The Sandusky to Cleveland route was tougher than the last few times we rode it.
Neither one of us actually wanted to leave Sandusky. Sure, we didn’t go to Cedar Point. Sure, the town outside of Cedar Point is not much better than any other town in America, and in fact can be quite boring if you’re visiting for a week and not hitting the park. But it’s become somewhat like a home away from home since the first bike trip in 2016. In 2018 we stayed a week, which may have been a little long since we didn’t hit the park everyday (it was early August and PACKED. We have Platinum passes have have become line snobs, figuring if it’s too busy we’ll just come back later). Though if we went in late August then when the kids are going back to school like we did in previous years perhaps the week would have been less trying to find things to do.
We were able to do a couple of our normal Sandusky stops, but a day and a half isn’t enough time to relax. Also anytime away from our home area is a good thing. Also we had a feeling going to Cleveland was going to be a pain.
We’ve done the Cleveland route before. It was Bike Trip 1.0’s To and From Sandusky route, Bike Trip 2.0’s From Sandusky route, and Bike Trip 3.0’s To Sandusky route. However it’s never been more than Day 3 into the trip as in Bike Trip 3.0, or after a fews day’s rest as in Bike Trip 1.0’s and 2.0’s From Sandusky leg. This was trip day 12, riding day 11 with only 1 day not jumping between cities, and even that day we rode 18.5 miles.
We can tell our leg muscles are getting tight. The slightest head wind is still slowing us down. It feels that no matter how hard we pedal or what gear we’re in we’re barely moving. The moving time in my app show’s we’re actually making decent time, but we’re making more frequent breather stops than we did earlier in the trip. The sweat has been pouring out much more than earlier too, not that we haven’t been sweating, but yesterday it was like there was a hose streaming water on our heads and it was pouring off. It was nice to make it to Cleveland and get to the hotel.
We hit the Winking Lizard, where I’ve wanted to go a few times before but never made it. It seems like a place that would be fun when things are normal again. As it stands it still wasn’t a bad place. The food was good and had a few drinks, while hanging out and playing Touch Tunes.
This has been quite an adventure and our bodies are definitely starting to feel the effects. I had a cousin comment that we must be in really good shape. We are not. We’re both overweight and both like to eat, and generally don’t eat all that healthy. The original name of the blog when it was just an idea was “Fat Guys Ride”. We felt it was quite an accomplishment when we did the first bike trip at 140 miles, then again at the same mileage. Bike trip 3.0 we added 50 miles each way. And this one is an estimated 650 miles, with days ranging form 35 to 62 miles. It all feels like quite an accomplishment for us, but then talking to other cyclists on the trail or others about their cyclist friend and they’re reaching over 100 miles a day in a time that we can go 50 or 60 miles in the right conditions. It feels a little defeating, but increases the motivation to lose the excess weight, which is why we started riding in the first place. That and to be able to eat more. Figure if you’re going by a calorie based diet plan and you have an allotment of 1750 calories a day, but you ride 30 miles and get another 2000 calories burned, that then can add to the 1750 meaning you can eat 3750 calories worth of stuff, which, if you’re like us, is an easy accomplishment at any time. Sure, if we stuck to the 1750 the burned 2000 would just make the weight fall off quicker. For us it’s easier said than done.
I’m not sure what’s going to happen after this trip, usually we get back and don’t touch the bikes until the following spring, but we’re both pretty unhappy with the excess weight, and at not being able to keep a decently high sustained speed. So we’ve been talking about shorter high intensity routes in addition to our normal routes at home. Plus planning on using my bike trainer in the winter/when the weather sucks/any other time. Plonker had yet to get one, but he was looking at them during this trip. I found that it gets boring staring at a screen but I think that if we made a game of it, like a race, it could be more motivating.
Anyway, today we’re heading to Kent. We could, and have made it home in one day, but Bike Trip 3.0 we stopped in Kent and had a good time, hoping to do it again, but I’m guessing things will be low key there as almost everywhere else has been on this trip.
