First ride in a very long time

It has been a long time since I've been on my bike. Today I decided to get on the Raleigh, which is strapped to my trainer, and rip out some time. I have it rigged up with an older computer on the back wheel so that I can record mileage, but I couldn't find the actual computer so I decided to just go by time. It was a little refreshing to just ride, no HRM, no cadence. I had a stopwatch running but left it in a different room. All I wanted was a total time at the end of the ride and didn't want to get hung up on watching the clock.

I learned that it has been far too long since I've been on my bike. I rode for less than an hour and was barely able to walk for the twitchy legs after. Now I just need to make sure I stick to training regularly enough to get past this. Since I've signed up for the LiveStrong ride again and want to make the metric, if not the full century this time around I need to get the miles in.

oops

I've been busy with this and that, which means little riding and no writing. Today I decided to take some time, put my new repair stand to work, and perform the much needed maintenance on my bikes. In doing so I discovered that the front tire on the Raleigh was dead, the loud and scary way.

As in, I pumped it up to almost full pressure (90 of a max 100 psi) and about 20 minutes later it blew out. Thankfully I wasn't working on the bike anymore and it was back against the wall, otherwise I would have been changing my pants and cleaning the floor instead of blogging...

Turkey Tri (San Dimas, CA) race report - for real

OK, now that I can feel all of the delicate parts of my body that were near-frozen after the swim on Sunday I'll write the race up.

As I mentioned in my earlier post it was 58F in the water and I didn't have a wetsuit. I had a pair of tri shorts (bike shorts with a thinner pad), the yellow Clyde class swim cap, and a pair of Sweedish goggles. That's it. I had to do the first 1/3 of the swim backstroke because when I put my chest in the water I couldn't hold my breath. I eventually hit a point where I could take a few strokes without dying but the water sucked most of my strength. Walking up the beach (and then up some stairs to T1) was tough.

The bike was better. The day was warming and it was comfortable to ride. I've done one other race in the same park and the route was shifted to be easier to start (last time you had a good climb right out of T1 so you had to have your bike in a low gear to make the run/walk from T1 - jump and ride move possible). I rode my Super Course and it was adjusted slightly off, with the seat a little too low, but that's my fault for not re-fitting the bike I haven't been on for better than a year. Oh, and I left my helmet in my truck (I carpooled to the race with my brother) and had to borrow one (Brian, bib # 77, you are my hero).

The run was a little long for a sprint (4.5 mi) but it was through the park and pretty nice. My only gripe is that the kid's duathlon they were running was using the adult run route for the kid's bike route and I got tagged in the arm by a sprinting kid.

As you can see from the pic above, I was last (20/20) in my class and darn near DFL (dead f---ing last) overall, but I did finish. I haven't been as good as I'd hoped with my training this fall and now I have a base time to try and better.

Getting ready

As I mentioned a little while ago, I've got a sprint tri coming up next weekend. I've done another race at this same location a few years ago, and that time I had to borrow my brother's old full suspension MTB to ride. The worst part (other than the fact that I don't like suspension to begin with) is that he hadn't used/maintained it for so long that the front fork lock-out wasn't working, so by the end of the bike section I was almost sea-sick from the bouncing every time I tried to really push on a climb. This time I'll be driving to his house instead of flying, so I can bring my own bike.

I thought about it a bit and decided to pull the Raleigh off of the trainer and use it. Sure, it's limited gear-wise (a straight 10, and not for climbing, compared to the 21 on the Trucker) but it weighs less, has no racks, and is easier to pack into my truck. I also decided to swap the pedals out. When I first bought it the Raleigh had what looked like original toe clip pedals on it and I pulled them off for clipless. In this case I want the toe clip so I can just wear my running shoes. Since I'm not going for speed the slight benefit of the clipless shoes is more than balanced by only having to put my shoes on once (I'm VERY slow at transitions.)


