Goals and Principles

There are goals and there are principles. Sometimes goals and principles do not always align. It is great to set goals, train or prepare accordingly, and finally execute. If a goal however gets in the way of your core principles, it might be time to revaluate your goal.

For a simple goal of running a marathon, there might be some sacrifices made where work is neglected or a story time is missed, to get that extra training run. However if a goal is so overblown or committed that it has a material impact on your life or relationships, it might be wise to reevaluate where you are heading.

Myself, Jeff and Paul had a goal of riding from Pittsburgh to DC to Baltimore. While we were behind our schedule due to rain and some other technicalities, everyone was mentally and physically prepared to finish the journey. Unfortunately, Paul encountered a stick hidden by leaves on the trail. Okay a branch. Well-it was more like a club. Said club popped itself into the front spokes, fender, and fork, which caused him to sail head and then shoulder into the ground.  Jeff, drafting behind, soon ran over him and crashed as well. Fortunately for me, my light was disconnected and had to stay further away. I had enough time to brake.

Paul took a beating. He couldn't continue. [Elaborations to follow] We called his wife to pick him up. At that point, Jeff and I had to make a decision. Continue down to DC or ride back with Paul. We both agreed to finishing our journey. When Paul's wife came to pick him up, Jeff and I went back with him.

The goal of the trip was to make it down to DC and then up to Baltimore. But something unexpected happened. The moment one of our teammates went down, we knew the true journey was in the friendship and bonds that occurred over the prior 270 miles.  Our goal was no longer relevant-seeing your friends safely out was just the right thing to do. After all, this is just one of many other crazy rides we will be having with friends like Paul.

[A full recount of the trip will be following shortly]

First time Bike Packing-beginnings of an epic ride

Bike Packing? What on earth is that? I stumbled upon the concept of bike packing during some random Facebook sponsored content--pathlesspedaled. I love biking and I wanted to learn more about camping-why not do both?

The opportunity however never presented it self until this summer when my friend Jeff and I wanted to do some long training rides in preparation for his Shenandoah Mountain 100 race. Brainstorming around some long rides, we somehow threw out a Pittsburg to DC ride. I had heard people riding it, but I didn't know how far or what was involved in riding that journey. When I realized it was 335 miles, it was going to be an adventure for later.  Not yet . . .

Later that summer we saw a few friends do a ride around the Chesapeake bay.  It was a Double Century! Never heard that term used, but I knew I had to do one. Jeff and I launched it 3 weeks later on one of the hottest days of the year. Epic exhaustion from the heat, but epic time riding! I'll have to write about that experience later . . .

While Jeff and I really loved mountain biking, there is something about moving from point A to B and experiencing the journey. The Pittsburg to DC ride was brewing in my head. All trail, all riding, easy grade-why not? So I started entertaining the idea to other fools I knew. A number of them said they were interested. Until they heard my goals.

1. Needs to be cheap. Okay, so this is a principal that runs throughout my entire core of living. This ruled out B&B's and other such fun stuff.
2. Bike Camping. I wanted to test out what bike camping was like and if I could assemble the stuff to do it.
3. Needs to be fast. While fast is relative, I did not want this to take 4-5 days. One guy mentioned he did it in 30 hours non stop. That sounded brutal and conflicted with objective #2. Day days sounded "reasonable".
4. Having fun. Why else would I be doing this.

So let's see what happens . . .