Lessons Learned

I went for a 9 hour training ride on Saturday. It was a mostly flat spin along the Inter-Urban and Centennial trails here in the Seattle area. I love the fact that here in Seattle I can ride 200km with less than a quarter of that being on regular roads. Weather was chilly and overcast so I saw very few other riders and this gave me some time to think about what I've learned so far on my trek to PBP. A few observations:

• I have the best wife in the world. Between a 6 month old daughter and an 80 year old house it's a miracle I have the time to ride around the block let alone go out for 8+ hour rides. She's also been very tolerant of the numerous bike bits, entry fees, and mountains of junk food purchased at the various gas stations of Washington state.
  
• The Starbuck's DoubleShot is an almost magical elixir. When you only have 30-40km left to go this little can of sugar, cream and caffeine is just the ticket to get you carcass across the line. Many thanks to Kent Peterson for introducing me to this lifesaver.
  
• Clif Bars don't seem to work any better than Payday bars, Twix bars, fig newtons, etc. They just cost a lot more.
  
• The longer you're on the bike, the weirder your tastes get. Towards the end of my ride on Saturday I was riding a section of the Inter-Urban trail which passes behing numerous fast food joints. Eventually I caved to the pressure and ate 2 cheeseburgers that I normally wouldn't wish upon my enemies.
• When you get far enough into a ride you'll tell yourself the most amazing lies. Example: "It's not a hill....it's just flat in a different direction"
• If your cold you're not pedaling hard enough.
  
• It's not raining, it's just VERY humid.
  
• Cyclists who blow through red lights/stop signs also seem to be the same cyclists who bitch the most about how bad motorists are. Go figure.
  
• The littlest creak can become extremely annoying after a few hours. My Sella Anatomica is on its way out for this very reason. It might be comfortable but I can't handle 90 hours of creaking on P-B-P.