pittsburgh, pa

I'm writing from a public library in Pittsburgh with a very strict internet policy -- nine minutes before my internet cuts out!

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind. We biked across Mass., over the Berkshires and into NY where we spent two days in Poughkeepsie. Then we biked to Port Jervis, up into Mt. Pocono (whew that was tough), then we started skyrocketing across PA. I rode my first century (100 miles) into State College which was pretty fantastic. I had no idea I would be able to ride that far, but I somehow did. The last 30 miles of the ride were through Amish country. I'd never seen Amish people before, and the rolling hills, horse drawn carts, and laundry lines hung across the yards were absolutely beautiful. One of the coolest things about riding a bike (beyond the blazing endorphins) is how accessible it makes you. People wave, say hi, ask where we're going. I mean, there's 31 of us dressed in red, white, and blue spandex. It makes me feel so much more a part of the country than if I were speeding past in a car. Yesterday, on a particularly busy stretch of road through a series of big box stores outside Pittsburgh, two women dressed in cutoff jeans asked us where we were going while we stopped at a red light. It turned out that one of the women's daughters was living in a Habitat for Humanity home -- pretty cool, huh?

This trip has also been much much harder than I ever expected. First of all, there's a the biking. I love riding my bike but I don't think any amount of training could have prepared me for riding my bike five, to eight, to sometimes ten hours a day. It gets really really tiring, both physically, and mentally, having to push myself up every hill. I bonked twice in the last week, both time around mile fifty: I got queasy and tired and teary and just could not keep riding no matter what I did. It was pretty miserable. So now I am dutifully trying to eat and drink around the clock to make sure it doesn't happen again -- I'm actually getting pretty tired of constantly stuffing my face. Who knew eating was so hard?

Second, it's been pretty hard to get used to life off the bike. A common saying in Bike & Build is, "privacy is biking alone." It's true. Getting used to living with a family of 31 other people, sleeping in the same big rooms, eating the same food, sometimes even showering together -- it's pretty tough. But I think I'm slowly getting used to it, and the other people in our group really astound me with their strengths and experiences. I think I'm going to get a lot more out of this trip than just strong quads.