DAY 0: 9/19 Pacific tire dip and let the "BHAG" begin!

DAY 0: 9/19/21 2446 miles JFK to SAN by Jet Blue; 16.2 miles by bike –

After months of anticipation and planning, the big day went pretty much as planned. Flew JFK to SAN, took Uber to Trek store in Solana Beach (thank you Antoinette, 53 year old grandmother of 5!) and picked up our bikes that we shipped about 10 days ago. Thank you Mike and crew for reassembling our bikes!

TREK Bicycle Superstore

And then just as we were out their door it started. Other cross country cyclists had told us that people are going to start talking with you and asking you all about what you’re doing. An older couple was intrigued and we spoke for ten minutes and heard about their ride down the Danube. How many random encounters like this will we have and what memories will result?

The plan was for a short ride to make sure the bikes were functioning well. The bonus was that we enjoyed a beautiful ride down the coast through Delmar, Torrey Pines State Park, UC San Diego area and to our hotel. The ride offered gorgeous ocean views and so we decided to do the customary dipping of the back tire in the Pacific today since we were literally oceanside. How many days until our front tire touches the Atlantic? 

Pacific Ocean sendoff

We rode briefly next to a younger couple in cool matching cycling gear on a tandem and I’ve asked Heather to ride tandem. I asked them to tell her how great it is for relationships and you get to talk the whole ride. They did share how much they love it. So I turn to Heather and said we could rent one for a week to see how we like it. And she quickly replied “or for a day”. Love her independence!

It had been two weeks since our last ride as we had to give time to get our bikes packed and shipped. I hadn’t realized how much I missed riding and I was definitely a bit stressed the past week. Probably a combination of some jitters, too many last minute details, and now I think bike withdrawal. I got my “fix” today and It was rejuvenating to have the riding feeling again. 

We walked around Mission Bay (amazing cool, young, active vibe and place to live) and headed to the Mission Beach area for dinner overlooking a beautiful sun setting, dropping into the ocean. 

As we pondered what’s ahead, Heather’s main concern is will we suffer mechanical issues we can’t deal with. Top on my mind is the heat we will face the coming first week and overall will my 58 year old body, especially knees and hips, be able to “cash the check” that my brain (thinking it’s 28)  has written? Am I chasing the fountain of youth? Is this ride too ambitious? I like, or better yet love, the good wisher that said “good luck that’s an audacious goal”. It positively triggered Jim Collins (coauthor of Good to Great, and Built to Last) business management guru for me. Collins wrote of the need to tackle BHAGs. That’s Big Hairy Audacious Goals. Tomorrow our BHAG begins!

Day 0 Strava


© Copyright Mark Segal 2021.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome Back for Season 3 – Canada to Mexico!

Image
Welcome back to loyal readers of the Shifting Gears blog, and welcome to new readers! On September 19th, we start cycling from Canada to Mexico. We will ride down the Pacific Coast from Vancouver, BC to the USA-Mexico border. In all likelihood, we will not actually enter Mexico as it seems like a gimmick to spend all that border-crossing time just to head the few miles to Tijuana and turn back. A celebratory tequila in San Diego will be just fine. But Canada to Mexico sounds awesome!  In the fall of 2021, Heather and I cycled, by ourselves with paniers on our bikes, from San Diego, CA to St. Augustine, FL. The 2,970 miles cross-country journey took 46 days from the Pacific to Atlantic Ocean. We cycled a daily average of 72 miles on 41 days and rested 5 days. We faced many challenges and hardships including severe heat of 108°, dehydration, steep long climbing over the Continental Divide, painful “chip & seal” roads in Texas, hand numbness, saddle sores, and menacing dog chases, to
Read more

Season 3 Episode 1 (9/18-9/19): May These Gates Never Be Closed!

Image
Season 3 Episode 1 (9/18-9/19): May These Gates Never Be Closed! –  9/18 Arrive in Vancouver, BC and 10 mile warm up ride. Driving to Newark airport in the rain (and dark), we were thrilled it was sunny in Vancouver when we landed. A great start for our warm-up ride around Stanley Park, their version of Central Park but bigger and surrounded by water. I’d cycled around its spectacular Seawall Route many times before on multiple trips here from 1985-1998. Stanley Park, Seawall Bike Path. Oh Canada. It was great to be back. Our day started with the friendly Air Canada team at check-in who was excited to be part of our journey and assured us they’d take good care of our bikes. And yes our bikes safely made it! Gratitude! Using the cart on the escalator (against Heather’s warning to me) was not a smart idea. I nearly tumbled and caused a chain reaction with others behind me. That would have been a sad way to injure myself and not even start the ride (kind of Aaron Rogers like in NY Jets de
Read more

Season 3 Episode 20 End of Adventure Reflections. And Green Bananas!

Image
SOME END OF TRIP REFLECTIONS For those of you who like numbers, here is a quantitative snapshot to consider: 2,065 miles (vs. 2,035 forecasted) and compared to 2,667 Maine to Florida in 2022, & 2,970 California to Florida in 2021; 104,995’ accumulated elevation gain (sum of Strava counting) vs. 105,780’ forecasted and vs. 70,676’ & 85,070’ past 2 years. (And since we started at sea level in Vancouver and ended at sea level in San Diego, I would guess also 104,995’ of descent,) So as described in the opening blog, the greater climbing total over fewer miles meant much more climbing per day. 56 miles per riding day average, in line with 55 forecasted and happily by design less than past years (72 & 65 averages) 43.2 miles per hour – maximum speed achieved. It was on 10/18 on a long descent, late in the day towards Aptos, CA. On the next day I learned I needed to replace rear brake pads that were shot – yikes. 37 riding days 30 nights in hotels and Airbnb’s. 9 guest rid
Read more