east texas nodown

refer to my instagram for any visuals, you'll find them in my 'highlights'

I might as well start my website blog posts with my most recent adventure. This past weekend I showed up in Point Blank, Texas expecting to ride my bike loaded down over 160 miles of untamed Texas forest. Simply, I hadn't prepared. I have been nose in a laptop working my way towards a bachelors degree in Psychology. The class commenced and I crawled out of my study hole to realized I planned a couple things. The East Texas Lowdown being one of them. The study posture is terrible for bicycle endurance training. A writer for a cycling publication sent emails to all females registered for any distance of the East Texas Showdown. This email was filled with interview questions, of which I didn't realize it would be published. I wanted to give out disclaimers about my interview, I never thought it would be published, its severely unfiltered.

My bicycle bestie and I put some miles in, one trip to San Antonio and several little bouts around ATX, I was nervous. I didn't believe that I put in enough miles, but I've done larger rides on less cycling, so I still showed up. The distance was 160 and I had 84 hours to complete it, the time wasn't my concern. The weather forecast was steady at cold (50s) and rainy. So I packed all my cold weather cycling gear. I've done bikepacking before so I knew what to expect from riding all day, finding a spot to sleep then doing that all over again. Last December I rode with a few other strong cyclists in Las Cruces, among the Organ mountains.

My story isn't one of inspirational, motivational completion. I hadn't prepared. I overlooked one detail. My bike, Surly Disc Trucker, designed for the endurance adventure, was not up to the task. Last year the rear wheel hub gave me some trouble on the Wire Donkey. Five miles into that ride something was up with my gears. later the bike shop boys would find that this was an issue that originated from a RAGBRAI 2021 incident. Now, for the east texas lowdown, I had been putting miles on my surly, time in the saddle. I had a slow leak in the rear tire, but figured I'd nurse it until the big day. I absolutely despise excuses, so I'll try to say this without an excuse. I trusted my gear, too much. The rear tire was not ready for the adventure. The slow leak probably would have hung on a lot longer than any of the three tubes I tried putting in the wheel. The slow leak tube had tubeless seal in it from our Monumental Loop ride, 3 months earlier.

I kept telling myself 'grit and determination' looks different for everybody as I applied 9 patches to the three tubes. I never was able to get a tube to stay at my ideal PSI. There were a few other events that day that I could summarize as 'shot myself in the foot'. I was able to complete 1.9 miles of the planned route. I have some things I would have done with hindsight vision. The biggest thing I chuckle about is that my initial fear was how I would be riding solo. All my big rides I've been with at least three other riders, this one I had no plans to ride with others. That scared me, what makes me laugh, is that for the weekend I ended up alone anyway.

The race production team was awesome and approachable which is how every bike event should be. The route was perfect, er what I saw of it. I prefer a highly humid ride day, but it was a little too cold for me. My Iowan roots are cringing right now, but below 50 is uncomfortable!

Yea, I can make this relate to massage, train, stay loose, prioritize movement. I prefer cycling as my enjoyable hobby, strength training and massage help me to keep it enjoyable. My experience in massage and alternative therapies helped me to recover from this weekend. (But, Carrie, you only rode 2 miles.) The cold, sleeping in my car and the campfire exaggerated some symptoms from allergies the week before.

Yes, I would try again, next time, I will listen to my smart friends and go tubeless. Cheers to your next adventure, I hope to help you train for it!