East German Training Ride Home from Philadelphia

This picture shows just how I felt today riding home from Thorndale

For those of us who waited on the East-West Border in Germany for the Soviet hordes to invade, some of the most fearsome soldiers in that million-man invasion force were the East Germans.  They were the descendants of the soldiers that almost conquered Europe and Olympic contenders far above other countries their size.

Beyond their reputation for being the masters of 1980s doping, the East Germans trained hard for everything. Everyone who followed bicycle racing during the 80s knew about East German training rides.  As the story goes, the coach of the team would check the wind on long-training-ride days.  Once he had the wind direction, he would load the team on a train for a 150km (94-mile) train ride with the wind. Then the cyclists would ride 150km back to the training camp into the wind.

Most of the effort of a fit cyclist is pushing air.  At 22mph in a calm wind, 80% of the cyclist's effort is overcoming wind resistance. Headwinds make the ride harder in proportion to wind speed.  Although wind is invisible, riding in a 25mph or faster headwind feels to me like I am riding in water.

Today I came back from Philadelphia knowing the wind would be straight in my face as soon as I got off the train.  I rode SEPTA from Philadelphia to Thorndale, the end of the local line, and started the 32-mile ride home.  Nearly three hours later, I arrived.  I averaged 12.5 mph and the 15-20 mph wind never let up.

I have already ridden to Philadelphia twice this year and will go again Saturday.  The prevailing west winds make the trip fun. In previous years have covered the 72-mile distance in less than three and a half hours on a really good day. Usually it's four and a half hours, but I won't even start the ride without a tail wind. If the wind is out of the east or straight out of the north or south, I will take the train.

All week the wind was straight out of the west, so I either had to carry the bike home in a car, or train like an East German.

I chose the headwind, but I am looking for a more fun ride tomorrow when the wind will be just 6 mph, but behind me.

Leadership Reaction Course--Groups Solve Problems

The Army Leadership Reaction Course gives a problem to a group and has them solve it in ten minutes or more depending on the problem.  The problems usually involve moving something or someone across an obstacle:
Move a drum across a stream
Move an unconscious pilot across stream on a cable
Move an ammo box through a pipe and across a water obstacle

Here are some photos of soldiers in my company attempting those obstacles.

AT Day 16, Low Crawl, High Crawl, Make Your Own Mud

Today we went through the fire and maneuver course.  Here is the 17 soldiers I train with before we started crawling.

We first learned how to search a car, how to handle a prisoner and how to run a check point.  When we went through the fire and maneuver course the ground was dry dust, but it was afternoon and 90 degrees.  By the time I had low crawled (flat on the ground, face in the dirt) and high crawled (head up) through the dust, most of us had mud on the front of our shirts.  The sweat soaked through our shirts and made mud.

Days like this clearly show me the difference between being in shape and being a 20 year old.  I can run, ride and do the PT test exercises very well because that's what I practice.  Fire and maneuver and crawling through the dirt uses different muscles and a lot of sprinting.  I was really breathing hard at different points in the exercise.  I could tell I would be sore the next day.  The 20 year olds, even those in not-so-good shape recover a lot better.