It’s hard to believe that in the last 3 weeks we’ve covered 1,626 and 79,671 feet of elevation gain, but that’s one of the reasons that I only look 1 day forward as we get our heads around the next day’s ride. One good thing is that over half of the overall elevation gain is now in the books, the flip side is that as the ride profiles flatten out, the distances get longer – but I can generally deal better with that. Over the next 9 days of riding, 5 of them will be 100+ miles, including our 126 miler on Day 26 into Fairmont, MN. I just hope that our luck changes and we get some tailwinds as the terrain begins to flatten out.
I cannot tell you how nice it was not to have to get up early and get on that bike this morning. Not because I’m not enjoying it, but we just need a day to let our bodies recover a little. One thing that has bedeviled me since we started is “night sweats”. I would occasionally get these at home and I would just get up and change out my tee shirt and generally get back to sleep. But on P2P it has been almost every night. So, I did a little online research and it turns out that night sweats are much more common with heavy exercise. Why is that? With heavy exercise you develop an elevated core temperature which can stay that way for hours so the body will cool itself when you’re asleep. Pushing your body too hard without enough calories can also cause your blood sugar to drop at night triggering adrenaline surge and sweating. I don’t know what I can do about it except do laundry more often because I am starting to run out of tee shirts during these 9 day riding stretches.
Today was a productive day. I slept “late” waking up at 5:30 AM and after breakfast I Ubered over to the Parkway Laundromat to wash my clothes and riding gear – I’m sure Val would have been proud of me. I later went to a nearby bike shop to get some packets of Butt’r for reapplication during our rides. After getting a haircut at the “6 Thrones Barbershop” (“Craft Your Crown” is their byline), I grabbed a sandwich at a nearby deli. I think I’ll go buy some additional tee shirts for sleeping before the day is over.
So tomorrow we have a 113 mile ride with over 4,000 feet of elevation gain on tap as we ride into the Badlands of South Dakota. I have no doubt that I’ll be physically ready for it after a good rest day but the forecast calls for a high of 92 degrees. I will be happy to take that as long as we have a decent tailwind. We’ll see what happens.
In the meantime, here a few random pics from the Missoula to Rapid City segment of our adventure. Enjoy!