Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Century Club
No, not the game you play at frat parties...
Yesterday, I joined the metric century club on my bicycle when we rode 143 km! At ~90 miles, it was the longest ride I had ever done (I think my second runner up was about 55 miles, also in China). It was a long day, but we finished strong and feel we are as prepared as possible for our Tibet Adventure.
We left the house yesterday around 8:30, rode through some serious mud out past the airport, then hopped on a N-S "highway" (a gorgeous road, lined on both sides by tall skinny pines, no traffic and no stoplights) to the tip of Shanghai where they are building a uber-urban planned city called Luchao Harbor, slated to open 2020. That was our destination, and soon after catching sight of the lake, huge raindrops started falling so we turned around and headed home, with no rain the rest of the ride. We made 2 pitstops for food - one at a tiny restaurant where we had delicious spicy tofu and "pure energy" chicken soup; and the second at our friends' barbeque where we had to clean up in the kiddy pool and change shirts before sitting at their table (I told you - the mud!).
The highlight of the ride for me was when the sun blasted down for about 10 minutes around 35km into the ride and Tim said, "I would really like some watermelon." About 2 minutes later, on a desolate road near the airport, a man pulling a cart of personal sized watermelons rolled by. We zoomed past him, looked at each other, stopped and simultaneously started yelling the Chinese for watermelon: Xigua, xigua! He stopped and we each ate half a 2RMB (30 cents) sun-warmed watermelon right on the side of the road. I wish I had had a camera to show yesterday's clear skies and Tim with a quarter watermelon in each hand, his mouth full, and the juice running down his chin.
It was a good day, and I am not even sore today :)
Stats: 143km, avg 21.6 km/hr, odo: 1830km
Yesterday, I joined the metric century club on my bicycle when we rode 143 km! At ~90 miles, it was the longest ride I had ever done (I think my second runner up was about 55 miles, also in China). It was a long day, but we finished strong and feel we are as prepared as possible for our Tibet Adventure.
We left the house yesterday around 8:30, rode through some serious mud out past the airport, then hopped on a N-S "highway" (a gorgeous road, lined on both sides by tall skinny pines, no traffic and no stoplights) to the tip of Shanghai where they are building a uber-urban planned city called Luchao Harbor, slated to open 2020. That was our destination, and soon after catching sight of the lake, huge raindrops started falling so we turned around and headed home, with no rain the rest of the ride. We made 2 pitstops for food - one at a tiny restaurant where we had delicious spicy tofu and "pure energy" chicken soup; and the second at our friends' barbeque where we had to clean up in the kiddy pool and change shirts before sitting at their table (I told you - the mud!).
The highlight of the ride for me was when the sun blasted down for about 10 minutes around 35km into the ride and Tim said, "I would really like some watermelon." About 2 minutes later, on a desolate road near the airport, a man pulling a cart of personal sized watermelons rolled by. We zoomed past him, looked at each other, stopped and simultaneously started yelling the Chinese for watermelon: Xigua, xigua! He stopped and we each ate half a 2RMB (30 cents) sun-warmed watermelon right on the side of the road. I wish I had had a camera to show yesterday's clear skies and Tim with a quarter watermelon in each hand, his mouth full, and the juice running down his chin.
It was a good day, and I am not even sore today :)
Stats: 143km, avg 21.6 km/hr, odo: 1830km
# posted by Laurel @ 12:52 PM 
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