yet another update on the new bike

Well, I took the Cannondale out for the group ride on Sunday. Sweet mercy. :)

I haven't seen the detailed stats yet (because the usb cable went to the IoLT along with my GPS unit), but the new bike performed very well. I was able to stay in the lead or first chase group for pretty much the entire ride, which means that I probably averaged around 20 mph on the main portion of the course. My personal course record previously was 19.0 mph, so that's a significant improvement. My official average on the GPS was 17 mph for the entire ride, but that includes a leisurely 14-15 mph on the last 12 miles back to the car (I ride from town to the ride start location to warm up before the faster-paced group rides).

As I was telling Rob about this, he asked me how much of this I thought was about the bike and how much of it could be that I was working harder because I was proving new equipment. After I gave it some thought, I decided it was about 50/50. or maybe 70/30. 60/40? I was working harder than I normally do, but the reason was not just that I was on new equipment. It was also because I was able to keep up longer with a faster group.

Lemme 'splain. In a ride like this, my main objective is to work with a group. Any group will do, but I like it to be the fastest I can keep up with and not die. Once a sufficient gap forms between me and the wheel in front, however, I let that group pull away and drop my speed in order to catch on to the next group that passes. Ergo, the longer I can stay with a faster group, the harder I will work. On Sunday, I was able to stay with the front group nearly all the way to the first regroup point, and was able to stay in the first chase group the rest of the time. The other regroups were about the same way. Normally, I am in the 2nd chase group pulling into the regroup points, or lagging slightly behind it. So basically, I was faster because I was working harder, but I was also working harder because I was faster.

Other differences...I noticed that I was able to spin faster with less effort/fatigue, and recover at a faster speed when I did have to back off. Also, I had more confidence in taking corners at speed, and I've adjusted to the changes in handling while out of the saddle. I think I just needed a few rides for it to sink in. (Of course, now I've given it back, and will have to re-adjust to the Orca. :P)

No matter how you look at it, the new bike is awesome, and I really wanted to keep it. It did go back to the shop yesterday, however, and will remain there until someone tells me to keep it or I pay them another couple grand. Oh, would that I were independently wealthy. :)

P.S. The saddle is still awful. Good power transfer, but the girl parts would like a cut-out, please. I'm considering one of these, if I can find one at a significant discount. I have very little restraint when it comes to bike spending, but I'm not spending $150 on a saddle unless it comes with a jetpack or something. Maybe a butt-massager. :)

tilting at windmills

I have a SystemSix in my house. It is currently sequestered in its own room, so that the cats cannot climb on it and scratch the paint (since I have not even finished paying for it yet, it seems a shame to start the destruction already). I'm going to take her out for a real ride tomorrow, but did get a chance to spin around the neighborhood tonight.

I...don't know. I can't tell if there's an improvement. I wish I had been able to dig up my GPS and extra mount...I could have had some stats to compare. I still felt powerful, the shifting was crazy quiet and smooth, I was able to keep up with a car for a block or two from a stop sign. The ride feel of this bike is sooo much more aggressive than my Orca setup, though, it's hard to know what's making the bigger difference. My reach is at least a full cm longer, with the long stem and bigger/wider handlebar. My stem is level, vs. the 17-degree upward angle of my other one. And the saddle is 2-3 cm above the handlebar, vs the Orca where I have them dead level.

The longer stem makes it easier to ride in a straight line and control corners when I'm in the saddle, but I haven't quite gotten the hang of the bike when standing. Where I had no trouble controlling the Orca in a standing sprint, I end up wiggling the front wheel all over the place on the SS. It might be that the wide oval top tube doesn't leave the bike as much room to shift back and forth under me, so I'm not able to maintain my balance as effectively. It could also be that the bike frame is shorter and I can't get used to the change in my weight distribution. Whatever the reason, I don't have the control I'd like while standing, so I'm going to try to do that as little as possible tomorrow.

I'm glad I took her out tonight...I was a little afraid my in-saddle steering would be shaky, but it seems that I have adapted to that, at least. I was also able to confirm that I do hate the saddle just as much on a slightly longer ride as I did on a parking-lot test run. I suspected as much. I wonder what they'll let me trade it out for? Pity they don't carry Specialized...I'd go for another Jett.

I've been giving bike names some consideration, also. It has proven more problematic with this one than the last two. My first bike was a Pilot, so I named it Amelia after Ms. Earhardt. My second bike is an Orca, so I named it Keiko after the whale from Free Willy. This bike is...a SystemSix. Doesn't exactly lend itself to easy naming options. However, since I name pretty much every inanimate object I use regularly, my new steed must have a name. Right now, I'm leaning toward Nikita. Or maybe, given my racing performance this year, Rocinante. :)

update on the bike

Well, it's official. I am going to be adding a SystemSix to my stable. I test rode tonight, and was duly impressed. I mean, I like my Orca, but this bike is fast. It shifts beautifully, accelerates like a rocket. The fit has me stretched out nice and low without discomfort, and the Dura Ace hoods feel nicer under my hands than my Ultegra short-reaches. Even with a standard bar and levers, I didn't have any trouble reaching the levers from the drops...I think because the smaller frame size* allowed us to set the hoods lower on the bar. I was a little worried about the ride quality, going from an all-carbon frame...but it was surprisingly smooth. And on a completely cosmetic and girly-girl note, I like how this frame complements the Quattro Ti pedals I've had sitting in a box for 6 months. (And which I can now put on a bike, because I am officially under the 185 lb. weight limit. Woo!)

My only issue was that the handling felt twitchy, particularly when standing. Since I made this same comment about the Orca when I was transitioning from the Pilot, I think it's just due to the racier nature of the SystemSix, and I'll adjust to the difference as I ride it more.

