So much has happened in the last few weeks, and so much more will happen in the upcoming week. Here's a short run down of everything that has gone on.
A couple weeks ago we had our last team meeting before the ride, detailing many of the specifics of the wheres and whens. So in case you're interested, we're leaving at 9pm on Wednesday May 27th from Chicago's Union Station. We're supposed to arrive at the train station a few hours earlier, allowing us to pack what we need to into the support van, make sure all the bikes are packed properly, and in general make sure that nobody ends up being really late. So we'll have a few hours between then and when we actually board the train. Besides all that fun information, we also received our team backpacks (not I4k branded, just the same for all team members) which as you might imagine provided quite the distraction for the duration of the meeting. We also had a brief slide show, highlighting a few more things that we'll see and encounter on our journey this summer. I think it was at this point that it really hit me that I was going to be spending my entire summer on a bike. The nerves are undoubtedly building in anticipation.
The following weekend I organized an optional bike ride through some of the hilliest terrain that we have in the area. Unfortunately nobody showed up, however it was still a pleasant 70 mile ride, with a good chunk of scenery I had never seen before.
Last weekend I began my ramping up for the ride, trying to get a ride in every day. Long distances weren't the primary objective of these rides, just getting out and riding every day to build a good base for the first week. Most rides I've done are in the 30-40 mile range so by the end of the week, I should be nearing 200-220 miles for the week. This is about half of what I will be doing every week during the summer, but probably enough to prevent most of the anticipated soreness that people will encounter in the first couple weeks. I'll continue to ride as much as I can until we leave Wednesday evening.
Tomorrow morning I leave Champaign and head for home. I plan on spending my last week before this trip in the far north suburbs of Chicago. Besides offering a different environment to bike in (suburbia, where roads a much more likely to be crowded with people who are not used to cyclists on the roads), it also allows the the opportunity to try out the route that I designed over Spring Break. This is not the only reason I'm heading home though, I also have a few other things I'd like to do before leaving for the summer including a trip to the dentist, seeing family, visiting IMSA, and hopefully seeing a few friends as well. I don't know if I'll get to doing those last two, however I'll try to put in a good effort.
While at home there are a few things that I will need to take care of before starting this trip. While I have everything that I need for this trip, there's a few things that I could get which would make the experience a little easier. Most of what I could still use is cold weather gear, leg and arm warmers, as well as a rain jacket that would help keep me warmer than my current one. It would also be nice to pick up an additional pair of cycling shorts to replace the ones which I scuffed up from when I fell a few weeks ago and as well as a new seat bag and possibly a feed bag (a small bag that goes between the head tube/stem and the top tube used for holding food and other small objects).
There are also a few things I still need to do before setting out for out trip. There are a couple of things I still need to do in order to get this website where I want it, specifically integrating an online photo album and a few small modifications to the style of this website to incorporate potential Twitter posts. More importantly, there is still quite a bit of work left to get the Portraits Project ready for the trip. Not only do I need to roll out a new design which is only marginally conceptualized, but I also need to organize the paperwork and files which we'll need to conduct our interviews.
The last major item which I need to accomplish and won't be able to start until the night before is the packing of my bike so that it can be taken with me to New York on the train. Sometime between now and then I'll need to get a bike box (obtainable at nearly any bike shop) as well as a pedal wrench. I should be able to get these at any bike shop, so I'll probably get them wherever I go for the clothing and storage that I'm looking to get before I depart. With a box, a pedal wrench and the multitool I already own, I should have all the items I need to deconstruct the bike well enough to fit it inside the box. The other option is that I skip this and just buy a box from Amtrak. They tend to be larger, thus requiring less disassembly and we'll have the tool kit available at the train station so I wouldn't need to get my own pedal wrench.
I certainly have my work cut out for me between now and a week from now, but with a little planning, I should have no issues accomplishing everything before next Wednesday rolls around.