewalks and railroad right outside of our tents – I was totally oblivious to it all. And that’s definitely NOT me. I’m a light sleeper, so that’s how damned tired I was. I had turned on my radio and was listening to a talk show after working on the computer, and I woke up and it was like 2am. So I turned off the radio and WHAM…..out like a light again.
I woke up to Ryan getting out of his tent to get some coffee at Timmy Horton’s pee house. Put a towel over my eyes like it was the snooze switch, and got in another 30 min of shut-eye. Then I heard him come back and start to break his tent down. And that was my cue. So I slowly packed my gear inside my tent, which by now is almost robitic, and then staged it all in front of my vestibule. Next move was just crossing the street to get a Subway Mega breakfast sub and a cup of coffee. I came back and Ryan was almost done with his tent tear-down, and starting to pack his yak. I sat on a lumber pile (this house we tented at is a remodel with tons of supplies around it) and ate half of my sub. Then it was coffee time as I removed my gear from inside the tent and then tore the tent down. By this time Ryan was ready to roll, and wanted to stop somewhere and get a pastry or something for breakfast. We agreed to either see each other on the road, or meet at a Subway in Bertheirville. Ryan left and I nursed my coffee and packed up.
Now when I had gotten up, I noticed that the wind was pretty gnarly. And from which direction, I chose not to try to figure out. Hell, I had a one in four chance of it coming out of the WORST direction. Right? So why worry too soon. Once I got going on Rt 158 east, I found out just how good of a gambler I was………..SHIT! It was out of the northeast, and it was anywhere from 15-30K. And this was going to be a very long day. Now no four letter words today, no yelling at the wind, the weeds, the trees, the fish, the animals. None of that. This was just one of those days I felt comfortable dealing with without turning the wind into a foe. No energy for it. So I put my best face on and just pedaled. I know it was going to be a day where I could average no more than 13 mph. Heck, I was pleased that I was able to keep it in the big ring, so that to me was a victory.
I wasn’t quite sure if Ryan had gone back into town to a bakery, so that I was now ahead of him, or if he got something at Timmy Horton’s pee house, which is right on our route, and was ahead of me. Well, exactly one hour into the ride I saw Ryan up in the distance ahead of me. I passed him and said just one thing: “Only five and a half more hours of headwind!” And I said it with a sigh of subservience to the wind! I had figured that at the lowly 12 mph pace it would take us about 6.5 hours to do the estimated 80 miles to Berthierville. I went by Ryan and just continued to tap out the rhythm into the headwind. My plan, as usual was to do more than half of the day’s distance before I allowed myself to stop for the usual coke and candy. So today, based on the mileage and average speed, the half way point was 3:15 hrs. I wanted to get 4 hours in before stopping, so that I’d have well over half the distance in the bag. Sounds good right?
Three hours in and I’m getting my coke jones going. It feels as though you need a fix. My mouth goes dry. My stomach gets toppsy tervy. My blood surgar is going down, down, down. And I go through the city of Joliette, but fight the need to stop, hoping to get to my magic 4-hour point in the ride. Then, about 3.5 hours in I’m like, “screw this dude, it’s time for a coke and candybar – NOW!” And wouldn’t it figure, there’s nothing, just flat, fertile farm country as far as the eye can see. And I rounded every corner, and nothing. More farms, more fields, more woodlands. But no towns, no gas stations, no nothing. By this time I’d gone through my two water bottles, just sucking like a newborn on the things. The temps were fairly moderate, I’m estimating somewhere in the high 70’s, but the humidity was high. And those are two my nemesis H’s – heat and humidity. They, along with “hangover” can grind me into the ground. So I had two of the three working against me today.
My mouth was getting dry, and I was fantasizing of an ice cold coke, running down my throat, filling my belly, jolting my blood with sugar – the morphine of cyclists. So by 4 hours in I was on a mission to get my fix. Finally, I saw some road signs around the corner, and I was just praying that it was a gas station or something, anything where I could buy a coke and candy. I was in St Jacques. I just pushed like hell through the headwind, hoping to get my prize at the end of the long, sweeping curve. And what greeted me was not a gas station, but several restaurants and a fruit stand. I had this vision of grabbing a 1 liter coke, that the restaurant was not the ticket, but the fruit stand was. So I turned left and pretty much came to a bonking halt at the stand. “Parlivou Eglish” I uttered. “No” was the response. Ok, next step…….point and say product names. So I say, “coke?” “Wee” was the response. AWESOME. “Du coke,” I uttered, and she brought me back two cans of coke. I guzzled these down like a man who was stranded in the desert for days.
