Continental Airlines Classic ride report

Distance: 64.69 miles
Total time: 5:36
On-bike time: 4:35
On-bike avg mph: 14.1
Avg. mph, incl stops: 11.6
High speed: 30.2 mph

The course was shorter than advertised, which is always good. There were some hills, particularly between miles 22 and 39. The granny gear was used...extensively. However, I also made use of the big ring, which I almost never do. It balanced out. Once again, I got confused about wind directions, and went into the ride believing that a south wind meant we'd have a tailwind on the back (ie, southward) half of the course. Needless to say, we did not.

I got to Montgomery plenty early, having misjudged how long it would take to get there from my house. I really wish I had known ahead of time, because I had stayed up till 2:00/3:00 Saturday night to monitor the daylight savings time change, and getting up at 5:30 was pretty rough. Had I known it would only take me 45 minutes to get to the place, I could have squeezed in an extra hour of sleep.

I had planned to ride alone, but I ran into someone from my club rides at the registration/map pickup area who was also riding alone, so we decided to ride together. The last time she rode the beginner ride a month ago, she was on the slower side, so I figured we would be well matched. What I didn't count on is that she's been riding 4 times a week and training with her MS150 team on weekends since then. Whereas, I can barely be bothered to make it to one spin class and a club ride every week. All this to say, the girl has improved. I kept up with her reasonably well for the first 40 miles, but she dusted me on those last 20. She was at the last 2 rest stops a good 3-5 minutes before I pulled in. We did finish together, though, so that was good.

It's so much nicer to ride with a partner or group...that's one of the things I enjoy most about being part of a club. Even if I go to one of these events by myself, I usually run into someone I can ride with, or at least tag along with for a while.

The only mechanical problem I had was with my seat...I moved it back and tilted it to a level position (v. pointed slightly down) before the ride, and I didn't tighten the bolt enough. By the time we got to the first rest stop, it was tilted up about 20 degrees. In order to fix that, I had to take all the electrical tape (yes, I did upgrade to electrical)off my saddlebag strap, which meant that it started to rub my leg again at around mile 30. By the 40-mile rest stop, I was seriously worried about ruining another pair of shorts. And since I was wearing my best pair, this concern was enough for me to approach four different volunteers until I found one with electrical tape. We bound it up again, and everything was fine for the rest of the ride. Today, I ordered one of these. Look ma, no straps!

This was my first long ride with the new handlebar, and honestly? I can't tell if it's better or worse. On the plus side, my hands never went numb and I don't have the upper shoulder/neck soreness anymore. However, those muscles between my shoulder blades were killing me by about halfway through the ride. I think the narrower grip just uses different muscles, and I have to retrain for the difference. I also think the shorter reach has my weight too far forward, because my front wheel started creaking and clicking toward the end. That could be because I didn't twist the skewer as tight this last time as I normally do, also, so I don't know. By the time it started getting bad, I was too tired and too close to the finish to really worry about it. I am going to keep the 75mm stem, though, because I think it's going to be a better fit when transferred to the Orbea. I can work with it for a few months.

So, overall, the ride went well. Since I did it on 2 hours' sleep, I crashed as soon as I got home (after I made sure the boy took his medicine, Rob). After 14 hours of sleep, I feel considerably better. :)