6/22- Mount Pocono to Berwick

Total Distance- 57 miles
Total Ride Time- 4hrs, 30 minutes
Average Pace- 4:44 /mi
Avg Speed- 12.7
Average Heart Rate- 113bpm- The largely accepted convention for exercise is anything above 120 bpm
Max Heart Rate- 175 bpm
Total climbing- 3145 feet

Today we rode from Mount Pocono to Berwick. The route was fairly short (51 miles), with a few medium climbs and some nice descents. Today was my first day riding sweep, whose job it is to stay behind the last rider. After the freedom of riding at my own pace the last few days, today was painfully slow. Katie may still not realize how happy I was to see her yesterday, as just thinking of her visit kept me sane for the majority of the day. She also left with me with an anklet bracelet with little eyes on it to keep me safe, which was another nice reminder of her visit.

This terrible, no good, horrible day started off the same as every other: substancial rain coming down in buckets. However, today would be different, as in the downpour I ran over something substancial that left me with my first flat, my first of the trip. A day after losing the beard off, I would lose the tire flat standoff contest as well.

I tried keeping my frustration and edginess down to a minimum, as I continued to have knee and foot hotspot pain all day, which I believe came from continued cleat issues. The day progressed slowly but at 4:15 pm, almost 9 hrs after leaving in the morning, we arrived at our host destination.

After cleaning my bike, showering and eating, I was rewarded for my day's efforts, when Jose gave a clinic on derailleur shifting and how to fix them. While extremely informative, I was still a little unsure on fixing my own bike. I have always been scared of trying ot fix my road bike, as I have usually had things dialed in perfectly, so I purposely screwed up the shifting on my own bike so that I was forced to teach myself limit screws and cable tensioning. Finally, many hours later I found myself able to fix front and rear derailleur issues on my bike. This is quite exciting for me, as this is a valuable skill that I can now use on my own bike or for Penn Cycling members.

I will say I have a lot more respect for the riders who come in later every day, as they are spending alot of time in the summer heat and spending a lot more time in sweaty shammys. Many of them are riding just as hard as I am for their own skill level, except they are our there for several more hours working their hardest, which makes their efforts that much more commendable.