The wine country is beautiful and the Bay Area is lucky to be so close to Napa and Sonoma. I biked to Napa and back this past weekend and had a stellar ride. I’m working to get up and out of the house early to get used to riding in the dark and being tired when I start riding. The dark hours on the 30for30th are going to be the toughest and I don’t want to be surprised by them. Not to mention I like to get home early to spend a little more time with my family on the weekend. That said I was on the road at 5:30 on my way to Napa. The ride from southern Marin County to Napa is good but not great, unfortunately I had to ride for a section on the dreaded route 37, aka Blood Alley (don’t tell my wife). The shoulder is huge on this section of 37 and if you can deal with cars passing you five feet away at 70+ miles an hour it’s not that bad. Although, there is one bridge that completely bugs me out with no shoulder and a tiny maybe foot and a half wide curb. I’ve encountered this brief section before and was ready. If you time it right with the traffic it’s not that bad, but needless to say, it ain’t fun. The biggest challenge of the day was finding coffee! I got to Napa about 9AM, rode through town quickly, scarfed some snacks and turned right back around. Napa was dead quiet on a Sunday morning, I guess everyone’s sleeping off their wine hangovers. On my training rides I’ve been pushing it hard to get my heart rate up and give my legs a seriously solid work out. I think this hard approach to training rides will help a lot for the actual event. Just so we’re clear, I’m not trying to break any speed or mileage records, I just want to bike for 30 hours, that’s all. So, the idea is to conserve, manage my body and exersion levels for 30 hours. That is the goal. On the ride to Napa I downed quite a bit of food and drink. Eating is the key, I have to eat eat eat in order to make this happen. Literally every 15 minutes I need some form of caloric intake, preferably carb based to sustain my energy for that long period of time. Eating and riding is an art and the food tastes so good while you ride.
All in all it was an excellent ride to Napa, right at 90 miles roundtrip, I felt strong, saw some beautiful scenery in perfect weather and got more excited about the 30for30th ride. Let’s do this!
All in all it was an excellent ride to Napa, right at 90 miles roundtrip, I felt strong, saw some beautiful scenery in perfect weather and got more excited about the 30for30th ride. Let’s do this!
