Pedal to the medal.... if the medal is in stuck in one place.

Five miles yesterday, five today!

But Google Earth has gone all flooey. So I believe I'm at 115, but have no idea where that is!

Should I try for another 5 while I watch Castle, or be a responsible person and clean the living room? (Or bring up my real bike and ride AROUND the living room, cleaning up while watching Castle?)

Put a hurt on myself somehow...

And my legs feel like they're stuffed with burning wires today- not sure if I slept funny or what, though.

Will have to make up for it tomorrow, even thinking about hopping on the bike makes my thighs cramp.

Well I would bike 100 miles, and I will bike 100 more...

As you recall...


100 miles, BOOYAH! Had a couple down days this week, but today really had me fired up. I even put in an extra 5 miles to make up! (And also because I was fooling around with my new phone and missed the tick-over for five miles.)

Altogether that actually puts me at 105 miles, but that doesn't seem as impressive, for some reason. Here's the nameless farmland where I am:

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Here comes the sun... okay it's been up a while before me.

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I rode five miles THIS MORNING, which if you've ever seen me in the morning is a major accomplishment. It jazzed me up as much as a cup of coffee. I was lying in bed, and thought, "I could hit the snooze once or twice more, or I could get up and start moving, and holy crap, I actually got up and started moving! I never do that! Go me.

Whooosh...

View Larger Map Got to Guern today... Super busy the past couple days, no time for blog, Doctor Jones.

I've been biking, I just forgot to write about it!

View Larger Map Today I'm a little outside Locmalo, I found this charming bed and breakfast, but I am amused that a B&B in France feels the need to point out on of it's room is Frenchier than the others somehow.

So... Thursday was just crazy, and I didn't bike at all, I was just too tired.

Last night, I I didn't get home until late, and this morning, we're heading out for a while, so squeezing in five miles was a little tough- last night I actually did it in heels and stockings! Ooh la la. I felt very Parisian.

Anyway- so... Why I'm Doing This... I was reading Stephen King's book of short stories. I'll let Robert Busko tell you a little about the story from his book review: 
"Of all the stories included in Just After Sunset, my favorite is Stationary Bike. Richard Sifkitz has a belated physical and learns that his cholesterol is extremely high; dangerously so. Like so many of his generation he decides to get a stationary bike to exercise and hopefully ride off his health problems. Unlike many of his contempories, however, Richard rides his workout machine. He rides and he rides and he rides. He decides to paint a mural in the room he rides in to give him something to look at while he's working out. As in all of King's work, the simple mural turns out to be unique and Richard's bike takes him on trips he really doesn't want to make. This is a riveting story and is worth the cost of the book by itself. "

Part of the story has the character marking his progress along his childhood haunts on a map. Which I thought would be a cool way to 'see' another part of the world. Then, like a bolt from the blue, I thought, "The Tour de France." I knew absolutely nothing about the Tour de France except that it a) It was in France and b) Lance Armstrong something something.

So first I looked online to see if could buy a stationary bike. A little too expensive for a whim. Then, I called my mother-in-law and asked if she had a bike. She did, she had a knee replacement a while ago and got one for therapy. I asked my surprised husband if we could go pick it up now, that's right, I want to start right away. And I did.


I'd been feeling like I needed something to do, physically, recently I've been trying to walk a lot more, but sadly that often translated into shopping. I feel like I needed a little victory each day, and this is working. I also can feel myself getting a little fitter and standing up straighter- it's probably more mental than physical right now, but I don't care.

Another thing about that King book- at the end, he has an epilogue where the thanks you, the reader, and says something to the effect of, "It's better when you come with me." And that's the real reason I started doing this, I think- so I could make a journey, even if just a small one every day, and invite you along for the ride.

Five by Five

View Larger Map So today I went ten miles, in two 5 mile segments. (I had to hop off to give my little guy some ice cream and do some other stuff.)  


Which puts me at 71 miles, over halfway to the end of Stage one! By now I'm crusing along at 20mph, occasionally pushing it to 25 if I'm trying to finish before a commercial comes on or a show ends. My butt still hurts but if I stop focusing on it, I can usually ignore it.  


Today I realized I had some wrong measurements, though. The 2008 TdF, which is what I have maps for, is 2,211.8 mi, not 2,237. So... rounding that up a little, I would have to go six miles every day in order to finish in a year. That... doesn't seem like much of a challenge anymore; I went ten today not even breaking a real sweat! But then, I haven't gotten sick or lost a day I didn't plan for either, so maybe I shouldn't go changing bikes horses in the beginning of a race, either. IDK, when I first started, it seemed crazy, some kind of pipe dream... now I'm wondering if maybe I'm not setting the bar a little low. 


Well, I can always finish early, right?  


I also have another goal- I'm going to try to grow my hair out, which is actually my super-secret reason for taking vitiyums. So to kind of document where my hair is now... By the way- I don't need better lighting, I actually DO live in a dark and shadowy underworld populated only by night creatures and the occasional blogger. Honest.

View Larger Map Not much to say about where I am today- my back really hurts and I think I need to go lie down now.

56 miles! Almost halfway through stage one!

Yes, I took yesterday off, but I knew I was going to be busy yesterday, since I was helping my friend host a houselighting party for a house that can almost be seen from space, which is why I went 10 miles on Friday. 

Today I realized that the ten miles wasn't so bad (when I get on, my 'cruising speed' is now 20mph rather than 15) so I figured I'd try it again- I started off with five, sat down to watch the Alice miniseries, and hopped back on for commercials, and bam! Ten miles more.
View Larger Map Today I am near Hôtel Restaurant Les Bruyères. Under their dessert menu, I noticed they had something called, "Omelette Norvégienne." I'd never heard of a dessert omelette before, so I looked it up- turns out it's Baked Alaskan. 

