Keep on pedaling

Twenty-five days from now, I fly out of Seattle, meeting up the next morning with six friends (everyone but me related by blood or marriage) in Paris.  After three nights in Paris, we take the train to Orléans.  The following day we will be outfitted with bikes and begin our six day bike ride down the Loire river valley.

We will start out strong, riding 25 miles the first day and 30 miles the second a beginning which still seems somewhat formidable.  Our distances will vary from 8 miles to 30 miles, with the average being 21 miles.  Three of us will be riding standard road bikes; the rest of us will be riding electric-assisted bikes.

I will be one of the latter.  In my prime, thirty miles on a standard bike would have been unremarkable.  In 1998, my nephew and I rode fifty miles, our first day in Southern China, in 95 degree weather.  We were tired at the end of that first day's ride, but nothing that a cold beer at our hotel couldn't cure.

My last ride of any length -- nothing approaching that Chinese adventure -- was in Laos in 2007.  Since then, I've ridden only occasionally around town.  I slid past my 84th birthday last month.  I therefore feel entitled to a little "electricity" in my life.  In fact, if it weren't for the availability of the electric bikes, I probably wouldn't have attempted this year's ride in France.

Which would have been a pity.  The arthritis in my knee, of which I've already complained bitterly, makes the daily hiking that has played so central a role in my vacations become pretty much impossible.  But a bike ride, although using muscles in your leg, doesn't stress the knee joint.  In fact, along with swimming, biking is a most highly recommended exercise for arthritis sufferers who want to stay in any sort of physical condition.

So, about a month ago, I rented an electric bike for a day, and took it out on the Burke Gilman bicycle trail near my  home to see how it went.  I was delighted with discovering that it caused no discomfort at all to my knee (or to my Achilles tendon in the other leg, which at that time was still a problem).  I completed a ride of 13 miles, and cut it short at that point not because of any leg problems, but because my butt was getting quite sore sitting on the bike's saddle.  

It wasn't until the next day that I found out that my leg muscles -- not my joint, the muscles -- were so sore and weak that I could hardly walk.  But as a hiker, I'm used to that kind of pain.  It means your muscles are beginning to strengthen in reaction to stress.

So my muscles needed strengthening, and my rear end needed callousing.  I needed to do some training rides.  I hauled my long-disused road bike out of the basement, had it checked out and oiled, and its tires inflated, and began riding.  (I also bought a couple pair of padded bicycle shorts.).

Eighteen days ago, I set out on a modest route that took me 3.4 miles.  Revelatory.  I found out that on a level course -- such as a bike trail -- you really don't need the electric assistance.  An ordinary 21-speed road bike is just as easy to pedal, and easier to handle when you're not pedaling.  But there will be times on the Loire when the route gets a bit hilly, and the power assistance will be important.  The next day, I rode 10.8 miles, and the day after that 12.6 miles.  There was then a period when I had relatives visit, and I missed a week or so of practice rides.

Unfortunate, but two weeks ago I rode 15.8 miles.  A week later, I was up to 18.8 miles, and last Friday I reached 22 miles -- longer than the average daily ride on our tour.  At this point, additional miles are far easier to achieve than they were at the outset.

In the final 25 days before departure, I want to get my mileage up to 30 miles.  I also want to make sure that riding, say, three days in a row doesn't tax my endurance.  Or my rear end.

But things are coming along well, and on schedule.  Actually, better than the schedule I had planned in advance.  I'm definitely excited about our ride, and trust I'll still be happy and in good physical shape when we pull into Tours on our last day, before taking the train back to Paris.