acclimatization n. The physiological adaptation of an animal or plant to changes in climate or environment, such as light, temperature, or ALTITUDE!.

We're getting a wonderful lesson in physiology now that we have arrived in New Mexico. After a 25 hour bus ride from Jamie's parents house in Springfield, MO to Lordsburg, NM we thought it would be a great idea for us to assemble our bike in a sleep deprived state, eat a big lunch at a mexican place, and then ride 48 miles up the road (paved) to Silver City, NM under a blazing sun where we will meet up with the continental divide trial*. The elevation of Lordsburg, NM is about 5000 ft and the elevation of Silver City is 5970ft. We were used to breathing air in Atlanta at a mere 1000ft. Can you see the foreshadowing going on here?

So we unboxed all of our gear, assembled it, ate and headed out at about 1pm. Everything started out well, but Jamie started riding slower, and then slower, and then we're going about 6mph on flat pavement! This was very peculiar to me but I figured she must be tired from the trip. After a couple miles of creeping along further, I took both her saddle bags and attached them to my already overloaded BOB trailer thinking the removal of weight should help her out. After all, I'm strong, I can take it, right? Seems as though I will learn that my body's physiology is not attached to my ego.

Removing Jamie's weight didn't speed her up, and our plan turned from making Silver City that night, to camping half way and riding in tomorrow.

Then I started reflecting on how I felt.

I felt freakin horrible!

Headaches, nausea, exhaustion, and I would have just laid down and taken a nap if it wasn't for that unrelenting sun. We were only 8 miles into the 48!

By mile 10, we were taking a break every 20 minutes and creeping along in the granny gear at 4 mph on pavement, going up a silver comet type "hill". Something wasn't right with this and I knew that at this pace, it was going to take three days to do 48 miles and we only had enough food/water for two days, tops. At this point, we decided to hitch a ride into town. It took another 2 miles and being passed by a lot of cars but eventually a really nice lady stopped on her way back from a horse race (which she won). We loaded our gear and ourselves into the horse trailer and rode the rest of the way into town. It turns out that horse trailers don't just contain horses. The front half of those trailers has a full bed and kitchen so we weren't actually with the horses, we were laying out on the bed inside the horse trailer. That lady really helped us out and I encourage everyone to remember her good deed and pass it on.

So end result is that a change in altitude requires aclimatization! You can't just expect to go out there a kill a bunch of miles that you would back in Atlanta. Aclimatization takes several days and that's what we expect to do. We have a room here a cheap motel and we'll be hanging out here in Silver City for the next several days to adjust. Dr. Schick** gave us some altitude sickness pills before we left and we talked to him over the phone this morning. We will be following his suggestion of rest before continuing on. When we leave Silver City, we will not see another grocery store (or perhaps another person) for 6-7 days as we ride the divide up to Grants, NM! So we want to be absolutely sure we can make the journey before setting off. Once we leave Silver City, we're commited to going to Grants with very little chance for a bail out along the way.

I hope y'all are having fun and remember, NEVER underestimate the effect of altitude!

Lee

*For those of you more familar with the trial, you may be wondering why we didn't start at the official beginning in Antelope Wells. That location involves us riding 2 days south across the desert, taking our picture of us at the start and then riding backtracking on the same roads another 2 days to end up esentially where we started. Frankly, that didn't seem like a lot of fun just to be "official". Call us slackers if you like, but be prepared to back it up by getting your own bike out here and riding.

** Dr. Richard Schick, besides a good sports medicine doc, is also well known ultra-endurance runner (that means he runs a 100 miles at a time!) and the father of Richard Schick. Richard and I went to college together and it was Richard that let me borrow his mountain bike and took me on my first mountain bike ride at Sope creek in Symrna, GA (the trials we rode are now illegal for riding). Richard, Jin and I built a recumbent bicycle together in school and that's what got me into cycling.