Now, all that's left is to pay for it. :P Even with the smokin' deal, I won't have it fully paid off till sometime in October. They're letting me take it out it this Sunday to get a good, long, validate-my-purchase group ride in, and I'm secretly hoping they'll let me take it home for good sometime before it's completely free and clear. I'm totally fine with waiting if they don't, but I figure they might let her leave the shop once I've made a few regular payments. We'll see.

*48cm. So weird! (Warning: Bike geek speak ahead...)

For two years, I've been telling myself that I needed at least a 53cm top tube for my legs, and I would just have to live with super-short stems in order to make the reach work out for my t-rex arms. However, the Cannondale's 51.5cm effective top tube is totally fine. Part of the reason I was initially hesitant about this bike was that, looking at the geometry numbers, I thought the 48 would fit like the 51cm Dolce I tested back in 2005. But even though the top tube is actually shorter (the Dolce was 51.8cm), the slacker seat tube angle and a slight seatpost offset bring my knees back enough to make everything work. So, while I haven't necessarily been riding a bike that was too big for me all this time, I could have gotten a better fit without the handling issues that come with a short stem. Of course, now that I've adjusted to the feel of a short stem, a normal size feels slightly off. Or it could just be the nature of the frame...who knows? Either way, I'll adjust after a while and hopefully be a better bike handler for it.

race weekend recap, while I'm still conscious

Welp, I'm back from Austin...what a great trip. :) I mean, I got smoked in both races I participated in, and was rained on also. But I got to watch a couple excellent pro crits and hang with friends from our team. And then I woke up the next morning and did some bike jousting, keg walking, and mini-bike riding...and a whole lot of line-standing.

The crit was kind of scary. Very short course, very fast. I fell off the back pretty early, and rode my own race from lap 3 onward, pretty much....though there was a junior girl on my wheel for a lot of it. We were our own little peloton. :) About 15 minutes into our race, a thunderstorm started rolling in...and riders started hitting the pavement, particularly on the last turn coming into the start/finish. Four girls crashed right in front of me on one lap (the field had just lapped me, and I was desperately trying to stay on the back again...:P), but I'm such a candyass in the corners that I was going slow enough to avoid them safely. Shortly after that, mild rain transitioned to full-out downpour, and the road was littered with women and kids on every corner. I managed to avoid crashing myself (God bless that skills clinic last year, and my total lack of shame in taking a corner at 8 mph in a race), but was very, VERY glad when they called the race early. Every time I took that 4th corner, I had to think "don't brake, don't brake, don't you dare brake" while my wheels were sliding all over that slick pavement. Like I say, scary. But I did finish the race, which definitely means that I have achieved my first top 15 finish*. And if enough women dropped/crashed out, I may even be able to claim top 10! I didn't wait for results and they haven't posted them online yet, so I just don't know. Would be funny if I managed to get a prize for being dropped THAT badly. :) (UPDATE: 9th...holy crap! I got points and everything. Heh.)

The Urban Assault was a major disappointment this year, as the lines at the checkpoints were ASTRONOMICAL. Our on-bike time for this race was about an hour and 10 minutes, and it took us 4 1/2 hours to finish the race. Now, once we got to the actual EVENTS at the checkpoints, we were done with all of them within 5 minutes. However, we waited over half an hour at 4 of them (Pease Park wait was almost an hour), and nearly 10 minutes at another. So, that's over 2 HOURS standing in various lines, probably close to 3. Would have been longer, probably, but they shut down Jack & Adams before we got there, and so we bagged it and went back to the start, not bothering to go hit Pure Austin for the last mystery checkpoint either. After looking at the long line for the final obstacle at the finish, we gave up on that as well and just headed back to the hotels feeling pissy and out of sorts. Grr.

On the bright side, we did we hit 10 of 12 checkpoints, and actually figured out all the mystery checkpoints really quickly. The counter-clockwise route we took was really the best way to go...unfortunately, just about all of the 650 teams went that way right along with us, so once we hit one long line, we were screwed for the rest of the race. Sigh. I think if we do this again, we'll risk a longer route in order to shoot to the middle checkpoints first. That's where the congestion was the worst. But aside from the line trouble, it was fun, we did a LOT better than I did last year, and I'm totally going to finish this race one of these years. I don't think I'll be able to convince McSpeedy to do it with me again, though...he's not known for his patience, and all the lines had him near-apoplectic by the end. I don't think his comment survey to the race organizers is going to be very complimentary. :)

So that was my weekend. I liked the races I watched better than the ones I participated in, but the weather was gorgeous for all but that hour around the women/juniors open and I got to hang out in a cool city with family and friends. I kind of wish we had been able to stay longer...there were a couple things I wanted to do that I didn't, and I would have liked to spend more time with Rob and the boy.

Song: Slow Show (right-click, save-as)

In other news...

...there is a strong possibility that I will be buying (or making arrangements to buy) a new race bike tomorrow.

Yes, I KNOW. But here's the thing...a set of circumstances kind of fell into place this week, in which I have an opportunity to buy a very sweet bike at a very sweet price, and earn good-will points with my bike shop in the process. And I can then disassemble the Orca (already have an offer on the frameset, but it's a little lower than I wanted...I'm holding off to think about it), move the components over to the Salsa, and build two bikes for the price of one. Well, a very expensive one, but one nonetheless.

I'm getting fit for a test ride tomorrow after work, and if I like it on a short run, I'm going to TRY to convince the shop to let me take it home and try it out on the Tuesday training ride. I feel a little guilty even asking, but if I'm going to be spending more on a bike than I did on my first real car, I want to make sure it works as well or better than the one I've already got. All my sources say it's a fabulous racer, but if it's not a good fit or markedly less comfortable than the Orca, I'd just as soon dance with the one who brung me, you know? I mean, Keiko's not exactly a Wal-Mart special, either.

