day 6: sparks to lovelock

Stories from Lovelock
Taking an ice bath is part of my daily post-ride routine now. Not my favorite 15 minutes of the day, but boy does it pay off in spades. When my friend Rose (ironman and fleet footed marathoner) first described the ice bath routine after her hard runs I thought she was crazy. Then when I was telling my friend Tim (who helped me train for this ride at his multisport center) about my fear of just being exhausted after 10 days with no rest he suggested giving it a try. Basically what you do is immerse your lower body in cold water for around 15 minutes. It pushes the swelling out of your legs and it's amazing how much better they feel.

In other towns the cold water in the hotel pool has sufficed. So I bring all this up because the pool routine changed dramatically in Lovelock. First, this town has one stoplight. Our hotel is also a casino, as most things in Nevada appear to be casinos. Even the gas stations have slot machines. So when I get into the hotel I see the speedy crowd sitting on the raised stairway in the shade having a beer. Normally we sit by the pool. I join them and then they say go check out the pool ... I head in there and open the door and am hit with heat, chemicals and cigarettes. A note on the door warns that "some colored hair and our pool chemicals don't mix - proceed with caution". I stick my head in and there are about 8 older ladies floating on floaty things. Apparently the hotel pool is also a community pool where they hold water aerobics classes. They welcome me in (all the men had been kicked out earlier)- and let me know the water is quite warm and comfy. So while bobbing in the pool with the Lovelock ladies would have been interesting, I go get a trashcan full of ice and fill up the tub for my ice bath.

Tonight we had dinner at the Cowpoke cafe. It was fabulous --all homemade family style. Our Brit asked if he would get to poke a cow there. They were psyched to have us ... Even took photos.

I think Nevada will be a string of little towns like this. Not much to look at but a lot underneath the run down buildings.

The ride today was beautiful. We were riding through the Great Basin and salt flats. Big expanses of flat earth - much coated by salt that was white and reflecting light. Mountains rose in the background. We even passed some wetlands. I could swear I saw a pelican ...

It was 90 miles today - and relatively flat compared to the last few days. I made good time averaging almost 18 mph. It was the type of territory that you would drive through as fast as possible but when you slow down its really beautiful.