Priorities

I left the motel today at 8:00 enroute to Tucson. The route was the reverse of the route to Casa Grande from earlier in the week. I started off just fine, but developed what seemed to be a bit of patellar tendinitis after about 10 miles. Often, random pains just go away after a while, so I let up and turned my attention to my knee to see where this was going. After another 15 minutes or so the pain became pretty severe so I babied it into the first rest stop. By applying power only on the upstroke of each pedal revolution, I was able to minimize the pain and managed to get to the rest stop by 10:00. When I rolled in, my knee was starting to get stiff.

At the stop, I spoke with the crew and we decided that I would ride the SAG to the lunch stop. So, I sat in the van icing my knee feeling pretty depressed. For almost everyone else out here, today was the finale. The final ride back into Tucson for a week total of almost 500 miles. The other riders were going home tonight or tomorrow feeling great about the week long desert tour. Some riders had even gone off route earlier in the week to pad their weekly miles up to 500.

Not me. I had blown my finale by pushing too hard earlier in the week. I may not have been planning on going home this week, but I still wanted to finish the first tour with everyone else. I came into camp with only about 600 miles for the year, and having been off of the bike completely for three weeks. What's more, I was sick for over two weeks just prior to coming to camp. I knew I had yet to build up a reasonable base for the season, and I had planned to ride gently all month. Yet, I hammered at least a little bit every day, and a lot on some. Sure, it was fun, but it was stupid.

Had I only planned on being out here for a week, I would have just loaded up on ibuprofen, iced my knee at every stop, and finished the ride screaming. I could then go home and take a week off before nursing my knee back into shape. But I have to keep my focus on the larger goal and priorities. I have three very long tours planned this year and another 9000 miles to go. Riding every mile this week, at any cost, is not a priority -- regardless of how stupid I feel for blowing it.

I'm going to write the 2006 goals down right now, so I can reinforce my memory. And so anyone reading can remind me what an asshole I am being the next time I post a blog about cruising at 300+ watts, pacing at or 22+ mph into the wind, chasing celebrities, or some other moronic self-defeating thrill seeking behavior. I should have written these down before. After I list them below, I am going to tape them onto my bike. In fact, I only need to tape the first three. Everything else can wait its turn.

Stay Healthy

Complete Route 66 Tour

Ride Every Mile of 66

Visit As Many Sites on 66 as Possible

Complete Transcontinental (66 + the Chicago-NYC route)

Ride Every Mile of Chicago-NYC

Complete Southern Transcontinental

Ride Every Mile of Southern Transcontinental

Ride the Pacific Coast

Ride Every Mile of the Pacific Coast

Ride 10,000 miles in 2006

That's it. That the list -- in priority order. Desert Camp is not even on the list. Desert Camp is supposed to be about getting my base miles in to prepare for Route 66, to learn about how my body reacts to riding long miles almost every day for a month, and to have sensible fun. Nothing more. Somebody please remind of that from time to time.

Saturday is a day off, so with 44 hours of rest, lots of ibuprofen, some physical therapy, and a little luck, I hope to be healthy enough on Sunday to get back on track. I did come here to learn, so hopefully I learned the lesson well about priorities and pacing during tours.

So, I rode the van to lunch, and then eventually to the motel. As the riders came into lunch, I sat on the benches with nothing to do. Normally, I do at least a little chatting. Today, however, my interaction basically went like this:

Rider: Hey, are you on the van?
Me: Yeah. Knee problem.
Rider: Oh.

Then they would sit down two benches away. You know how pack animals somehow know to stay away from the wounded in the group? Humans share some of that DNA.

Lessons Learned

I think we covered that.

Ride Summary

Distance: 26.5 miles
Speed (avg/max): 11.6 mph / 19.3 mph
Riding Time: 2 hours 5 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours 5 minutes
Power (avg/max) 121 watts / 362 watts
Calories Measured at Wheel: 915
Heart Rate (min/max/avg): 100 bpm / 156 bpm / 132 bpm

Miles this Year: 952