At any rate, I'm sure I will have more on that after the test ride...including exactly what it is I'm planning to buy. Gotta build the suspense, you know...;) (If you're really dying to know, follow either of those "bike" links up there for a spoiler.)

*there were 15 starters. :)

race reports - two, two, TWO races in one!

yeah, I still suck. I was lapped twice at Bear Creek, it rained through the first 3 laps, and the only person I managed to beat was a teenage girl. Still, I did hit everything on my stated goals list for that race--I didn't quit, I didn't crash, and I wasn't last. So, um, woohoo I guess.

Today at the Houston Grand was both better and worse. I only got lapped once, but considering that the course was almost 3x as long, I was behind by about the same distance. And while I didn't wait for the results, I'm pretty sure I DFLed* the hell out of it. In fact, I'm not even sure the officials counted my finish, I was so far behind. On the bright side, I did finish. I can tell you that I wholeheartedly did not want to...but by the time the field lapped me, there were only 3 laps to go so I figured I might as well complete the silly thing.

As far as speeds go, I forgot to reset my computer for Bear Creek, so I have no idea how fast I was going. I wasn't counting the laps either, so all I can really say is that I made many, many left turns as quickly as I felt safe. If I had to venture a guess, I would set my 45-minute average to somewhere around 18-20 mph. I did remember to reset my bike computer at the start of the race today, and my average for the hour-long race was over 19 mph. This is, like, my highest average ever. However, these numbers probably also indicate that I have no business racing quite yet. Not that this will stop me for long, of course. :) And if my training keeps improving at the same rate throughout the summer, I might actually pass a race sometime this year.

*Dead F--king Last.

bike racing is like childbirth...

...after a few months, you forget the pain and think it'd be worth doing again.

In my particular case, I decided to make further use of my annual USAC license and enter not one, but TWO criteriums this weekend. I'm fairly certain I'm going to get killed in both of them, but they're local so at least I won't have to travel to get my ass kicked. :)

I'm not sure whether I'm looking forward to the weekend or dreading it...on the one hand, our team is well represented in both races, and they're both women's open fields (meaning all categories are in one race). So I'll be racing with/near people I know, and that will be kind of fun. Also, both courses are pretty flat, so I don't need to worry about any climbing. On the other hand, see paragraph above.

My goals in these races are the same as my goals at Pace Bend, and in every fast training ride--stay with the pack as long as I can, don't quit, don't crash, and don't be last. My sources say they won't pull anyone, so I should plan to be in for the whole hour regardless of how far out of contention I am. They also don't think I'll be that far back, which is encouraging. I'm hoping to stay with the pack for at least 2-3 laps, and then finish out the race either by myself or working with other dropped riders. We'll see.

it's...um...my mother's day present to myself?

UPDATE: It's here! It's here! Man, that was fast. The color's a little darker than I expected, but it's very pretty. Can't wait until it looks like a real bike. :)
----------------------------

Yeah, so, last Friday? I bought one of these.

Not the whole bike, just the frame and fork. But when I'm done with it, it's going to look pretty much like the picture (except with different bar tape, because that light tan is icky. Maybe a red?).

Lest you think this purchase was impulsive, I started researching for the perfect utility bike about 30 seconds after selling my Pilot. It's not that I regret selling the Pilot exactly, since the carbon fork and seat-stays prevented me from setting it up as the kind of bike I wanted--racks, fenders, etc. Still, though I love Keiko with all of my heart, there are things I don't feel comfortable doing with her. Like riding in street clothes. Or locking her up in front of the grocery store. Or going less than 12 mph (unless, of course, we're climbing. Because I suck at climbing. Yes, still.)

So, sometime around September of last year, I started putting together an idea of what I wanted in my do-everything-but-race bike. After riding Rob's comfort hybrid a couple times, I knew that I did NOT want front suspension. I have no use for it, since I have no intention of going off-road and the network of bike paths I intend to use with this bike is entirely paved. I also didn't want a mountain bike, for these same reasons. I looked briefly at fitness hybrids, but the majority at my weight limit (~25 lbs)were all-aluminum frames. I don't have anything against aluminum, but after riding carbon it feels much harsher than it used to. Besides, I'm a roadie at heart, and like the feel of a road-style riding position. So I started looking at steel road bikes. Which are surprisingly hard to find anymore.

Oh, wait--let me back up and be honest.

While all of that is logical and entirely true, the real fact is that it was all thought up later as a justification. I fell in love with the Casseroll the first time I saw it, in pictures from Interbike 2006. It just looked so old-school, classic, approachable. And Salsa's chili-pepper head badge is too cute (*cough*). I had no real use for it at the time (and spent a good portion of 2007 trying to talk myself out of the bike lust), but the seed was planted. After I bought the Orca frame, that seed started to take root--I knew I would want a different bike for day-to-day riding and commuting.

I looked for Salsa dealers in my area, but there aren't any in my immediate vicinity (a couple in Houston, but nowhere close to my usual haunts). Then I got distracted by other things, built the Orca, sold the Pilot, and by the time I got around to considering a special order, the 2008s were released. And I didn't like them so much. Sigh.

Somewhere around January, I set up a recurring search in the bike section on ebay, just looking for "Salsa". It emails me once a week with all the listings, and for 4 months it got nothing I could use--skewers, seat post clamps, wheels, lots of 29er mountain bike frames. I think it found a Casseroll exactly once--and it was a 55cm. Then finally, Thursday night, I got the hit I was looking for--Salsa Casseroll frameset, 49cm. After about a minute of debate (which was mostly spent checking my bank balance and wondering if my shop will be mad at me for asking them to build yet ANOTHER non-shop bike), I hit the 'buy it now' button. It should be here by Wednesday. With any luck, I can have it built by July. I am so excited I can barely stand it. :)

(Confidential to Rob: I think this will be my last bike purchase for at least another year, but I make no promises.)

