Breakfast with the motel restaurant, Peggy's, at 8, where if you're not a regular your name is 'honey'. There I overheard a middle aged man explaining to his elderly father all he knew about current American military technology.... quite a lot of very incorrect and conspiracy-esque theories!
I was on the road at 9:30 and not long after leaving Chambersburg and cresting the first hill I got a glimpse of what lay ahead of me, the Appalachian mountains. The climbs of yesterday were nothing compared to today, with summits over 2000ft in the morning. Climbing for hours in granny ring, then descending so quickly your ears pop is a maddening experience. Your body temperature rises and falls with the hills, and whilst you pray each hill crest will be the last, the views they bring are breathtaking (or whatever breath you have left!)
Around midday I stopped at a cafe at the top of one of the climbs for some lunch. There I met two guys, one on an oxygen supply, and explained how I was raising money for Macmillan and about the support they give. They then suggested I.tried the 84 oz steak challenge at the cafe. If you can eat it all, plus two vegetable sides, in less than an hour you get it for free, otherwise it's $62.50! I opted for a country fried steak sandwich instead, which turned out to be a lightly battered burger in a bun, plus a delicious blueberry pie slice with ice cream.
After several hours in the hills, I headed out of that range and onto a long and fast descent down to Bedford. There I looked at my GPS only to find I'd done 45 miles and it was already 4pm! I thought the descents would continue and I'd be at the motel soon enough, but it turns out I was descending into the Allegheny valley, and the climbs on the other side were even higher than the morning, peaking around 3000 ft!
In total, I climbed 10200 ft today over 95.6 miles. To put that in context, Wales is 60 miles wide and its highest point is Snowdon at 3560 ft. Definitely the toughest days cycling I've ever done and I'm looking forward to a shorter day and my first rest day in Pittsburgh tomorrow and the day after.
I reached the motel around 8:30 pm but unfortunately the local restaurants were all closed, so whilst I was checking in, another shirtless man (who turns out is the motel owner) brought me some crackers, oreos, a couple of chicken wings and carrot and celery with dip with a Pepsi. "Ain't nobody goes hungry in my motel", he said, and gave me a menu to order takeout from. An extremely kind man, who also did his best English accent which sounded closer to Irish!
To help my legs, I ran a cold-water bath and submerged my legs for around 10 mins. Painfully cold at first, but the idea is to force your blood vessels to open and flush out any lactic acid to prevent your muscles from cramping. I've also got some compression shorts that help blood flow into the muscles that I'll wear overnight.
Its been a fun but absolutely shattering day. Ready for some sleep now!
Miles today: 95.6
Total miles: 372.9
I was on the road at 9:30 and not long after leaving Chambersburg and cresting the first hill I got a glimpse of what lay ahead of me, the Appalachian mountains. The climbs of yesterday were nothing compared to today, with summits over 2000ft in the morning. Climbing for hours in granny ring, then descending so quickly your ears pop is a maddening experience. Your body temperature rises and falls with the hills, and whilst you pray each hill crest will be the last, the views they bring are breathtaking (or whatever breath you have left!)
Around midday I stopped at a cafe at the top of one of the climbs for some lunch. There I met two guys, one on an oxygen supply, and explained how I was raising money for Macmillan and about the support they give. They then suggested I.tried the 84 oz steak challenge at the cafe. If you can eat it all, plus two vegetable sides, in less than an hour you get it for free, otherwise it's $62.50! I opted for a country fried steak sandwich instead, which turned out to be a lightly battered burger in a bun, plus a delicious blueberry pie slice with ice cream.
After several hours in the hills, I headed out of that range and onto a long and fast descent down to Bedford. There I looked at my GPS only to find I'd done 45 miles and it was already 4pm! I thought the descents would continue and I'd be at the motel soon enough, but it turns out I was descending into the Allegheny valley, and the climbs on the other side were even higher than the morning, peaking around 3000 ft!
In total, I climbed 10200 ft today over 95.6 miles. To put that in context, Wales is 60 miles wide and its highest point is Snowdon at 3560 ft. Definitely the toughest days cycling I've ever done and I'm looking forward to a shorter day and my first rest day in Pittsburgh tomorrow and the day after.
I reached the motel around 8:30 pm but unfortunately the local restaurants were all closed, so whilst I was checking in, another shirtless man (who turns out is the motel owner) brought me some crackers, oreos, a couple of chicken wings and carrot and celery with dip with a Pepsi. "Ain't nobody goes hungry in my motel", he said, and gave me a menu to order takeout from. An extremely kind man, who also did his best English accent which sounded closer to Irish!
To help my legs, I ran a cold-water bath and submerged my legs for around 10 mins. Painfully cold at first, but the idea is to force your blood vessels to open and flush out any lactic acid to prevent your muscles from cramping. I've also got some compression shorts that help blood flow into the muscles that I'll wear overnight.
Its been a fun but absolutely shattering day. Ready for some sleep now!
Miles today: 95.6
Total miles: 372.9
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| "They've shot their own sign!" |
I'm tired just reading about this!
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