Hey everyone,
No, this is not about installing a freewheel on a unicycle. Instead, this
is about a annual cross state cycling trek through Oklahoma that I
participated in on my Coker. (okfreewheel.com) I had been forewarned about
the number of hills that were involved. I wasn’t dissappointed. I went a
total of 225 Coker miles with many roller coaster hills (which included a
1000 ft. vert. climb within 3 miles followed by a 7 mile downhill at the
very beginning of a 70 mile day.)
A brief outline of how it went
Day 0: optional 23.4 miles. flat,easy & hot warm up. 10.87 mph AVG
Day 1: 73.6 miles hilly & hot 10.17 mph AVG
Day 2: 65.1 miles very hilly & hot 8.27 mph AVG lots of foot problems.
Day 3: 63 miles borrowed a bike because of “burning feet” & ankle pain.
Day 4: 30 miles(out of 63.4) back on the Coker in spite of swelling right
ankle from too many downhills. hot & extremely hilly. I tried to ride
more left-footed. I think during most of my training, I controlled my
downhill speed with my left foot. Eventually during the ride, I was
forced to brake with my right foot too, which rebelled with swelling & a
tight fit with my shoes.
Day 5: optional loops. Slept till noon & did laundry.
Day 6: 11 miles(out of 50) rode a small section of the route until my
right crank worked loose. I wasn’t too dissappointed because my ankle was
still killing me.
Day 7: 14 miles (out of 34) I rode the final stretch wearing hiking boots
(the only thing that would fit over my swollen ankle).
I still had a great time in spite of my problems & dissappointment of not
going the entire way. I was interviewed 3 times by newspapers & once by
the TV, but only a brief mention in the paper was all I saw come from it.
I did have to compete with Tiger Woods & the US Open for the news in
Oklahoma though. I look forward to training better & getting it right
next year.
-Mark