Bluebonnet Express ride report

Yeah, yeah, I KNOW I've been saying for 3 weeks that Space Race is my next charity ride, and then I ended up entering one every Sunday since. Blame McSpeedy, who I think might just be a little obsessed with expanding his t-shirt collection. Either that, or he's suffering race withdrawal since he's made a deal with Wife not to do anymore out-of-town racing for a while.

Total distance: 62.19
Total time: about 4 hours
On-bike time: 3:27
Avg speed: 18.0 mph
Avg w/stops: 15.5 mph
Max speed: 31.4 mph

Last year:

Distance: 65.2 miles
Total time: 6:01*
On-bike time: 4:18*
On-bike avg mph: 15.1
Avg. mph, incl stops: 10.8
High speed: 28.3 mph

To paraphrase Greg Lemond, cycling never gets easier, you just go faster. And go faster we did...by about 3 mph, all around. :)

At this point, I don't think I need to spend words on the wind (which was considerable but not unbearable), or McSpeedy's tendency to blast past whole pelotons of riders and expect me to stay on his wheel (which was only mildly irritating on Sunday...I was in a take-no-prisoners sort of mood, and spent my fair share of time out in front, chasing people down. Especially this one guy, but more on that later). What was notable is that this route seemed much flatter than last year, and that we didn't use any of the posted rest stops.

Like I mentioned, I didn't intend to do this ride. I was unimpressed by it last year, and since McSpeedy had the kids, there didn't seem any point in driving all the way out there to ride it solo. Especially since I can get a decent distance by riding from my house to one of the Sunday club rides. Also, this particular club ride was not going to have an official leader, so I felt like maybe I could help out. However, McSpeedy's mom wanted to take the kids to church, so he offered to drive and pay my registration if I would do this ride with him. Woo! T-shirt ride! :)

Unfortunately for us, day-of registrations are not guaranteed t-shirts or the free lunch on this ride, and we found out while paying our registration that we were eligible for neither. They did, however, give us leftover Katy Flatland t-shirts, so McSpeedy was happy. (Even moreso, because he thought the Bluebonnet shirts were ugly.)

So anyway, by the time we got registered and into the start line, we were pretty far back in the queue. I don't know when exactly we left the parking lot...I think it was around 8:20-8:30, which was not too bad for the number of riders that were there. It did give us time to discuss the game plan--ride fast, avoid rest stops, except for one at the midpoint (30 miles).

Once we were on the road, we took it pretty easy for the first 5-10 miles, not really ramping it up until after we got onto the first open stretch of road. Then McSpeedy proceeded to put the hammer down, upping the pace to somewhere around 23-25 mph. I was surprisingly fine (tailwind?). We passed several groups of riders, and then a guy on a tri bike blew by us. Not a big deal...that's fine. People can pass. Lord knows it's happened before, right?

The next hill, we caught and passed him. Apparently, he did not approve, because his "on your LEFT" contained a bit of attitude when he passed me the next time. Or, maybe I imagined it did, but the action doesn't really matter as much as the result--he became my rabbit, and I vowed that would be personally responsible for riding him into the ground. We turned into a headwind, I led out and caught his wheel. I passed and then gently, ever so sweetly, pulled away. We turned into a tailwind, he passed faster than was strictly necessary, bellowing "ON YOUR LEFT". I turned to McSpeedy and raised my eyebrows, giggling a little. We stayed within sight, and on the next turn into the wind, I looked at McSpeedy.

"So, should we pass him this time, or just catch his wheel?"

"Just let him go. We'll catch him again soon enough." I think there may have been an eyeroll here, though he was wearing sunglasses so I can't be sure.

"Unacceptable."

Aaand we chased him down again. :) Like I say, I was feeling a bit competitive. We played this game for about 15 miles, I think, until the last turn to a tailwind before the 2nd rest stop. As was his custom, he flew around us and was gone. McSpeedy refused to chase, so I had to content myself with keeping the enemy in sight. We stopped at the gas station on the corner, he went ahead. I was pretty sure we wouldn't see him again, but then we passed him on the side of the road about a mile later, watching someone fix a flat. Whether it was his flat or that someone's, I couldn't say, but I'm slightly ashamed to admit that I cheered a little inside. Take THAT, Mr. TriBike. I beat you so mightily your TIRES couldn't take it. :) (McSpeedy claims that he saw him in the SAG truck later, but I can never tell whether he's messing with me. If so, I hope it wasn't something mechanical. Even if he was my temporary nemesis, I hate to see anyone's ride cut short that way.)

Somewhere around the 30-mile mark, we saw the sign for the 3rd rest stop. McSpeedy made a hand gesture indicating that we should ride on through, but it was my turn to overrule. No more ridey my bikey, the Joy needs food. I explained the situation, and he agreed to stop. Before we got there, though, we passed a flower shop/fruit-veggie stand/bbq place and opted for that instead. After stocking up on water and gatorade, and some most excellent bacon-and-egg sandwiches (no BBQ till 11:30, apparently), we were back on the road in about 20 minutes.

As soon as we got back on the bike, I realized that was about 10 minutes too long for my legs. They were tired, they were achy, they were rubbery, and they were absolutely not responding to any requests to get the bike moving more than 20 mph. I passed this info up to McSpeedy, who slowed down to what I could manage and pulled me along until I had warmed up again.

Even though I did start to feel better (maybe that bacon sandwich kicking in...), those last 15 miles were hard. McSpeedy had gotten back into the competitive spirit and started chasing down his own personal nemeses, for slights real or imagined...Old Guy in Yellow, Motobecane Guy, Crash Test Dummy Guy...we passed them all. I don't remember many of them or what they did to incur McSpeedy's wrath, probably because I was freaking exhausted, and all I could really do was concentrate on the view over his left shoulder and hope to hang on.

