Part 3: Prologue

It is hard to believe it has been 7 years since I completed Part 2.  A LOT has happened since then (COVID, my daughter’s wedding in Austria, a struggle with Cervical Radiculopathy, 4 grandchildren, and two hip replacements), which is why it has been 7 years.  I have never given up hope that I might someday get a chance to finish what I started, the entire TransAm from Yorktown VA to Astoria OR.  This year I will pick up where I left off in Wichita KS.  I will fly my bike to a shop in Wichita and re-assemble it there.  Then I will head North to pick up the TransAm route where I left off.  I was not able to complete the entire route in one part because my job and family did not afford me the flexibility to take that much time off.  Last December I retired after 23 years as a Professor in the Mechanical & Nuclear Engineering department at the United States Naval Academy, so I no longer have that constraint.  Consequently, it is my goal to finish the route (about 2,260 more miles) in one last part of about 45-days.  I am older and slower than I was, so 50 - 60 miles per day with some rest days is about right for me now (I will be 70 in October).  I have been training since last October in preparation for this trip. Serious indoor training started when I purchased a Wahoo Kickr Core and started using the SYSTM software.  It has allowed me to put exercise science behind what I was doing blindly with a dumb trainer before.  

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