Ok, coke fix in, so my next objective was getting some much needed CHOCOLATE! And there it was, a packet of chocolate chip cookies, about 8 of them to the pack. Picked em up and handed over the 5 bucks like I was playing the winning lottery ticket. Just a happy, “merci” from me to the lady, and back I was to feeding the sugar fix. And then I go back up and hold the coke can in the air and say, “un coke,”, asking for another coke. And she brings back my third coke and says, “merci.” I wolfed down the cookies and chased with that third coke. And you could almost feel the sugar flowing through your bloodstream, rejuvenating the body instantaneously. Now I know that this is a short term fix, but dammit, I can go 2 more hours on a fix like this. I know what works for me, and simple sugars are my choice at this stage of the game in a ride.
I made this a very quick stop, taking only about 20 min, and then I was back on the bike, looking to make our designated destination with no more stops……..but I needed water. So I go into their restroom, just off the side of the fruit stand, to pee and get some water out of the tap, that rather than have to PAY for water – I NEVER buy water, that’s total bullshit! And wouldn’t you know it, I pee, go to wash my hands in the faucet, and no freaking water! Nothing. I tried the cold, I tried the hot. Nothing. Empty. And I just do not want to do the hand signal thing, or the mime thing with this lady, or have her pull out a bottle of 5 dollar water from the refrig, so I just get on the road and look for another stop to fill my water bottles. I found that another 5K down the road, where I went into the restroom of a gas station and filled the bottles.
Back to battling the headwind. And at this point I’m like, Jesus, can this get any more difficult. I see a sign that says that Berthierville is 20K away, but I’m out of the saddle just fighting like a mother trying to keep my speed up. But again, no talking to the wind, no swearing, no nothing. It was just my singular focus to pedal and get this freaking day in the bag. So I got on the tip of the saddle and just put it down. And the K’s just ticked off. Finally, I hit the city limit sign, pedaled over the RR tracks, and headed into the downtown. Now I was looking for our designated Subway, and I went by Mickey D’s, and all the restaurants, including a Quizno’s, but no Subway, and I finally came to the intersection where we have to get on Rt 138 east to Quebec City. So I take that for about a mile. No Subway. Now I’m pissed. So I turned around and woooooooooo, that tailwind out of the west felt like the hand of God pushing me.
I went back to the Quizno’s, and asked a lady outside on her smoke break if there was a Subway in town. Now she spoke very broken English, and there were points where she would mix French and English in the same sentence, so I could follow her to a point, and then……..lost. So I ascertained that there was indeed a Subway in town. New she said it was by an Esso station, which is common for Subways to be shared with a gas station, so I thanked her and road back west on Rt 158, thinking that I must have passed it as I was focused on finishing this ride. So I ride, past the road construction, where I waited in line again, past the RR tracks out of town, past the second road construction where I waited in another line, to 6K outside of town. Not a happy camper! No Esso station, no Subway, and I was 4 miles west of town.
Ok, back into town again, thinking that lady is freaking just not understanding me. So I had 72 miles to town, and and then by this point I’d put on another 10 miles of riding too far east and then backtracking west. My patience was wearing thin. I was tired, bitch hungry, and ready to get the hell off of the bike! And I was muttering to myself all sorts of crap, all the way back into town for the second time. At the construction stop I passed the girl for the third time and said to her, “day szha vou?” And then, around the corner, there it was, about 70 feet up on a sign, Subway. I had passed it two times. It was WAY back from the highway, with only one lone sign, way the hell up on a pole, next to a SHELL station, not an ESSO station. So I pulled in and ordered a 12-inch – still had half a breakfast sub in my back bag. Also got a 32oz fountain coke.
These Subways are so air conditioned that I had to go outside and sit on the picnic tables so as to not get chilled, what with my soaked Underarmor. So I go out and just feast, like a bloody vulture. I munch through my breakfast sub first, and then gnaw on my 12-incher. One more coke and I was done. So then I started to do the math, I had put on another 30 min of useless riding trying to find the Subway, and I had pushed my timer when I finally did hit the Subway. So I tried to figure out when Ryan may arrive. I thought that maybe 2 hours would be the the longshot based on his performances over the past couple of weeks.