About a mile from the end, I was feeling pretty decent again, and he waved me around so I could take us into the finish. So I did. When we pulled into the parking lot, my average speed was reading at 18.2 mph. :) By the time we navigated around the people and cars and whatnot, got lost, and managed to find our car finally, the average was down to 18.0. Still, I'm pretty sure that's my fastest average to date, so woohoo!

Now, really, sincerely...next up--Space Race!

my first road race has the same tagline as my first duathlon...

which is..."I totally wasn't last!"*

I also didn't:

• get pulled
• crash
• come anywhere near a pack finish

I was dropped like a hot potato about 2 miles into the first lap, and another 2 miles down the road, I couldn't even see the women's 4 field anymore. The only time I wasn't racing utterly by myself is when the men's fields lapped me several times. And then the women's P/1/2/3 field, once. :) But you know what? It was my first race, and I finished. It was the hardest 25 miles I've ever done, and I don't regret a single foot of it. Well, except that I didn't ride it faster.

*I was 28th of 29 finishers in my category. :P

ho-leee shit...

...I just registered for my very first real, live bike race. One that doesn't involve taking a break every 3-4 miles to walk on stilts or ride a big wheel. I had to go get a racing license, for goodness sake.

This could be the scariest thing I have done this year, kids. Excuse me while I go pass out now. :P

Song: If I Were Brave (right-click, save-as)

and in other news...

...I've decided to do the MS150 again this year, after waffling over it for a couple months. I'm not sure yet where I'm starting, but I did finally decide to jump onto the company team. (It turns out that I still can, though I'm still waiting on an email to confirm my registration.)

And true to my attitude toward camping in general and MS150 fairgrounds tent camping in particular, we've turned the overnight into a family vacation at the new Lost Pines Hyatt. To hell with roughing it...y'all know I'm really more of an indoor girl. And since we'd have to drop a couple hundred on a crap-ass motel room at this late date anyway, may as well pony up for a really good one. Besides, it gives me something better to look forward to after 7 hours in the saddle than a tentful of co-workers & strangers. :)

In addition to upgrading my accommodations, I also plan to do a better job fundraising this year. Despite the best efforts of a handful of lovely sponsors (thanks Frazier!), I ended up putting in about 75% of the required pledge last year. Not that I mind donating to the MS Society at all, but $400 is a little more than I like to spend for a ride entry fee, you know? So I'll be hitting up family and co-workers more this year, and hopefully I won't have to kick in more than half. Already dreading the asking, but whatcha gonna do? It's one pledge ride a year. I don't have to like it, but I can at least make the effort.

Also, I've decided to lose 40 lbs by then. I know this sounds achingly familiar (not to mention, unlikely), but I really do mean it this time.

As I mentioned briefly in my scale post the other day, I'm really tired of maintaining 200 lbs. This is not where I want to be. I'm not happy, I don't feel pretty, I don't like how clothes fit me at this weight. And the only reason I'm still here is that I can't seem to motivate myself do the work that needs to be done in order to get past it. I'm sick of being half-assed about this...it'll be 5 years in January since I started this "weight-loss" blog, but it hasn't actually been one for at least 3 years. My net loss in 2003 was 26 lbs, net loss in 2004= 6 lbs, which means that from 2005 to present, I have lost no weight...in fact, then I've gained 14 lbs 2005-2007. Folks, that's some bullshit right there.

The thing is, I know I can do this. I know what I need to do in order to make it happen. I've done it before in 2003, when my body got to the point where I couldn't stand myself anymore. Unfortunately, unless I hit some kind of critical mass, I'm much better at talking about buckling down and growing some willpower & motivation than I am at actually doing those things. I don't want to be that girl anymore.

Though site accountability doesn't seem to have much effect on my success lately (because I rarely follow through on anything whether I post it here or not), I'm going to put my plan out here anyway. It will be good for my own reference when I start to go astray. (Note the use of "when"--trying to be realistic here.)

1. Work out 6 days/week, twice on Tues & Thurs. If there's one thing The Biggest Loser has taught me, it's that the more you work out, the better. If I have time to work out morning and night, I should totally do it. The club is having trainer classes on Tues and Thurs evenings until DST in March, and they're actually doing them at a time and location that I can handle this year. So I'll be on my bike for an hour in the evening, and Rob's wanting to hit the gym in the mornings. Then, of course, there's the rides on Sat/Sun. I'm taking Fridays off for sanity's sake, but every other day of the week is a workout day. No excuses.

2. Only eat when I'm hungry, and only until I'm not. Try to keep it around 1500 cal/day. I'd also like to eat as many whole foods as possible, and keep the sugar/salt relatively low. With the PCOS, my body responds better to low-GI diets, which fits right in.

3. Weigh in once a week, and ONLY once a week. This is sort of a compromise between weighing in obsessively every day and putting the scale away for a month. From now till...well, let's keep it consistent with the trainer classes and say daylight saving time in March, I'll be weighing in every Friday and recording the results here.

4. Post more regularly. I've been lax about this, lately, so I'm committing to posting at least twice a week through March.

So yeah, not a long list. I'm trying to keep it simple so as not to disappoint myself again. As far as the results I'm hoping to see...I'm hoping for 5 lbs in December, and 10 lbs/month after that. It's very aggressive, but frankly? Tired of fucking around here, and I finally feel ready to do the work.

Game on.

Song of the day: The Curse of Curves (right-click, save-as)

death ride 2007

For the first time since the MS150*, I rode 100 miles this week. And also like the MS150, the last 20 miles were the hardest. My ride was so bad this morning that I skipped my favorite part of the route to cut it shorter, and limped into the finish like no one has limped into the finish of a 23-damn-mile ride in the history of cycling.

