October 12: Austin to Eureka, Nevada
We had a great time on our side-trip back to Reno.
On October 9, we had driven back from Austin, Nevada because of an event that I was asked to attend in Reno on October 11.
That event was a diabetes support group meeting at the Renown Diabetes Health Management and Specialty Clinic. Their meetings run an hour and a half and they generously gave me the entire meeting to talk about my personal journey with diabetes, the Bayer Dream Fund and how it has been a dream of mine to do The Dream Tour for nearly 20 years now.
It was a great turnout too. Nearly every chair in the conference room was taken and there were lots of questions after I finished my presentation.
While I was there, Dr. Caruso, one of the endocrinologists at the clinic, asked if I would like an A1C test done while I was there. It’s been probably 3 months since my last A1C test, so a readily accepted his generous offer. In addition to the A1C, I got a blood glucose reading (109 mg/dl) and I stepped on a scale for the first time in nearly seven months. I recall that I left Salt Lake City at about 192 pounds and that reading is from own scale at home whose accuracy is unknown, but it has always seemed pretty good. Now, after cycling 9300 miles in nearly seven months, my weight is 190.6 pounds. I’ll bet I was a few pounds less than that when I was cycling through the hottest months of the summer though.
Anyway, my A1C reading came back at 5.6%. Very nice! My A1C’s typically run in the range of 5.5 to 6.0, so I was pretty happy with it.
So, today was my first day back on the road after our side-trip back to Reno. Last night, after the event, we had driven back to Austin so we could get an early start on the ride today. We didn’t get a really early start because it was pretty cold in Austin this morning. At 7 AM, it was only 32 degrees, but by 9 AM, it was approaching 50 degrees, so I got started. Austin is basically at the bottom of the first climb of the day, so immediately after getting on the bike, I started a three mile climb to Austin Summit (7484 feet). That climb was the biggest challenge of the day though. The rest of the ride was fairly flat.
This morning, while getting ready to ride, we met Bill and Art, two bicycle tourists from New York who were four days into their three week long tour through Nevada, Utah, and California. They got started much earlier than I did this morning, but I quickly caught up with them because they’re doing their tour self-supported so they were carrying about 50 pounds more gear on their bikes than I was. I rode with them for about 12 miles today and they seemed very nice. We met up with them after the ride today and had dinner together at a restaurant in Eureka.
Both Bill and Art have done a lot of bicycle touring. Bill, in fact, has bicycled through forty-seven of the forty-eight contiguous states. Not in a single tour, but over the course of several years. The only state he hasn’t ridden in is Nebraska. He doesn’t have anything against Nebrasks, he says. It just hasn’t worked out yet.
We’ll probably be seeing a lot of Bill and Art in the next two or three days because their tour is taking them on the same route as we’re taking. At the Utah border though, our routes diverge. They’re headed south towards St. George, Utah. We’re headed north towards Salt Lake City.
| Total distance: | 70.79 miles |
|---|---|
| Time: | 5:46:23 |
| Average speed: | 12.3 mph |
| Maximum speed: | 34.7 mph |
| Total calories: | 4718 |
| Average heart rate: | 120 bpm |
| Maximum heart rate: | 163 bpm |
| Total ascent: | 3080 feet |
| Total descent: | 3143 feet |
| Ride profile: |  (click on image to view a larger version) |
| Ride comments: Two big climbs today and they were right at the beginning. In fact, the town of Austin is ON the first climb. There were clear skies all day and temperatures at the start of the ride were about 45 degrees and made it up to about 70. A bit of a headwind, but stil a very nice day for cycling. |
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