tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3916447777056971449.post2197521523361807203..comments2024-03-06T05:17:56.336-05:00Comments on Biking for Birds: Sept 18 (Day 261) - More distance south, how I really feel about bike touring at this timeDorian Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12770246226295859548noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3916447777056971449.post-44380664720804334722014-09-20T21:14:49.062-04:002014-09-20T21:14:49.062-04:00Hey Dorian, you're almost in the home stretch ...Hey Dorian, you're almost in the home stretch man. Looking at your proposed route a month ago, I knew that coastal Oregon and northern California were going to be a total slog. You'll be having more fun again around SFO/Monterrey and in SoCal. And you'll be back on flat, predictable ground again after Cali. Hang in there!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3916447777056971449.post-80763469204888463322014-09-19T22:14:21.223-04:002014-09-19T22:14:21.223-04:00Dorian,
In response to your number-crunching of t...Dorian,<br /><br />In response to your number-crunching of the past, I would like to suggest you crunch a few numbers about your future.<br /><br />Not knowing what you plan as a route I guessed and measured the distance from Sebastopol to San Francisco, to LA, to San Diego, to El Centro, (figuring you will want to make a swing by the Salton Sea) to Indio, to Phoenix, to El Paso, to San Antonio, to Laredo, to Brownsville. This gives us a distance of 2,349 miles left for you in the year. Even if I happen to have called the GENERAL route right, Google Maps almost certainly picked a shorter route than YOU will actually go, so we will figure several HIGHER numbers than that to have a safety margin.<br /><br />On the assumption (unlikely!) that you can maintain your pace from the past three days all the way to Brownsville, you will do 81 miles per day. If we assume (again, unlikely!) no rest days in there, you will travel the following distances by these dates:<br /><br /> 2500 10/19<br /> 3000 10/26<br /> 3500 11/01<br /> 4000 11/07<br /> 4500 11/13<br /> 5000 11/19<br /><br />In other words, if you could keep up the pace you have maintained for the past three days that long, you could reach Brownsville with almost 6 weeks of the year remaining to you, if the distance you have to travel is TWICE AS FAR as my estimate.<br /><br />As I said, it's highly unlikely that you can keep up the same pace you have for the past three days that long. Let's assume that you can keep up the average pace that you have for the whole year. This should be quite easy as that average pace has included quite a few rest days. At 48 miles per day, you will travel the following distances by THESE dates:<br /><br /> 2500 11/10<br /> 3000 11/20<br /> 3500 11/30<br /> 4000 12/11<br /> 4500 12/21<br /> 5000 01/01<br /><br />In other words, unless my estimate is truly HALF the distance you have to travel, you are not in any hurry. If the distance is as much as 4,500 miles, you have A FULL WEEK of rest time available to you if you average only the same as you have all year.<br /><br />I suspect that the distance you will be traveling will be more on the order of the 3,500 to 4,000 more miles. Further that your speed (on traveling days!!!) will not stay as high as it has the past three days, but will not drop to as low as your annual average. Under these assumptions, you have between three and four weeks of rest time available to you. In other words, you could have spent the extra day at Eel River or any of the earlier spots and had nearly 0 effect on your chances of seeing any particular species.<br /><br />You might argue that, had you not hurried, you would have missed the Tufted Puffin at Haystack Rock. That's so, but as you yourself pointed out, when you headed for Haystack you were already betting against the odds at finding one AT ALL. You might have stayed at Aberdeen/Westport and gotten the Golden-Plover in its place. There's no way to know.<br /><br />What I'm suggesting is that you HAVE the spare time to take off. You literally COULD spend the week in Frisco with your college friends AND spend the week near Monterey with Sonya's people and still make it to the Lower Rio Grande Valley in time to end your year there. Further, that such a pair of rest breaks will not materially affect your odds at seeing any particular species along the way. Still further, that such a pair of rest breaks WILL materially and positively affect your mood and outlook. (Which, by the way, will dramatically affect the speed and length of time you can stay riding in a GOOD mood :-)<br /><br />Best of luck to you!!!Hutchhttp://littlehead-dh3.angelfire.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3916447777056971449.post-38120579078053592112014-09-19T09:31:51.242-04:002014-09-19T09:31:51.242-04:00I'm with you, man! Day after day after day an...I'm with you, man! Day after day after day and mind and body fatigue take over and life gets depressing. But isn't it amazing how great you feel again after just one full day off the bike? The human psyche and muscles have an incredible ability to recover given the slightest opportunity. And it's realizing the progression-vs.-recovery balance that adds such a tremendous dimension to your journey. Remember your college physics: energy can be neither created nor destroyed.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13424544886582839938noreply@blogger.com