Odin's Revenge: It's Here!

All ready to go!

 The time for Odin's Revenge has finally come.  Unfortunately, along with it came a record heat wave.  Yesterday it was about 105+ everywhere along the I-70 corridor between St. Louis and Topeka, where I stayed last night.  Ewww.  However, being the obstinate type that I am, I am not throwing in the towel before the race and staying home, I'm going to let the vultures and hawks eat me after I pass out from dehydration and heat exhaustion along some deserted gravel road where I couldn't get a cell phone signal (I don't have a signal here at my friend's house two miles from downtown Topeka, you really think I'm going to have anything anywhere along the race route?) to call someone to come rescue me.  Not that I anyone I would call would be able to get there soon enough to help.  This ride is truly going to be self-supported for me.

On a happier note, preparing for the trip has (so far) gone much better than my ill-fated Cedar Cross adventure.  Everything started last week when I went down to Maplewood Bicycle to get a bike fitting, which I'm hoping will eliminate any knee pain for the ride.  Most of the time the bike is all right, but occasionally on long rides my knees will start to scream at me.  Luckily I haven't had many issues this last month, but it would not be cool if something flared up at mile 80.  While I was there I also picked up two spare tubes, hoping that will be enough, and finally had the water bottle cage I had to pull off at Cedar Cross put back on.

Sunday was the Trailnet Bridge Birthday Bash Ride, which would be my last sizable training ride.  It was forecast to be 100 in St. Louis that day, so I got out early, but luckily we got some cloud cover during the late morning and the temperatures didn't spike until after I was home.  My bike computer said it was about 90 during the ride, but when I pulled the bike off my car after it had been sitting in the driveway for a couple hours, it was showing 122.  Ouch!  (that was most definitely influenced by the sun, but I haven't seen anything over 110 or so on it when I've actually been riding)

Monday I started working on the bike.  I put the Specialized Borough XC Sport 700 x 45's back on that I bought for Cedar Cross, and while I had the sidewall tear in the one tire from that ride, I did get that tire replaced with a new one.  Hopefully this one holds up better.  I was pleasantly surprised with the ease I changed the tires out.  The Continentals I use for most of my riding came right off, and I almost didn't need my tire levers to get the Specialized ones on.  I can only hope I'll be able to change a flat that easily tomorrow, but hopefully I won't have to.  After I got the tires aired up, I gave my chain a good cleaning.

My Supplies

Tuesday I went for a short ride around town to make sure everything was in good working order, and I didn't notice any issues (thankfully, no pinch flats from the tire installation), so Wednesday I started packing.  I'm bringing two jerseys and two pairs of shorts in case I feel like I need some fresh clothes when I get back to Gothenburg at the halfway mark.  On my bike, I've brought the map case I bought from Adventure Cycling for the cue sheets and the Revelate Designs Gas Tank to hold food for the ride.  I also have my Serfas seat bag (mountain bike size) that has been my go-to storage bag for all of my bikes - I have 3 of them.  On the way out to Topeka, I stopped off in Jefferson City and borrowed Lukas Lamb's Tangle Frame bag and Mountain Feedbag, also by Relevate Designs, that helped him complete Dirty Kanza this year.  I plan on using the Frame bag for extra water - he gave me a bladder to put in there as well, but after loading up the bike, I think I'll leave the Feedbag behind, especially with the map case on my handlebars.  I'll make my final decision tonight when I get to Gothenburg.  I have two water bottle holders on the bike, and have my Polar insulated bottles for those.  I also have my Novara hydration pack that I won from Trailnet 3 years ago, which I may or may not use.  I brought it mainly to put the bladder in the Tangle bag, but the more I think about it, the more I'm inclined to bring it as well.  My hydration pack plus the two water bottles will give me almost 120 oz. of liquid, and if I use Luke's as well, that will give me in the neighborhood of 200. I don't know if his is 70, 100, or something else.  I haven't looked at it yet.  The equivilant of 2-3 2 liters of soda should get me through any 40 mile stretch, right?  The bigger trick will be keeping all that cold so I actually want to drink it.  Finally, to make sure I have a superior state of mind throughout the ride, I plan on wearing my Team Seagal socks that I won for coming the closest to predicting Wendy Davis's finishing time at Dirty Kanza.  Congratulations on finishing Wendy!