So I add my 30 min of “overriding” to my timer. And it grows to 1.5 hrs, 2 hrs, 2.5 hrs. And I finally had to draw the line at 5:30pm, or 3 hours from my arrival into Berthierville. And be damned if it didn’t come. So I wrote a note for Ryan. I had noticed that there was a hotel just past the under pass when I got into town, and by this time that was about my only alternative – campgrounds were…….hell I don’t know, somewhere out of town. And doing the knock, knock routine that Ryan’s a pro at – no can do for Pete. Plus, I need my wifi to find out if Ryan has emailed me. So I go back into Subway, after hanging around there outside for 2.5 hours like some sort of stalker, and I go in and ask if the waitress, by now a new one, if she speaks English. She does, and I give her a note telling Ryan that I’m going to bag it at the Day’s Inn.
I ride by the Quizno’s one last time just in case Ryan had the same difficulty in finding the Subway as I had, and then I ride outside of town another 2 miles west again, hoping to find him riding as I did on the massive day to Thunder Bay, where I spotted him coming up the final climb. No go on both accounts. It was by this time, 6:15 pm, and I went to the Day’s Inn. Checked in and then had a total bitch of a time getting my mac to take to their wireless. I even went into their workstation to use their computer – and wouldn’t you know it………their browser’s all in freaking French, and it indicated that there was some sort of error going on with my trying to get online. Now, at this point I was ready to smash their computer, my computer and the lady who told me that great wifi access was part of what I just plunked down 100 bucks for.
Finally, I got my computer to get it. Jerry: you’ll love this, as I had to click on New software available, but not download, and then I had access to Safari and AOL. Click off of the software update, and both go dead! So I left that on, and did not hit the install button. Sorry, for you non Mac geeks!
And low and behold, I got my emails, and there it was, an email from Ryan:
Hey Pete,
Well I have been hurtin for the past 3 days dude. That 10 days in a row proved to much for me. I am chillin in St.Jerome today/tonight. I'm gonna roll along at my own pace for the next few days. I will look to meet you and Barney in Quebec on Saturday or Sunday.
Hope your ride went good today,
Ryan
At first I was totally pissed, having overridden for 10 miles trying in vain to find a GD Subway, and then when I found it, I waited at Subway, our designated meeting spot, for 2.5 hours. It was too late to find a campground, and I had to get a hotel. And worse yet, I was concerned that he had a bad accident or a major breakdown with no solution. And low and behold he bagged it not more than an hour after I had passed him this morning. I sent him a terse email: “I waited for 3 hours.” Period! Then I showered, got a 6-pack and mellowed out. First I Skyped Judy and told her the situation and she set me straight. Then I called Barney on Skype and explained the situation to him. Having mellowed out a bit, I sent Ryan another email and told him what Barney and I had talked about, and what we could do.
Yup, I overreacted. I just cannot expect someone to perform as I do on the bike. I no longer have the capacity to race with my peers, BUT….. I can suffer like no tomorrow, for hours on end, for days on end, for weeks on end. That took me 30 years of riding to do this. So where Ryan’s at right now, which is in the hurt locker big time, it just doesn’t compute with me on this trip. I have to step back and look at it as if I were just a guy with 2 years of cycling under my belt – thanks again to to Judy for helping me see that clearly. She’s right. This guy has battled for the past two weeks, and now I think he’s over the edge. Hell, I’m the coach right? Ok coach, play coach. Done……I get it.
So here’s where we’re at. I have about 120 miles to get to Quebec City. I think I can do it tomorrow if there’s no rain, even in a headwind like today. Tough day…..yup, but doable. Add rain to the headwind……nope. Ryan is a good 3 days from Quebec City. Barney and I talked about taking Sunday and Monday as rest days. This, so Ryan can catch up to me AND get a recovery day before we set out east on the Gaspe Peninsula. I’d like him to get to the Atlantic Ocean. He’s worked way too hard to get this far. So I’ll wait to see what I hear from him in the next day, and we’ll proceed as such. I’m sure now that the dust has settled, that we’ll get this wagon rolling again.
Well, that’s the drama for today. More tomorrow……if I have wifi……Pete
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