It's hard to believe that it's been one full week since the ride was completed. It has felt much longer as I've gone through a full range of emotions. I feel as if I am still trying to adjust to returning; returning is definitely the appropriate word since I feel as if I have been gone on a year-long expedition. There was such drive and purpose, especially the last four months and now I feel as if I am floundering about as I try to adjust back to regular life.
Ironically, my lower back has bothered me considerably the past few days, a problem I did not have the entire year. I have ridden twice since the new year for a total of almost 40 miles. I plan to get in another small ride today despite it being in the 40s and gray.
It's been a busy past few days. David came in for a short visit, arriving on Wednesday and left yesterday.
He and I had a chance to take a hike in the woods and when we were overlooking the river, we spotted what looked like dogs on the bank. Their shape seemed amiss to David's keen eyes. I pulled out the camera and confirmed his suspicion.
I really liked these clouds on my morning walk yesterday. I especially like them with the trees below, it's as if the trees and the clouds are celebrating together. Or, that the clouds are a distorted shadow of the trees.
Yesterday was Rachel's birthday. Happy birthday, Sweetie! The big 18.
The carrot cake was actually made on Thursday so that David could have a chance to enjoy it before he left on Saturday. This used to be a favorite dessert for the entire family. But Rachel and I have both given up sweets so neither of us had any; Rachel just wanted to have a cake to stick candles in.
How does it feel to be 18? She looks forward to voting in November.
A very well written article on the year-long journey appeared in today's Arkansas Democrat Gazette in the Profile section by Kevin Kinder. If you ave a chance, pick up a copy. Below is the text but it does not do justice to reading the article in print with pictures and sidebar. Thanks for a great job, Kevin!
http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2012/jan/08/pedaling-persistence-20120108/
PEDALING PERSISTENCE
CYCLIST LOGS 10,000 MILES IN 2011
By Kevin Kinder
While taking a walk through the cold winter air, Philip Zweig recalled a thought that occurred to him several weeks before. He had a notion on that New Year’s Day to ride his bike every single day in 2011.
Except, he wasn’t yet fully convinced about the endeavor.
Two years before, he rode from his home in Fayetteville to Fayetteville, Ga. - a distance of more than 900 miles. But that was something he planned for warm weather days (as it turned out, a little too warm) over the span of a couple weeks. A daily ride required a much different kind of commitment - through ice, rain, snow, sleet, fatigue, scheduling nightmares, all of it.
But one cannot start a journey without taking the fi rst step, as pundits say.
“I thought, ‘Let me go do it today, because if I don’t, it’ll be too late.’ I’d have to wait another year,” he said.
So Zweig took off . He rode for an hour or so. That amount of time seemed about right. It was long enough to be substantial but not long enough to leave him with crushing fatigue.
Day 2
Zweig rode again.
Day 23
If Zweig planned to continue his rides, and by this point, he felt like he would, he needed to start documenting his travels. Modeled after a blog written by a jogger, Zweig started a site for himself at
www.mylifeasabike.blogspot.com.
Each day from Jan. 23 forward, the goal was similar: Capture an image along the way, post it, then chatbriefly about the ride.
Zweig, a stay-at-home dad to a daughter, Rachel, and a son, David, until he moved away to college, had the time for a daily ride, with one semi-serious condition:
“‘I’m fine with it, as long as we still have a good dinner in the evening,’” his wife, Carol, joked.
Day 40
When Zweig committed to the daily ride concept, he couldn’t have imagined the weather extremes that would come to this area in 2011, but a daily excursion does not stop for rain or wind or even snow. On Feb.
9, 20 inches of snow covered much of Northwest Arkansas. On his blog, there is a photo of Zweig’s slategray Jamis brand bicycle standing upright because it is buried in snow up to the center of the wheels.
Zweig constructed a short course in his driveway. For more than an hour - he gave himself extra time to account for his shoveling and sanding efforts - he rode in a circle. That morning, just a few weeks after falling off his bike while crossing an ice patch, Zweig gutted out about 80 laps around his course. He guesses he traveled about 5 miles that morning in the wind and 18-degree air.
Day 56
Nearly two months into thechallenge, Zweig crossed the 1,000-mile threshold. Included in that distance were a few miles logged on a loaner bike during a trip to Fayetteville, Ga., to visit his mother-inlaw.
Throughout the adventure, he found time to update his blog. At the onset of the travels, it took him about three hours a night to sort through the photos, type out his thoughts and make the post. Within a month, he’d shortened that time requirement to about 90 minutes a day. Even then, an hour bike ride may take just an hour on the clock, but in terms of dressing, preparing and resting after the ride, the event took much longer. The challenge consumed hours of his day.
Day 68 (approximately)
Somewhere along the route, Zweig decided to add a fundraising element to his rides. A weekly volunteer at the St. Paul’s Episcopal Church’s Community Meals program, Zweig began asking for pledges for miles. All of the money raised went back to the church and its program that feeds about 300 each week.
“Even if I ride 6,000 miles this year, a 1 /2-cent-per-mile donation will only put a $30 dent in your pocket,” he reasoned on his blog. And, really, what were the chances he would ride that far? As of early March, he had completed about 1,250 miles.
Day 119
One of the challenges of the endeavor, Zweig explained, was keeping it interesting. Trips around Lake Fayetteville make for an easy, scenic ride, but eventually it got boring.
On April 29, Zweig decided to turn his bike ride into a shopping trip.