Until today, I had a vague idea Baked Alaskan was a salmon dish of some sort... it's basically ice cream baked inside a cake and meringue. Which sounds delicious! (Not that salmon isn't good, but it's no baked ice cream!) So not only is this good for me, it's educational!  

At least, that's what I plan on telling my husband the next time he sighs and picks up the remote to turn up the volume over my whirring and squeaking.

Either I missed a day, or I'm bad at math. Or some combination thereof.

Because today I looked at the odometer and subtracted my start distance from my total distance and I got 46! I knew today was going to be a little longer, because I was going for ten, but wow! I am way further than I thought! that's about one third of the way through the first stage!
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I am a little south of Le Guily, which appears to be a hamlet. There's a nice B and B that I can read for once. Looking at their tab for Area/Location is pretty seductive. I just want to steal that red plastic canoe and drift out on the lake.


Alright, gotta iron a dress- have a date with the Husband tonight, we're going to either a really fancy French restaurant or a cool Caribbean one.

At some point, I should really buy a beret, n'est-ce pas?

View Larger Map Mile 31! And even though I almost forgot to bike before I left tonight (I got wrapped up in the guitar), Huz didn't mind that I pedaled away while he watched a rather gross episode of Fringe. (Are there other kinds? I don't know.) I even got a kiss as I gamely soldiered on.  


"How did you kiss me all the way over here in France?" 
"Haha, I know!"  


So I am off for karaoke tonight, there's a certain Queen song I'm gonna have to see if they can cue up. Can y'all think of any other cool biking songs?

I have not obsessed over how my butt feels this much since I bought a pair of leather pants.

View Larger Map There's not much to see electronically today. I actually was trying to go a little farther, but the seat on the bike is pressing into my butt like a very enthusiastic and unwanted dance partner. Grrr. I wonder if it's interchangeable with a regular bicycle seat? Maybe tomorrow I'll take it over to the bike shop and find out*.  


I told a couple coworkers about my idea, and they pretty much looked at me and politely didn't ask what the point was. All in all, a kinda disheartening day.  


(*Now all I have to do is detach it- THIS CALLS FOR TOOLS! Taking things apart/putting them together is one of my favorite things in the world. If you could assemble cheese somehow, I'd be the happiest person on the planet.)

I stole the term from my son. He won't mind.

 
I got vitiyums!  

View Larger Map Here's where I am today. I finally figured out how to get Google Earth to take me to Google Maps, which saves the endless scanning and resizing and picking places, etc. I went six miles today instead of five. I figure (vaguely) I should start increasing my mileage soon or I'll never make the whole thing in a year. I really need a more comfortable bike seat- it took me a while to realize a bike seat with a depression in the middle probably isn't made to make me more comfortable.

Another five miles today!

I might do more in a little bit but I'm too braindead to do the whole Google tracking thing. It's been a long day. I just kept getting behind at work, and I actually had to leave some stuff for tomorrow.
However, today I did my touring in an ankle-length frilly skirt, which was way more entertaining than it should be. Every time my knees came up, one side or the other would *poof* up into the air and then flutter down.


I probably should change and 'get into the spirit' and all that, but after the day I've had, I think it's enough just to bike, you know?

I need to learn French. 15 miles down!

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Today I am in Hôpital-Camfrout. I can't tell you much about it, because the website is all in French, but from what I can tell, there was once a monastery there and an abbey, and today it is raining. What a fantastic world we live in, that not only can I look up a small French town, but tell what the weather is like today. It's a little mind-blowing.

I actually went five and a half miles today and so I saw the meter tick over to 8,000. My son tried the bike out the other day though (he 'flung' the pedals around with his feet at the top of every rotation) so I'm only counting five. Still, it's going to be a lot easier to count the miles now that I'm on an even number. I've told a couple people what I'm doing and the most common questions are:

Are you training for the actual Tour de France?

Dear god, no. Although I'm slightly interested in going to France someday, the actual ride is nearly a lifestyle commitment and I don't have the drive, (much less the money and time!) to actually bike it. Plus, I imagine I'd be way to distracted by every bistro I pass!

Are you accounting for the hills?

Nope. My bike is old, and while it has a tension setting, it would be entirely too difficult to program in the up and down hills- I'm going strictly for distance.

Other questions that I'll cover later:
What made you want to do this?
Why are you doing this?

Something clever about communes.

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Whew! Another five miles, but this time it took me a smidge under twenty minutes. Today I'm, in Loperhet, which is a commune, but not a commune like I'm used to thinking of them- in France, that means more like "A small town."

And awaaaaay we go!

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So this is about where I got to today. It's called the Pont d'Iroise as near as I can figure out.

I only did five miles, because I didn't want to get too gung-ho, but I think that if I push a little bit, I might be able to get in the entire race over the next year. How cool is that?

Yep, that's a whole year of biking on a rusty borrowed exercise bike, but at least now I've hooked myself up up with Google Maps so I'll be able to figure out how far I'm going and where. Wish us luck?

I have done something crazy

I have decided to bike the Tour de France.

Granted, I plan on doing it in my living room, with a stationary bike, but still, I am going to mark out my progress and all on a map and and by god, I'm gonna finish it.

It's about 2,237 miles.

Wish me luck.


Update- have obtained bike from bemused MIL. Odometer will not reset, so here it is...


So I have to go to 10,081.

Commencing first leg of the journey.