The only downside is that while I was pulling the non-driveside pedal off I wanged my thumb good - pinched it between the wrench and the crank. Darn thing is still tender. Oh, and the fact that the spare tube from the seat bag had spider webs on it.

The importance of variety

My last post I mentioned both my (not very) expansive three-bike stable, and that I had to commute on my touring bike due to a flat on the commuter. One thing I didn't mention is the odd discomforts I felt riding it.

When I picked up the Trucker and did a brief test-ride it was the single most comfortable bike I had ever been on. For the most part that is still the case. One little thing I noticed is that the muscles at the base of my thumbs are extremely sore now, and while I was riding they felt unpleasant. Thinking about it this really isn't surprising. Most of my riding (in fact 100% for the last couple of months) has been commuting, on an upright. Getting back onto a bike with drops means having to support my weight in a different position, and the body isn't used to it.

For a long time I had only one bike, a mid '90s Trek 930 SingleTrack. I had it set up for commuting (somewhat, slicks and a rack) and I rode it everywhere. My friends were training for a tour and I did their rides on the Trek, I commuted on the Trek, I went shopping on the Trek. Then it was stolen. I ended up getting two bikes to fill its duties - the Speedster and a Raleigh SuperCourse. The Speedster just isn't great for longer rides and the SuperCourse is too much of a road bike (read: extra-skinny wheels) for daily commuting on Baltimore streets. Now I've added the Trucker. Unfortunately, my time lately hasn't allowed for a lot of pleasure riding, so it's nothing but utility, which means the Speedster.

The point? If you have more than one bike, especially if you have more than one type of bike, you need to put some time in the saddle of each of them. Your body will thank you for it and (perhaps more importantly) you'll get to enjoy all of the different types of riding.

New toys, part 2

Yesterday I finished hooking the Raleigh up to the trainer and took it for a spin. After a short test ride earlier in the day I took a slightly longer one later. Today, again, I did about an hour on it.

I can say that it's not quite as good as riding outside. For one thing, it feels like there's a slight angle to the thing, like the bike is tilted over to the right. Not enough that I can see it, it just feels a little odd. I keep twisting the handlebars over to the right to try and counter it, then straightening them back out. Maybe I'll get used to it. That or I'll figure out that it is indeed tilted and to something to fix it.


As part of getting the Raleigh hooked up to the trainer I moved the computer sensor to the rear wheel, That way I can still record "miles" ridden in addition to the cadence and kcal data that I'm getting. Because it's a wireless unit I've had to move the computer itself onto the top tube. Since the main thing I have it for is recording the full ride (as opposed to doing laps or watching time/speed/cadence for some sort of goal) it's okay. I may get tired of having it there, but for using the trainer at least it's either there or no mileage.

I am still waiting for the rollers and front wheel riser to arrive, so for now at least I'm getting some good use out of the Baltimore Yellow Book. Most use I've gotten out of the thing since it was dumped on my porch a few months back.

FINALLY

After what feels like forever (but is really only a week or so) I got back in the saddle. My commuter (the Schwinn) is still wheel-less, having a new one built up for it by the guys at Mt. Airy Cycles, but since I had a couple of meetings up at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health I decided to ride the Raleigh.

Ordinarily I don't like to ride the Raleigh in street clothes, it's just a hassle, but it takes the same amount of time to bike over the Hopkins as it does to drive, and costs significantly less to park. The school has a great bike parking area in the tiny garage under the building, which is at street level and has a security guard all day. It was one of the things that was great about working on my degree there.

Today was chilly, high 30s/low 40s, so I had to wear a do-rag to cover up the bald under the helmet and my wool hobo gloves. When it gets colder I'll switch to the convertibles (fingerless gloves with mitten finger covers taht fold into place). It's a good thing that most of my day is at my desk, because the combination of SPD shoes and slacks is a little strange, but I didn't feel like carrying a bag and had nowhere else to put my work shoes. When I get back into the habit of riding most days I'll just leave the work shoes in my office.