My Pittsburgh to DC Gravel Grinder Recap

[znfdl]

Chris, Pete’s and my plan was to ride 335 mile gravel grinder from Pittsburgh to DC, starting on Thursday and make it to the coffee club by Friday 7:30am. Along the way, we were going to pick up Lydia and Tina in Cumberland and they would ride 185 miles to DC. For me, the key thing that made this ride work, was that my wife, Kathy volunteered to support us along the route. Kathy is the support angel that made the ride go.

Before I go into my story, I have to thank my wonderful riding mates for their support, sense of humor, being good human beings people and smooth riders.

As with all of my long rides start, I start with nutritional planning. I carry around 15lbs of excess weight over my ideal riding weight. So I decided to up the caloric intake. At each rest stop (approximately 30 miles apart), I was re-supplied with two 350 calorie water bottles that consisted of Hammer Sustained Energy and Heed and I would eat a 350 calorie homemade rice cake. I augmented the caloric intake with Hammer Gel on an as needed basis.

During the 29+ hour ride I was able to consume about 11,000 calories. I also packed in the Hammer Nutrition supplements, every two hours I would take 3 Endurolytes, 1 Anti-fatigue, 2 Amino Acids and 1 Race Cap. Starting at midnight until sunrise, I added a 200mg caffeine tablet.

This is also the longest ride that I have done since being diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), so I modified my medicine schedule to try to prevent an RA flare-up. I am one of the lucky RA sufferers, as the RA is well controlled via drugs and diet.

Pete, Chris and I left Pittsburgh, on Thursday at 5:30am. Our adventure begins. Pete and Chris decided to ride a fixed gear bike, while I had my steel geared Spectrum outfitted with 32 mm cyclocross tires. I decided to do this ride without a cycling computer or other electronic devices. I did the entire ride on perceived effort.

Our first goal was ride the 150 mile Gap Trail from Pittsburgh to Cumberland. The path was fairly dry after the prior day’s heavy rains. If one has never ridden the GAP Trail, I would highly recommend riding it, as it is just gorgeous with its waterfalls, train trestles, old train tunnels, quaint towns and the Eastern Continental Divide.

Pete and Chris are very smooth, steady riders, which made riding with them a true pleasure. The pace that we settled into was perfect for me, as my heart and respiration rates were low and I estimated my perceived effort for the 150 miles was a 6 out of 10.

At around 5 PM on Thursday afternoon, Pete, Chris, Tina, Lydia and I left Cumberland to ride the 185 mile C&O Canal Trail (C&O) to DC. The C&O is not as well maintained as the Gap trail.

The recent heavy rains left parts of trail quite muddy. Also, since this late October most of the trail was covered in leaves. Since I have never done any night mountain biking, I was a bit uncomfortable riding the portions of single track, which was muddy and covered with leaves and branches.

I also must mention that Pete is one of the hardest cyclists that I know. On the day prior to the ride start, Pete injured his right knee. Given his injury, I would have bailed prior to the ride start. Pete ended up riding 240 mile gravel grinder on a fixed gear before call it a day. This experience showed me how to be a mentally tougher person. I thank you Pete for allowing me to experience your fortitude.

The night riding is always the most interesting, as you get to see and experience new things. The most common animal along the C&O are bunny rabbits and of course white tail deer. I did have a new experience when a raccoon growled at me. The raccoon did not look happy when four cyclists with bright lights came rolling down the trail. During the day we also saw a couple of Bald Eagles, numerous Hawks and some Blue Herons.

For me some of the night riding was a bit treacherous, as I had a hard time picking the right lines while riding through the parts of the deeply rutted muddy trail that was covered by leaves. I nearly crashed five+ times, but the bike that Tom Kellogg designed corrected itself quite easily.

My most humorous experience was when Chris and I stopped, I put my foot down and there was nothing there. So I go sliding down the side of a hill while my left foot is still clipped into the pedal. The Shimano road pedals were encased in mud and it was difficult to clip and unclip the pedals. The bike helped prevent me from sliding down the entire embankment. Chris help me to unclip from the bike and get me back to the embankment.

The last 35 miles of the ride were incredibly difficult for me, as I had been riding for more than 24 hours and I started to hallucinate. Green bushes started to become hunters decked out in camouflage. The hallucinations were worse when I when closed my eyes. I somehow muddled through the last 35 miles to Georgetown. I did not carry a camera, and my phones battery ran dry, so I do not have any pictures.

I do have to put in a plug for Josh Simonds and his Nix Frix Shun chain lube. After 335 miles of riding in dust and through mud, look at the chain’s cleanliness. Here is a picture of the bike post ride.

Overall a great adventure and was able to meet new friends. I guess I have to decide what my next adventure is……..

[skijoring]

Awesome - let me know if you want to give up that chainring now!
Great story, stick to your goals and git'er done. :-)

[yashcha]

Congratulations! For the last five years I have been planning/dreaming to do that ride, but plans have always fell through. That is one hell of a ride.

I am so jealous! I hope to do at least half of that ride when I am back in training in DC this summer. I would not dare to do the whole ride in one day though...

[znfdl]

Originally Posted by skijoring

Awesome - let me know if you want to give up that chainring now!
Great story, stick to your goals and git'er done. :-)

Maybe

[bobswire]

Great adventure,thanks for sharing and I can relate to that pratfall down the side of that hill (we've all been there done that in one way of another).

[soulspinner]

Great ride! Gonna have some red tonite in honor of your ride and in memory of Pete............

[sc53]

That's a beautiful route, but not when it's done in 24 hrs! I took 5 days and enjoyed the sights. Stayed in really remote B&B's along the trail. Great ride.

[znfdl]

Originally Posted by soulspinner

Great ride! Gonna have some red tonite in honor of your ride and in memory of Pete............

I think that I will join you

[velomonkey]

Well done, sir. That's a helluva trip. I've done, twice, Cumberland to DC and that was hard enough. Adding 150 miles prior - wow!!!!!

Where did you stop once you got to g'town? You said the coffee club - was it one of the place under whitehurst freeway. Wherever it was I hope they gave it to you for free.

[znfdl]

The coffee club would be M.E. Schwings at 17th and G. A group of cyclists get together most Fridays.

[velomonkey]

Originally Posted by znfdl

The coffee club would be M.E. Schwings at 17th and G. A group of cyclists get together most Fridays.

17th and G???? I hope they purchased your coffee. Was in the area from 1991 to 2004 - and no cyclist, anywhere, gathered on a Friday.

Chapeau!!!!!!!

[palincss]

Originally Posted by znfdl

The coffee club would be M.E. Schwings at 17th and G. A group of cyclists get together most Fridays.

Close but no cigar.

[tiretrax]

Anyone who can do that in one trip is a hardman. Congratulations.

[pinkshogun]

outside Ohiopyle i think

[dawgie]

I rode the entire GAP - C&O trail this summer with two friends, but we did it over 6 days. Great ride and we're already talking about a repeat.