Okay, maybe I exaggerate a bit. But this morning's club ride was something of a death march for me, brought on by a few small mistakes all coming together at once.

Mistake #1: Brought my seatbag into the house. This one actually happened last weekend. I discovered that my front tire was flat while taking my bike out of the car. Since I was at home and there was no sense of urgency, I took my front wheel and tool kit off my bike to change the tube in front of the TV. Then I left the speed lever on my coffee table.

Mistake #2: Overreaching on the Saturday ride. This is the weekend that my ride starts from an alternate location, and this time the faster group was leaving out of that same location. Since only 2 people showed up to do my ride, I made the command decision to try to stay with the faster group. This was not a huge deal, since "faster" really means 16-20 mph instead of 15-17 mph. Plus, it is a bigger group, and both of my guys can handle pacelines pretty well. However, it did mean that it was more of a workout for me than the usual Saturday, compounded by the fact that I also rode on Thursday, which I don't normally do. Still, it was fine...I felt strong, we kept up with little trouble, and I felt pretty good about my cycling abilities.

Mistake #3: Drinking heavily Saturday night. If I were ordering these by rank rather than chronologically, this would have been mistake #1. I'm not normally much of a drinker--a glass of wine here, beer there...you know, your typical social stuff. Every once in a while, though, I like to tie one on. Usually, this happens at family gatherings, club meetings, and Christmas parties. Apparently, it can also happen at birthday parties, which is why I was out last night. :) Anyway, I found my way home around midnight, after a margarita and 3 4 um, several cape cods.

Mistake #4: Overestimating my cycling abilities. I got up this morning, all gung-ho about making the Sunday club ride. With the Thursday ride, I only needed 22 more miles to get to 100 for the week! I hadn't had a 100-mile week in so long, it would feel just like old times, back when I was all fit and productive. I was feeling a little rough, sure, but you know, I had ridden after drinking before, and it was never a problem. What I didn't take into consideration, however, is that one glass of wine at 9 pm does not have quite the same effect on my morning-after as a running bar tab at 10:30. Also, riding 100 miles this week after riding just eight miles the week before? Maybe I could have paced myself a little better.

So yeah, all these things sort of came together in a perfect storm of suck. I arrived at the start location at around 8:00, kind of fuzzy headed but otherwise fine. I stopped at the grocery store to fill the water bottles and grab a smoothie for breakfast, then parked the car and took my bike out--with a flat rear tire and no tool bag. CRAP! I did have tubes and a floor pump, but it was less than 10 minutes before ride start and I didn't have time to mess with a lever-less tire change. So, I tried pumping the tire to 120 psi, and it seemed to hold air--no hiss, no squish, no problem, right?

As soon as we set off, I knew it was going to be a bad, bad day. For one thing, my gearing felt way too high. Do I always ride in this gear? Criminey! I downshifted, felt a little better. A few minutes later, I downshifted again. By this time, I had lost sight of most of the front group. It was 65 degrees outside, yet I was sweating like a whore in church. I was also barely managing 15 mph on flats and coasting at every opportunity. The girls in the back rode up to let me know that they're going a modified route and there's no need to wait up for them. Heh. I nodded, smiled, downshifted again, surreptitiously checked my computer. Less than 6 miles in. Fuuuuck.

When I got up this morning, I was planning on business as usual...hang back a little bit behind the middle of the pack till we get to the first regroup, then try to keep up with the front group for as long as I could after that. By the time I actually got to the first regroup, however, I knew that was never gonna happen. By this time, I was down to 13.5 mph and had given up on the big chainring completely (What I used to think of as my "climbing 10" have now become my "hangover 10"). After telling one of my friends in the group that I was going to go back the short way, it occurred to me that maybe this death ride wasn't entirely the result of vodka and sleep deprivation. I pressed my thumb to my rear tire...squish. Slow leak! Of course, by the time I had thought to do this, the entire group had gone ahead on the main route, leaving my tool-less butt in the parking lot to fend for myself. I could have chased someone down, but trying didn't seem like it would be much fun with tire that felt about 60 psi and a head that felt about 180. So I let them go, and decided to take it easy the rest of the way home.

And a looong way home it was. My rear tire was bouncy, the wind blowy, the road rolly, every muscle achy, stomach rumbly. My brain started trying to put the lights out about 3 miles from the finish, so I switched to the bike trails...if I was going to weave or nod off, better to do it off-road. Those last 12 miles probably took me the better part of an hour, but I did manage to stay upright, so I guess I can't complain. I felt a little more human after the post-ride coffee, but I gotta tell you--never again. :)

*apparently, I had blotted Bike Around the Bay completely out of my memory when I wrote this. I guess what I was thinking, clumsily, is that the last time I trained at 100 miles/week regularly was before the MS150. Going off half-cocked and riding around Galveston Bay doesn't count. :)

It's a sickness, really...

even though I have less-than-zero cash, it's a month before Christmas, and I just built a bike 2 months ago, I've been entertaining myself during slow times by window-shopping for my 2nd bike. You know, the do-everything one that will eliminate my need to buy any bikes anymore ever! (*cough*)

See, as dearly as I love Ms. Keiko, her functionality is a bit limited. She goes fast on the road. Period. Gravel road? No. Rail-trail? No. Slow cruise to the grocery store and back? Not really, mostly because I don't feel comfortable leaving her unattended on a bike rack. Besides which, riding the Orca in shorts and a t-shirt feels like sacrilege. Though she is comfortable with long distance and my more leisurely speeds, she's still a race bike through and through.

