October 12, 2023
Day 0 - Prep Ready
I've never been on a bike ride this long.
My friend Andrew had already done a bike ride across Iowa and another one across the US. He's always wanted to do the California coastal ride from San Francisco and Los Angeles, but COVID had other plans causing his ride to be canceled.
Fast forward to 2023, Andrew brings up the ride during our snowboarding trip. High on adrenaline from a full day on the mountain, I enthusiastically ask him if I can join, and surprisingly, he agrees. I decided to get my gravel bike, a Poseidon X dropbar cleaned up and adjusted to the bare minimum spec to help me attempt this ride.
Over the next couple of months, I tried to practice a couple of rides and quickly realized a lot of my limitations with speed, elevation, and general fitness. I try hitting a lot of local trails to prepare myself the best I can before the trip, one of my favorite trails on Old La Honda as shown below.
This is not the first time I've tried to attempt to go on adventures beyond my depth. I had previously attempted summiting Mt.Shasta in 2018 as my first alpine ascent, only accompanied by the confidence of time spent on the internet reading guides and the experiences of other climbers, and my cousins who were equally unprepared. Hence the title, "Biking off more than I can chew."
We will be biking ~500 miles over 8 days. I don't expect the ride to be easy but with some added confidence of Andrew supporting me, I think I might just be able to scrape by.
Stay tuned for the thrills, chills, and almost certainly many lessons I'll be learning along the road.
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