If you’ve read about all six days of my Pittsburgh-to-Cumberland-to-Pittsburgh trek, you know I’ve left some questions unanswered. So, here are the answers:
Q. How much weight did I lose?
A. I weighed 182.6 pounds the morning before my 300+ mile ride began. The morning after I returned, I weighed in on the same scale at 181.6 pounds. Precisely. One pound. I was dreaming of some apocalyptic drop. I was hoping to at least drop below 180 pounds. Didn’t happen.
Q. Can you do this ride without any training?
A. Yes. If you’ve consistently biked through life, even without wearing one of those geeky all-spandex outfits shouting a certain bike brand or a racing sponsor, you can get on this trail and ride steadily, consistently, 40 to 75 miles a day without waking up the next morning feeling like you’d rather die. In other words, if you like biking regularly but don’t feel like you’re pushing yourself, you can handle this. Skip the expensive, trendy bike-in-place training. Peloton? Hah.
Q. What about the bike outfit?
A. Wear uncovered spandex bike shorts, if you must. I wore biking shorts, or athletic undershorts with running-type shorts with pockets over them. I like Salomon shorts, because they have zippered front pockets, so I didn’t have to worry about keys or my money clip falling out, and not discovering this for 20 miles.
Q. What would I do differently?
A. I’d try to get these blog posts out more quickly. Like, the night of the ride. But when you’ve been riding all day, a burger and a beer and then bed call, loudly. I promise to do this more, and I hope more and more of you will find this worth reading.
Q. Do I prefer to ride with a group, or ride alone?
A. Each has its merits. Riding with brothers Greg and Tom is priceless. When I ride alone, there’s more time for reflection, and maybe getting out daily posts on time.
Q. Would I do this again?
A. Tomorrow, if I could.
Like Writing a Bicycle 