So now what I've started looking for is a bike that will do everything else. A workhorse to go with my racehorse, if you will. I still really love the ride of a road bike over a mountain or a hybrid, though, so I started looking at steel frames/tourers. For a month or so now, I've been drooling over the 08 Salsa Casseroll. It'll take bigger tires and fenders, maybe a rack or two. You can put gears on it or go single-speed (no fixed-gear for me, though...can you imagine? I'd bite it on every downhill.) I looked at pictures, wondered about what size to order, what I would put on it. I had mostly decided on a build almost identical to the triple complete, except I'd try an antique brown Brooks saddle, maybe some matching bar tape, or perhaps a deep red, if I could find that somewhere. 28c tires instead of 32s. I was still waffling over whether really I wanted to spend the money on the triple or do single-speed for simplicity and cost's sake. I mean, on a commute or bike path run, how often do I really change gears?

So, this was what I was daydreaming about when I decided to go look for the name of the Raleigh mountain bike I had in 1992. It was my first real bike-shop bike, and it was my favorite mtn bike ever...stolen off campus my freshman year, alas. I was thinking about maybe dropping the budget, see about getting another one of those next year instead of waiting until I had a Casseroll budget.

Unfortunately, Raleigh's archives don't go back that far, so I wasn't ever able to figure it out. It didn't really matter, though, because while I was there I saw the new 2008 One-Way. Sweet mercy, that is gorgeous.

The only reservations I have about this bike (other than that I haven't seen it in person) is that it might not be as versatile as the Casseroll. Am I really sold on single-speed? What if I miss having gears? I suppose it could be outfitted with some kind of Frankenstein setup if that were the case, but I like the security of knowing that the Casseroll will definitely do it. And adding gears to a bike that was born to be single-speed seems like kind of a dorky thing to do, besides.

So I don't know. Luckily, it'll be 6-8 months before I can even start thinking seriously about buying, so I guess I've got plenty of time. :)

Bike Around the Bay - Recap

It was alright. For a first-year ride, it was very well organized and supported. Both days, the actual mileage was shorter than the advertised mileage...not sure why, maybe because they changed the route? Regardless, I'd much rather have that than the opposite. There were some roads that we rode on that I thought, "what were the organizers thinking, having us ride here?"*, but overall, a good event.

A few notes on my experience:

Day 1

• As we were driving to the ride start, Rob and I were talking about wind. He said (and I quote), "the wind down there always blows from the gulf...and you'll never be riding right toward the gulf." That was both true (first part) and a damned lie (2nd part).

• The weather was just about as perfect as could be--the high 50s in the morning, high 70s-low 80s by afternoon. I complain a lot about wind in the next couple bullets, but it was actually an unusually calm day for the coastal area. (Thank God.)

• Headwinds and rough roads are much harder for me to handle than hills. This course was dead flat except for a couple bridges, but the wind absolutely killed me. I was pretty much miserable from Anahuac to High Island.

• Chip seal + headwind + steep bridge = no fair!

• By the time we got past said bridge, I was beginning to suspect that my HR monitor was broken. Even sitting around at the lunch stop, I could not get it to drop below 75%. The remainder of the course was flat with no more major headwind, I took it super easy, felt fine, but my HR still never got below 85%.

• Riding the ferry w/bike was kind of cool. Maybe just because I'd never ridden a ferry before at all. There was a scary moment where I thought we were going to collide with a cargo ship, but apparently both boats' drivers (there's another word for that, I'm sure of it) knew what they were doing. It sure looked like a close call from where I was standing--next to my very expensive yet uninsured bike, surrounded by cars, with no life jacket. In dolphin-infested waters, if the ride brochure is to be believed.

• Speaking of which, I saw none of the promised (or, okay, suggested) dolphins. I did, however, see a lot of seagulls. Also big boats, and lots and lots of water.

• Ferry ramps are not made for walking, especially in road cycling shoes. I can barely walk in these shoes on normal surfaces, let alone a big steel grid. I did manage not to faceplant or twist any ankles, but it was touch-and-go for a minute there, especially going down on the Galveston side.

• Sunscreen is my friend. How many times must I learn this?

• Downtown Galveston is prettier than I thought. I've only ever been to Moody Gardens and one of the beaches (once, 10 years ago), so was surprised to find that the entire island doesn't look like 61st St.

• I got into Moody Gardens at almost exactly 3:00. This was later than I wanted, but just about what I expected. I also expected our room to be ready at that time, but would have known better if I had read the hotel info thoroughly. Check-in time is 4 pm, and our room was totally ready then.

• Though I do think that the ride was well-organized, I question the overnight logistics. With a 75-mile first day, wouldn't they expect most riders to be in by 3:00 or so? Now, they did alter the route from 96 miles to 75 sort of late in the planning, but it might have been a good idea to work with the hotel staff to accommodate the people who would be arriving early...particularly since there were no alternate shower facilities available. From the couple of conversations I had with the front desk between 3:30 and 6 pm (trying to get a rollaway for the boy), they seemed pretty frazzled. Probably because they had dozens of cyclists and bikes hanging out in the lobby since 1 pm or so, asking for rooms that shouldn't need to be ready till 4:00.

• I don't know how official ride party went that night, because I didn't go. I didn't see the point, since I didn't know anyone anyway. I'd rather eat with my family than 500 strangers, so we went to a little Italian place. We kind of chose it by default, but it worked out well. Excellent pizza, and the pasta was pretty good, too.

• The Moody Gardens hotel is nice, and our room was lovely. They also have pretty good wine, and they'll serve it to you poolside. :)

Day 2

• The hotel room service had the most flavorless bacon I've ever (barely) tasted. Also the flattest. After some discussion, Rob and I agreed that they microwave it. Everything else was pretty good, and it arrived right on time, which was important since there were no late ride starts allowed. I'm not sure the breakfast was worth $9, however.

