TraNsFLoridA: To The CoaSt

That morning I woke up feeling SUPER Chapped.

I packed up camp staring at my still wet Chamois Bibs. Not interested in any part of that. I grabbed the Pro Lube I bought at Greenway and lubed up and decided to ride in my camp shorts.

After we were ready to emerge from our Stealthy camping spot I jumped on the bike did the sick little steep drop to the road and immediately realized I had made an excellent choice. I was not in pain.

Maybe Chamoisless riding with the Pro Lube combo is the ticket. I will have to test.

We went across the road to the Wal Mart, Subway has breakfast.

I have many super powers. One of them is amazing charm. I first charmed the greeter to watch the bikes, then charmed the young girl behind the subway counter to load up on extra bacon. Even Rob2 was envious of how much bacon I got. I had a BLT extra bacon spinach and tomato with guacamole. Delicious.

We drank coffee, water, conversated then I ate my three musketeers. I felt ready to finish it, "35 Miles to go" as we got on the bikes and rolled out.

My legs were a little tight, but i kept the pace steady, the effort beautiful. Had to apply my speed legs again in the sandy spot before the Pruitt Memorial. But the ride through Haltapa was beautiful. I really enjoyed it.

We hit the road, I did another quick pit stop, had some more calories, and off we went. I was in the mood to do some Tempo. In the mood to cover this new part of the route, swiftly. I stayed tucked in the Fred's and was even more comfortable cause this morning, instead of putting my two ready bottles in my pockets, I put them in my feedbags. So much better. I put the music on and laid it on top of my gloves on my Aero bars and I was ready to work.

The Rollers were exquisite and today we saw the biggest longest climbs of the route. In the Middle on there we were having to stop and stare at the GPS topo to figure a work around. The original route took us next to the rail road tracks and that would of mean miles of pain. I may take the Wild Solo American with me and see if we can do a day ride and map a more dirtier route. As is the current route is not bad. We actually rode through a partially abandoned Sub Division. It had a Road Warrior type of feel. The ashpalt was so bad that I would consider it off road.

Some Big Rollers later and then Rob takes off on a dirt road that seems to lead us to the rail road track. We made our way to the end of it, and I spotted a faint double track and followed it all the way till we hiked and bike up to the rail bed. Then I looked over and it seemed that there was a rideable ATV track parallel to the Rail and we rode that up and onto a road way and headed towards the Giant Climb on the Horizon.

Rob got a flat on his Front tire and I took a break in the shade, ate my last apple while Rob made friends with Two Shutland ponies. Apparently they really just had an affinity towards Rob without any effort on his part.

From there we rode up to the road, and it was a 12 miles road ride till we started zig zagging back roads to try to make the eastern most portion of the Cross Florida Greenway. Again, I followed a woodsy double track to a fence. We hopped it only to find out we could have rode around the fence. The side we hopped the fence onto was part of the preserve and some interesting grassy double track later along some canals we were on the paved trail.

I coordinated our pick up and we finished the ride. Pooling our bikes into the ocean, happy that we accomplished our mission.

I have to correct something from yesterdays post. By Greenway cycles we had done 97 miles. By the end of the epic plus we were at 120 or so. We finished the day with 177. So that last day was underestimated once again, as it was not a 35 mile day but a 57 mile day, whoops.

The ride, as always, was magical for me. I had a ton of fun. Was so comfortable and capable that I feel a strong sense of confidence for the TNGA. I am going into it with the desire to pull off 4 90 Plus mile days in Pisgah Like Terrain, at a similar to pace to what I did on the TNGA. I have a feeling this will be a race of attrition. I expect a high DNF rate. The people who do well will be the one's who have a lot of experience in riding all day, resting and riding again, on a bike heavy with gear.

I see Rob and I doing well and I hope we stick together, it will be good practice.

Now do I run the Freddies or not? I probably will, they are so comfy.

TransFlorida will be done again in Late November. Its a challenge. Its a 2.5 day ride when I do it again, and I invite anyone to be personally tour guided by me. It wont be easy, but it wont be impossible either.

Take Care,

Laters,

The NaKeD InDiaN