Shake 'n Bake

Early on in our planning, we decided to to a "shakedown" ride to make sure our bodies and gear were in order by doing back-to-back centuries (cycle-speak for 100 mile rides) It was supposed to happen in the spring, but for various reasons, didn't. So we finally synced up and slotted it for the weekend of July 15-16. That's right, back to back centuries on the Ides of July in Houston, with heat indexes over 100 degrees. And, my last century was over two years ago. And, I'm coming off a case of shingles and have been off my bike. And, thunderstorms were predicted. What could possibly go wrong?

The first order of business was to pack everything up as if it were the real thing. The concept of this trip is "minimalist", but it still seems like a lot of stuff when it's all gathered together.

Inventory for a minimalist? adventure

(Of course as I was posing all this stuff in the living room both Lisa and the dog were thinking: "what a nerd, we can't wait till he leaves.")

Basically what you see here is normal cycling gear, a second jersey and pair of shorts, a few tools, a bit of cold-weather gear (yes, I brought a polar fleece on our hotter-'n-hell shakedown; see aforementioned "nerd" comment), and a single set of apres-cycling clothes. Oh, and no fewer than nine rechargeable electronic devices, along with chargers and cords. (If you are up for a bit of "I Spy", seven of the nine are in the picture.)

Fortunately it all packed up into the bikepacking bags nicely. Here's the rig, ready to roll.

Ready for SanFran... or at least Brookshire

Saturday's route was basically an extension of our normal Saturday ride, to Fulshear and then beyond to Brookshire and back. The planned distance was actually just over 90 miles. Not quite a full century, but close enough. We got an early start, and kept the pace relatively slow, so it was actually quite pleasant for most of the ride. It did start to heat up about halfway back.

To Fulshear... and beyond!

Tom, before the heat set in

In fact I felt good enough at the finish to tack on an extra 10 miles to make it a true century. I think the last ten were harder than the first 90!

I'm happy to report that all my gear seemed to work well. The Apidura bikepacking bag is rock-solid and hardly noticeable. The bags make the bike a little top-heavy, but I quickly adjusted.

A major test was to try out our navigation system. We opted for phone-based navigation using RideWithGPS. That lets you plan a route, download it to your phone, and get turn-by-turn directions. Once a route is downloaded, it's all offline so no data connection is needed. I was concerned about battery life on the phone but after 101 miles it was only down to 67%. So that's a good sign.

Tomorrow we plan to head south to Rosharon and West Columbia. But we're having major thunderstorms at the moment which are supposed to continue into tomorrow. So we'll see...

(update from tomorrow)

Well, the expected storms did not materialize so we did the Rosharon/West Columbia loop: 105 miles! There was not much left in the tank at the end but we did finish. The past two days has really helped boost my confidence. Granted, we did not have hills, or wind, or rain, but we did have lots of heat. Also I expect we will be riding a bit more leisurely on the real thing.

Now, it's time for a nap.