Do you need to train for weeks in the gym and on expensive stationary bicycles to survive a five-day, 300-mile ride? Can you ride the 150 miles between Pittsburgh and Cumberland, Maryland, on the Great Allegheny Passage, in three days without collapsing? Can you feast like King Henry VIII and still lose weight while riding? And is it cool and proper — or gauche — to ride without a second pair of shorts over form-fitting spandex bike shorts?

These were my big concerns after my brother-in-law, Greg, invited me to join him with two of his friends in fulfilling his longtime goal of riding both the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) and the C&O Canal trail, 335 miles to Washington, D.C.

If you’re thinking about the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) for your first long ride, I’m here for you. You’ll find fine resources online if you want just the facts. If, like me, you’ve been a fairly avid biker over the years, but lately life and gainful employment and maybe a beer belly have got in the way, this blog is here to help.

Convinced, but not fully committed to join last January, I also kvetched over finding the right bike for the mostly crushed-gravel GAP trail, built on the remains of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, and for the rougher C&O Canal trail, built along the waterway envisioned by President Washington. By March, I would begin training with 10- and 20-mile Saturday rides around Metro Detroit on my urban bike. I figured out early that the four-year-old Jamis Coda would not have the speed to keep up with Greg and his friends even with their promise of a moderately paced ride averaging about 50 miles per day.

My 2007 Gary Fisher Supercaliber wouldn’t cut it, either. The 26-incher might be well-suited to the C&O Canal trail, but the full-suspension bike would be too slow on the GAP, and could not accommodate panniers, saddlebags nor other necessary luggage.

By the time the Downtown Ferndale Bike Shop found me the right ride, a brand-new, carbon-fiber Jamis Renegade Expert (ha!) in late April, I had time for a couple of 10-mile rides around my neighborhood, and one 20-some mile ride to downtown Detroit and back on my Coda. In early May, I had to take another week out of “training” to drive back a 2016 Fiat 500X (not mine) from Los Angeles so I could throw the Renegade in back and drive the four-plus hours to Pittsburgh.

I took one 10-mile ride on the Renegade without bags, before the ride, and added a rear rack for a tandem-pannier the day before I left for Pittsburgh. This is not good planning, though I’m happy I added the rack, which also served as a holder for the other rear bag, which is supposed to suspend itself with straps off the seat.

On Thursday, the morning of my evening drive to downtown Pittsburgh, my bathroom scale read “182.6 pounds.” That evening, I discovered that the Fiat 500X, a subcompact-crossover/utility, could not accommodate the Jamis Renegade without removing the front wheel, which has a pass-through axle instead of a quick-release hub. Even then, you have to move up the front passenger seat and play with the handlebars to make it fit.

Thanks to life and work, we were down to three riders; Greg, who rode his new three-wheel, front-suspension recumbent to Pittsburgh from State College, Pennsylvania (140 miles — now, there’s a training regimen), his friend Tom, who lives in Greater Pittsburgh and rides a two-year-old Specialized steely, and myself.

We start from Point State Park, Mile 0 at the northern edge of the GAP. While Greg and Tom will take about a week to ride all the way to Washington, I need to return to Detroit by Thursday morning, at the latest. I’ve cancelled an Amtrak reservation (with bike storage, $20 extra) that would take me from Cumberland back to Pittsburgh, on Friday. I didn’t relish the thought of riding into Washington.

The bike trains book early, even in the pre-Memorial Day off-season, so I’m not able to rebook the same trip for Tuesday. That means I’ll have to find a shuttle van back to the Fiat, parked in a municipal garage in downtown Pittsburgh ($13 per day) from Cumberland or another point along the way if I think I can still ride after 150 miles. If I’m still standing, I’ll double my ride and bike back another 150 miles in three days.

On the ride training? Let’s see if it works.