Recorded with a Garmin 305 GPS , analyzed by MotionBased GPS software and data recording services.

I rolled out on State Highway 92 over the Missouri river Sunday November 5th at 7 a.m. on the button. As intended, the sun was up enough that I could avoid using lights during the morning. I managed to roll through all of the stoplights on the way out of Council Bluffs without getting a red light. The hills on SH92 start as soon as you leave town and never really stop, or at least so it seems. A mix of long gradual grades and rollers continue most all the way across.

The weather was an abnormally warm 35 degrees, wind was dead flat, and the skies were clear. Other than warming up to a high of around 60 that day, not much else changed. Winds stayed exceptionally low: two to three mph from the south-southwest, gusting up to 10 mph, and only noticeable in the river valleys. In the valleys the wind currents would pick up and make me hang on for dear life as I bombed the downhills at excessive speeds and shot up the other side. On one of those said downhills, a gust was strong enough to pull my canopy back, taking my headrest with it.

The aptly named "Barracuda."

I stopped four times with 50 minutes out of the bike total. I would take food and a new bottle every time I stopped. The biggest factors in slowing my in-bike average speed were the many longish grinder hills that slowed me to 8 mph one after another, and the unrelenting frost heaves that had developed along much of SH92, making for a rather jarring ride. I can train for the hills and lighten my bike to aid in climbing, but dealing with road roughness is a tough one to overcome.

I was hoping Sunday morning traffic would be almost non-existent. However, traffic seemed to remain a steady stream of about three to five cars passing every five to ten miles all the way across. Many gawked in their rear view mirrors to the point of forgetting which lane they were in. I suppose that is a concern I just have to expect as long as I'm riding a nine-and-a-half-foot-long banana down the road.

My goal was to finish this crossing within the daylight hours. However, fifteen miles from the finish the sun had descended enough that I was forced to stop again to put on my lights. I finished the crossing at 5:44 p.m. for a total crossing time of 10 hours and 44 minutes. I finished, feeling beaten from the road conditions, yet not all that fatigued physically. Good news: I felt fine. Bad news: I could have gone faster. A good ride either way. No major mechanicals, no major physical issues, no major GI issues, learned a thing or two, and established a record. What more can I ask for?

The bike outside its shell

The streamliner is a homebuilt 20"/700c "short wheel base" recumbent with an Actiontech suspension fork, housed within a fiberglass shell just wide enough for me to squeeze into. The whole thing is 115 inches long, 17.5 inches wide, and 43 inches tall to the top of the canopy. It weighs 60 lbs dry and has a gear range of 41-175 gear inches. On flat ground in this streamliner 35-40 mph cruising speeds have been proven well within my reach. 60 lbs of bike means momentum is my friend (topping hills over 40 mph is fun!) and you can find me grinding up hills at 8 mph when the momentum runs out. There are quite a few 8 mph hills on SH92...

I modified the canopy so I could open and close it on the fly to help deal with fogging, temperature control, and stop signs. The bike is much faster and more stable with the canopy closed. There is a small jockey wheel on the left side that acts as an outrigger for starting and stopping the bike, but with the canopy open I can also put a hand down if necessary. Getting in and out of the bike is a trick; flexibility helps, and staying in the bike helps. This is part of why all of my stops took around ten minutes a piece. Next time I think I'll plan on staying in the bike for the duration.

Grelk attempting to climb into the HPV.

A large part of the reason I wanted to do this crossing was to do some testing with my fueling before this February's Sebring 24-hour competition. And hey, why wouldn't you want to ride across Iowa in November, eh? I carried one 60 oz bladder of water and one water bottle. Both were fashioned in such a manner that I could drink out of either without letting go of the steering (wind gusts can be a real handful in a streamliner; even passing cars can move you around).

I ran a half-and-half mix of Heed and Sustained Energy in the bottle. I used chocolate milk as an additional calorie source during the stops. I have less GI disturbance from chocolate milk than I do from Perpetuem, and it tastes way better, so it's a simple choice for me. My stomach doesn't care much for a strictly liquid diet, so PB&J sandwiches keep that in line. I consumed three bottles of Heed/Sustained Energy, one bladder of water, 3 chocolate milks, and two PB&Js in the 10 hours and 44 minutes it took me to ride the 274.8 miles.

Grelk cruising through the rolling Iowa hills.

Lessons learned: Watch your caloric input, stay in the bike, do your hill repeats, and keep your lid on.

Many thanks to my parents, Duane and Mary Grelk, for crewing. And thank you to Tom Buckley for officiating.

Official Record: Iowa W-E, 274.8 miles, 10:44, 25.6 mph
Start: IA/NE state line on SH 92 bridge over Missouri River at Council Bluffs, IA
Finish: IA/IL state line on SH 92 bridge over Mississippi River at Muscatine, IA
Official: Tom Buckley