Solo Double Century to Portland

Since I had a week off from work to relax, I decided to do a longer then typical ride. I had been doing a lot of 25 and 50 mile rides with the occasional century thrown in. I had been eyeing a trip to Portland, Indiana for a couple of reasons, one it has one of our bank branches where I work, which meant I knew the roads fairly well, plus I noticed it was 90 miles away, perfect for a double century.

Looking at the weather predictions for the week, it looked like Thursday was the best day, it was to be the coolest, plus the winds would be coming from the North/East, The wind predictions increased to 10 - 15 MPH plus gusts by the time Thursday rolled around, I figured that would be fine since it would mean 90 miles of headwinds at the start, then some very nice tailwinds for the last 110 miles.

For snacks I brought some power bars plus some store bought packaged peanut butter and jelly crackers.  The bike is setup to carry three water bottles that hold 24 ounces of water each, which typically holds me for around 50 miles depending on how hard I'm riding. I knew I would have to make at least 4 stops for water refills, plus I planned on stopping at the Arby's restaurant in Portland for a roast beef sandwich or two. My overall plan was to take it easy, to make sure I was able to finish. This would be my second double century for the year. The earlier one was all within Decatur county, so there was no danger of me being stranded far from home.

I started early in the morning just before sun up, with the headlight on bright and the taillight flashing. Since it was a bit chilly and windy, I wore a plastic bicycling windbreaker style jacket. I figured I'd be taking it off in an hour or so.

I stopped at one of our branches at New Castle for a free water refill plus bathroom break. The road through New Castle was rough, being built using concrete, it had some damage so I had to watch out for some fairly large gaps between the slabs.

I was looking forward to the highway bypass around Muncie, it had exit signs with on and off ramps, just like an Interstate highway would have. It'd be like riding the bike on the forbidden Interstate. While taking the on ramp, I even double checked to make sure there were no "NO PEDESTRIANS BICYCLES ANIMALS TRACTORS MOPEDS BEYOND THIS POINT" sign. It just felt like I was breaking the law, riding an onramp! I often wondered how they expected any "ANIMALS" to read the sign? Can they still be arrested if they are ignorant of the law? The onramps aren't designed for bike travel, since the rumble strip seemed to take up most of the emergency strip, plus the strip was covered in debris. Which made it tricky for cars to pass me in the narrow road lane.

A few miles down the road, I pulled in behind the McDonalds in the town of Albany for thirty minutes for a work conference call. I took off the jacket, my shirt was soaked with sweat. I also used this time to put on some sun screen before heading back out. I didn't get anything to eat, since I was planning on stopping at Portland to eat.

I stopped at the gas station in Redkey for a bathroom break. I also bought some Gatorade to drink before starting again. A few miles later and I was finally in Portland! I was hoping make it in 6 hours riding time, but it was closer to 7. Here I made a stop at the Arby's restaurant, where I had two roast beef sandwiches and some water.

Now that I was leaving Portland, there was finally a tailwind, I was still taking it easy, but the speed increased by 2-3 MPH with the same effort. I always find its much more enjoyable to go faster, I planned the ride for this tailwind to help keep me motivated, and more likely to finish the ride.
I was a little concerned coming into Portland since it seemed like the wind was changing directions, from the South instead of from the North. The wind held it's Northerly source for the rest of the ride, although as evening came, the wind started slowing down quite a bit. The first half of the ride, the winds are from 8 - 15 MPH, by the time the ride was completed they were down to 4 MPH.

I made three more gas station stops on the way home, always getting a Gatorade to drink, refill the water tanks and of course a bathroom break.

I had to add an extra loop once I returned to Greensburg to hit 200 miles for the day. It took me 14 hours and 18 minutes from the moment I started till I finished, with 12 hours and 26 minutes of riding time. I felt great afterwards, I could have ridden more without any problems. According to the Garmin computer, I lost 7,199 calories ( I lost 5 pounds), had an average moving speed of 16.4 MPH and only 2,674 feet of climbing. The total mileage ended up being at 203 miles.

Here is the detailed STAVA link.

Here is the summary picture from STRAVA:

 

 

This was a great challenge, the only issues was the amount of traffic between New Castle and Muncie. Since it was in the middle of the week, there was a lot of commercial trucks. I think a weekend ride would have less commercial traffic. Although the next time, I may try to find a route to bypass the bypass.

I'm actually still riding, just not blogging as much, as you can tell. I have a lot to blog about, I already have over 2,000 miles this year plus I've made some bike mods, that actually slow down the bike, such as adding a hub generator and I put on slightly larger tire on the rear wheel.