Stage 2 - Who Are You?

I enjoy watching the Tour on the Versus Network but it’s annoying that they run the same handful of commercials over and over. This year there’s an ad for some financial business in which a guy is chasing someone who has “stolen his identity”. Elvis has always thought that this ‘identity theft’ business is silly. It’s become so silly in fact, that our own government states HERE that, “as many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year”. Really? Nine million people out there who are no longer who they once were? Silly. If someone takes your credit cards that’s credit card theft. No one can steal your identity. But Elvis likes to imagine what life would be like if it could happen; “Hey boss, did that guy who stole my identity come in for work today”? When the mortgage banker calls you just inform him that you are no longer you so the banker will need to look elsewhere for the payment. Those felonies? Gone. Pesky ex-girlfriends? Gone. Weird family? Gone. Talk about freedom! Which makes Elvis think - that guy in the commercial who is chasing the thief; why? For heaven’s sake let him go. You’ve got a brand new lease on life my friend.

But back to the matter at hand; today’s ride called for 51 miles, so I called for help from Darin and Mike. They stepped up to the plate in a big way by meeting Elvis early and pulling him around the countryside. North out of Germantown we headed to Saukville and Lake Michigan. A more spectacular day we could not have had. Once again it was beautiful, clear blue skies, light wind and mild temperatures. Light traffic and not too many other cyclists to get in our way. The only thing that slowed us down was a many mile long freight train which caused a minor traffic jam (see photo, below).

Since this is Elvis’ fourth go ‘round with this Tour Challenge thing you’d think he would have learned a thing or two. But yesterday I made two big mistakes; I didn’t drink enough on the bike and I didn’t shower immediately after the ride. The first caused a headache that I couldn’t shake and the second has caused what could be the genesis of a saddle sore. Stupid!

I guess I fell victim to complacency. We all know the need to keep hydrated when exercising. My usual rule is to hyper-hydrate to avoid this issue - drinking water until my pee is clear. In fact, I once developed a guide so that you can easily tell if you’ve been drinking enough simply by looking at the color of your pee. For your convenience I reproduce it here;

As for the saddle sore, I’ll start by cleaning the suspect areas with antibacterial soap multiple times per day and I’ll also start using a saddle cream during rides. Let’s hope that does the trick or it’s going to be a very long 3 weeks!

Mileage goal for today: 51. Miles ridden: 55. That puts another 4 miles in the bank. Check the “Tour Mileage Chart” tab at left and you’ll see that this Tour thing is already 10% over. I’m not sure if I should be happy or sad. Then again, maybe someone else has become Elvis Kennedy via that identity theft thing and it’s not my problem anymore.