Turtle Day

I’m back. I only managed about 33 miles today. I had a good start, but about half-way through I started to run out of steam. I don’t know if it’s due to lack of sleep, not enough breakfast, poor hydration or just the intense humidity, but all I wanted to do was go back to bed and sleep some more.

Anyway, I made my way back home. I think my average was 16 or 16.1 mph.

Sights on the road today. I saw a goat playing king of the mountain on a fallen tree. He had climbed up on top and was standing proudly waving his tail around. I also saw several box turtles. I sort of related to them today. I felt a little turtle-ish.

Stung

Two Sundays in a row now I’ve managed to get in good long bike rides. Today I did 51 miles starting from home and looping out around Hagan Stone Park and south. Last weekend I rode over to Caraway mountain and back, around 49 miles. Both were good rides and I’m pleased to be getting the mileage in my legs.

This week was much hotter than last and that did take it’s toll in the later part of the ride. I felt generally more tired at the end of this one than a week ago. Also, even though there’s a small mountain at the far end of the Caraway ride, I actually did more climbing today. Although only about a hundred feet more.

The ride to Caraway is always pleasant because there’s a lot of nice scenery, particularly in the second half of the ride. At least with the route I prefer. Lots of horse farms and the like. The ride around Hagan Stone Park has it’s own scenic feel too, but I guess it’s more similar to what I see on a lot of my rides, so the Caraway one has a slightly different vibe which makes it stand out.

I did have my camera along today, and took a couple of shots when I stopped at the park, but I never can bring myself to stop very often to take a picture. There’s just too much energy expended in the process of stopping and starting, so I just keep the pedals turning and think how nice it would be if I did stop and take a picture of whatever beautiful scene I’m passing. I was thinking today that it would be really cool if I could attach a video camera to my helmet or something and record one of my rides, but I’d probably have to turn the sound off. Nobody would want to listen the the roar of the wind across the mic and the sound of my wheezing for three hours.

At about mile 23 today something hit my thumb and there was a sharp pain. I’m pretty sure I was stung by something, but I don’t know what. I was concerned that I might have an allergic reaction, but nothing ever happened and the pain went away a little while later. I checked when I got home and there’s no sign of anything, so I guess it was just some weird random experience.

On both rides I stopped around the 30-35 mile mark at small convenience stores to buy a bottle of cold water to replenish. I’d never stopped at either one before, and both times I discovered that not only were they convenience stores but they appeared to be head shops as well, with display cases full of pipes and bongs. I had no idea. But it made me laugh.

The other thing I’ve noticed the past two weeks is that somewhere around mile 40 I start to feel a little hot-spot on the bottom of my left foot where my cleat is in contact with the pedal. So it seems like I need to make a small adjustment there. These are the sorts of things that are really difficult to get dialed in just right. I might make a tiny adjustment to the position of the cleat on the bottom of my shoe, but I won’t really know that it was effective in relieving the pressure spot until I’ve ridden another 40 miles or so, and in the meanwhile there’s always the fear that the adjustment might upset some other part of the mechanics of riding…like at the knee.

Anyway, since I never managed to post anything last week I thought I’d kinda catch everyone up on the past two weeks worth of riding. There have also been a few rides in the evenings during the week. I got Marcella out on the bike yesterday evening for a little over 11 miles. That’s her first ride of this season to start gearing up for Tanglewood at the end of the summer.

Around the Park

Took a nice ride around Hagan Stone Park this morning. I left the house at about 9 AM, which was an hour later than I had originally planned, but I was letting things warm up a few extra degrees.

All total I did 34 miles with an average speed of 15.6 mph. The fastest speed I hit was 36.4 mph, and I climbed 1672 total feet.

All in all I felt pretty good. The weather warmed quickly while I was riding. The bike was in good working order, and everything went well. I did stop at the park itself for 10 minutes and took a look at the lake, which was very calm and placid looking. I did a few stretches and then kept going.

No particulars to report today. No wildlife sightings or any other discoveries of interest.

Wind, wind and wind

Back from a short ride on the single-speed. My original plan for going out on my new Fuji were squashed when I realized I hadn’t dried all my cycling clothing from the washing. So I got to work on finishing that bit of laundry this morning, and then shifted gears to take a shorter ride on the fixie.

I only went out for about 12 miles, but it was harsh—not from temperature, although it was a little chilly too, but from wind. I discovered, to my chagrin, that the longest and steepest hill on the route I chose was also headed directly into a terrible headwind. I think it’s the first time that I ever seriously considered walking my bike up that hill. I didn’t though. I made it, with my head down and just focusing on turning the pedals over.

At the end of things, given the wind, it’s probably a good thing that I took a short and hard ride, as opposed to having tried to do a longer one. I might have found myself in a spot of bother out on the rode and far from home.

79/365: first ride

79/365: first ride

Originally uploaded by BasicB

79/365
The first ride on my new bike—Fuji Team Pro 2009. This is at around 10 miles in, just a random corner with a convenient street sign for leaning against.

I did almost 24 miles, and averaged 14.7. That average is kind of sad, but I haven’t been riding hardly at all over the winter. Now with the new bike I’ll have to break that habit and put on the serious miles again, and the average will go back up as will ride distance.

I’m really impressed by the ride quality of this bike compared with my previous one. This is way smoother. It’s a carbon frame instead of aluminum. All the components are higher quality as well so everything just works smoother, faster, better…like shifting and braking. I think I’m going to have lots of good rides on this bike. The saddle may be the only thing that I’ll think about swapping out and sticking with the one I’ve been using.