Sea to Sea Training: Part 1

Of course with Independence Day came a few days off school. In preparation for the Sea to Sea trip across Nicaragua in December, myself and two friends decided to do some training this weekend. It involved planning a trip to the beach. Our destination was about 55 km away. We started Friday morning, stayed 2 nights at the beach, and returned the following day. We discovered there was 3 stages to the trip:

This picture was taken after putting 110 kilometers on our bikes in 2 days of biking. We look better than we feel.

Stage 1: This was the highway that has suffered greatly from excessive rains so it is covered with potholes. The first 6 or 7 kilometers are uphill and then there is a great downhill. This stage was 21 kilometers long.

Stage 2: This was the cobblestone highway that had lots of hills. At one point this huge herd of cows was being driven down the road. There was a bank on both sides of the road. I've grown up around cows, but I was a little unsure of what to do. I got off my bike and put it between me and the oncoming cows. As I should have known they just verred around us without even slowing down. This stage was 19 kilometers long.

Stage 3: This was the dirt road stage. On the way in it was dusty and bumpy. On the way out, after it had rained, it was muddy, slick, and bumpy. This stage was 16 kilometers long.

So I'm trying to figure out what the biggest challenges will be for riding bikes in Nicaragua. I don't think it will be the potholes or traffic. It's going to be the heat. Is it possible to drink too much water? I think I drank about 5 liters of water, probably more, per day this weekend. But I know we needed it. We were sweating profusely. After the sun dried up our sweat it left remnants of salt behind on our skin. It was almost like we had just been swimming in the ocean.

When it rains, it pours. While at the beach, we watched a strom come in. All afternoon it s eemed like it was going to start raining, but it held out until early evening. When it finally started raining it came down heavy and hard. Two of the people with us had gone out in the van to get more water. They had difficulty getting back to the house we were staying at because the dirt road turned to mud. They left the van down the road about a kilometer or more. After the rain stopped three of us went out to try to find a safe place to park it for the night. The road was still very slick and muddy so we ended up running through it with our bare feet. By the time we returned to the house we had clay soles stuck to the bottom of our feet. What an adventure!