He rode down Arkansas 45 and on his return carried 43 pounds of groceries and the ice he used to keep them fresh.
Day 143
“A curious thing about goals …” began Zweig in ablog post called “Upping the Ante?” on May 23.
He opted to keep with the theme of adding to the challenge.
“What I find that is making achieving the end result more appealing during this time, is creating an even greater goal,” he wrote.
Instead of the 5,000 miles he anticipated, his current pace had him at about 7,500 miles. To hit that mark, he would need to ride 20.55 miles per day.
Day 156
To celebrate his 25th wedding anniversary with Carol, Zweig flew to London to meet with his wife, University of Arkansas associate vice provost for entrepreneurship, who was there for a conference. They also traveled to Paris. Before departing, Zweig researched bike rental locations in both cities. He continued his ride on rented equipment, sometimes traveling through traffic in those European cities.
Day 204
Zweig started the day feeling sick. With the idea of riding the minimum 20 miles or so to keep up his distance goals, he started out. But as often happens during heavyexercise, Zweig found his groove and kept going. After nearly 7 1 /2 hours of riding, he hit the 100-mile mark, pushing his yearly total north of 4,700 miles.
Day 221
A photo on Zweig’s second blog - a necessity because he posted so many photos the first filled up - shows weather station data recorded on Aug. 3. The temperature reads 111.6 degrees. One of the internal goals he set along the way was to try to experience riding in all conditions, so he took oft in the middle of the afternoon at peak heat. Between an hourlong morning ride and a similar one in the afternoon, he covered 30 miles that day, pushing him past the 5,000-mile mark for the year.
Day 246
He still cannot determine what made sense about this - exhaustion, delirium, insanity? - but in his quest to ride at all times of the day, Zweig decided he should ride all day. So, at 5 p.m. on Sept. 3, Zweig departed from the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks, which provides instant access to the Fayetteville trail system.
“A point of contention between me and Carol is the definition of the 24-hour ride,” he wrote on his blog before setting out for the journey. “I say that it needs to be 24 hours on the bike, and Carol says 24 hours total should suff ce. But I’m sticking with 24 hours of total ride time. Something about seeing the timer on the bike computer rolling over to reveal 24 hours feels very pure and complete.”
He won his part of the bet. He slept on a park bench briefly to rest somewhere during the middle of it, he said. In total, he was on the bike for more than 27 1 /2 hours and covered 250.93 miles.
Day 274
On a drive to Shreveport with his daughter for a soccer tournament, Zweig mentioned his current pace would get him near 9,000 miles.
Rachel spoke up. “‘You should do 10,000. It sounds better than 9,000,’” he recalled her saying. And he knew she was right.
Over the next six weeks, Zweig increased his ride totals to the point that he was riding 350 miles per week, or an average of more than 50 miles a day. Zweig rides slowly, he admits, so his rides stretched for longer periods, sometimes four or five hours a day.
Other than perhaps during his 24-hour ride, he was at his weakest state. A 58-year-old of slight build to start with, he lost between 5 and 6 pounds during that time period. For someone who only weighed 135 pounds to start with, “that’s a lot of weight,” he said.
After the rides, he would ice his knees every day, and if necessary, ice his lower back and sit on a flat ice pack.
And each new day, he would crawl back on the bike and do it all over again.
“There is a biorhythm that says, ‘Why am I doing this?’ Deep down inside, I know I don’t want to stop, I’m just having a moment of doubt right now,” Zweig said.
Dorothy Mangold, founder and facilitator of the Ozark Roadies, Northwest Arkansas cycling enthusiasts that ride about 40 miles or more each Saturday during warm months, rode with Zweig several times during his challenge, although he rode many miles alone.
Mangold, who rode about 6,000 miles this year, understands the toll distance riding can take on a person.
“I think that the mental factor comes into effect just as much as the physical,” she said.
Very few riders approach the kind of yearly distance total Zweig did in 2011, Mangold said.
Day 334
Weary day after weary day,Zweig rode onward. And on Dec. 16, he reached his nearimpossible goal, his daughter Rachel riding by his side.
“Even in my somnolent state, I sensed a rejuvenation so that when I awoke, I felt re-energized and ready to go. I knew it; this was going to be the day. Carpe diem,” he wrote. He passed the 10,000-mile mark.
Day 365
A crowd of about a dozen waited at the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks on Dec. 31, armed with cameras and anticipation. At about 2:15 p.m., a contingent of about 25 bicycles approached from the east. Zweig led the pack, a group of friends and family, including Carol and Rachel, that finished the last ride with him. He pedaled across Crossover Road, decked in a thin chartreuse jacket, his right arm in the air.
“365!” he yelled as he eased his bike to a stop.
Day 366 (Jan. 1, 2012)
Zweig finished some chores around the house. He went for a hike. He did not ride his bicycle. It tempted him, but there was also something powerful in the idea of closing the book on this adventure.
There may be new adventures soon, Zweig said, but he’s got to catch up on life and family and health, some of the things that eluded him as he pushed hard toward the 10,000-mile goal.
He’ll continue to update his blogs and sort through some of the 2,000 to 3,000 photos he accumulated on his journeys. He also plans to honor those who donated to his meal campaign along the way.
Like the blogging, the riding will continue, but with less frequency.
Then again, this journey started on a whim, so who knows?
“A thousand-mile journey starts with that first step,” Zweig said.
Or, in this case, the first push of a pedal.