• Sometime after breakfast as I was gathering up my gear, I realized that I had forgotten to charge the Edge overnight. Since it only has about 12 hrs of battery life, I was just sure that it was going to die on me during the second day. With my luck, probably right in the middle of the big bridge, so that I'd never know just how awesome I was climbing it. ;) I'm happy to say that it did hold up for the entire ride. The stats are in the extended entry, if you like that sort of thing.

• My bike, I was happy to see, was right where I left it in the bike corral....though it took me a panicked minute to remember where I'd left it. I was also happy that there were a couple volunteers matching bike numbers with rider numbers as we came out. Cyclists are generally honest folks, but it's nice to see that there were some checks and balances.

• Oh my, did it hurt to get back in the saddle. I expected it, and I had braced myself for it, but it was still mighty unpleasant. Especially since the shorts I chose for the 2nd day weren't really great for long distances...which I didn't realize until I had ridden a long distance. Then it was too late to change, obviously, so I soldiered on. (And now have the saddlesore to prove it.)

• Hip, hip, hooray for tailwind! Especially since the second day was WAY windier than the first.

• The crossing of the causeway was well executed, and went off perfectly as far as I could tell. They made a big deal about it being the first time any bike ride was allowed on the causeway, so I guess we were all on our best behavior. I don't know about the folks behind me, but everything in front of me seemed to go smoothly. (The regroup before the crossing was also a good thing for me personally, because I had forgotten to start the timer on my GPS till then. If I hadn't noticed it when we stopped, I may not have any stats for the 2nd day at all even if the battery did hold up. Doh!)

• My absolute favorite part of the entire ride was in Texas City, riding Skyline Dr. next to the bay. Smooth pavement beneath us, park to the right, water to the left, wind at our backs. Awesome. The pavement on Bay St. coming back was really bad, but it was totally worth it for that view.

• Somewhere around Kemah, I noticed that my HR was staying down in the 70-75% range consistently. I'm pretty sure it was the help from the wind that was doing it, and possibly better hydration and my body adapting to all the riding from the day before. I was also taking it very easy, conserving energy for all the bridges.

• Speaking of that, I really didn't care for all the bridges on the 2nd day. Causeway, Kemah, Fred Hartman...I know it's unavoidable on a coastal ride, but I'd much rather have rolling hills (eg, like the MS150) than a bunch of bridges. At least then you can get some momentum before the uphill. This ride, it was all flat-flat-flat-flat-BRIDGE! I wore my QOTM jersey to psych myself up for the bridge-climbing, but I still didn't exactly enjoy it.

• Despite my lack of love for bridges, I didn't think the Fred Hartman was that bad. Maybe it was because I was dreading it so completely all day long...things are rarely as difficult as I think they're going to be. The wind helped too--it was pretty strong by that point, and while it wasn't totally at our backs, going ENE in a SE wind isn't all that terrible. Plus, the place where they put the ramp up to 146 was far enough back that we could get a little bit of speed on before the incline really started, and I had shifted down to my climbing gears before I even hit the bike lift. I had run through all 10 of them about halfway through the climb, so from there it was just keeping a good rhythm and checking out the view, concentrating on the song on the iPod, the road ahead, and the boats in the bay. (After I saw the GPS hit 7% grade, I quit looking at that.) I thought about stopping at the top to really check out the view, but I decided it would be more fun to get right to the downhill. Since I was feeling both conservative and exhausted, I coasted all the way down. My top speed was around 33.5 mph.

• Ironically, I almost had to walk the last part of a little baby bridge about five miles later. I think it crossed a creek, for goodness sake, but it was the 2nd hardest bridge of the entire ride for me (the one on the first day was worse). I guess I had psyched myself up so much for the Hartman that I just didn't have the heart for any kind of challenge after that. I would not make a good mountain rider, I don't think.

• I got to the finish about 2:30, and it was sort of anticlimactic. There weren't a whole lot of people, I set my bike down (where it almost got loaded onto a truck shuttle to Anahuac--oops! Didn't realize what that line of bikes was about...), got a drink, waited for the boys to get back from the mall. They came, Rob met me near the finish line (I couldn't bear the thought of getting on the bike and riding all the way back to the Raceway Park entrance. My ass could barely stand the thought of riding the 50 or so yards to the nearest parking area, actually), we packed up and left. I had Biked around the Bay, and lived to tell the tale.

Will I do it again? I don't know. The first day was a lot more wind and misery than I was prepared for, but the second day was really nice. I liked the overnight at Moody Gardens, and it had some unique aspects (all the coastal views, riding the ferry, riding the causeway) that you don't get on most organized rides. It was well supported and well organized. I'm just not sure how much of the ride I enjoyed this year just for the novelty of it. Would I like it as much now that I've done it already?

Anyway, stats and music are in the extended entry, if you're interested in that sort of thing.

Day 1 Stats:

Distance - 76.05 miles
Time - 6:10
Avg Speed with stops and ferry - 12.3 mph
Avg HR - 79%
High HR - 94%

Day 2 Stats:

Distance - 68.38 miles (this is +/- 5 miles or so. I forgot to start the timer in the morning AND after the lunch break)
Time - 5:21 (+/- 30 minutes)
Avg Speed w/stops - 12.7 mph
Avg HR - 71%
High HR - 111% (!!!)

Avg moving speed for entire ride: 13.7 mph

Times include all stops except lunch, when I stopped the GPS timer. Because Training Center is inscrutable and MotionBased doesn't do moving speed averages for laps, I don't have avg moving speeds for each day. If I had remembered that, I would have uploaded each day separately. Ah well. :)

Also, did you SEE that HR on the 2nd day? Methinks I've still got my max set too low on the monitor (currently set at 200 bpm). If I hit my true max at 111%, that means my real max HR is somewhere around 222 bpm, right? Good to know.

Music:

Maybe it was fate, maybe it was mood, but the most memorable parts of the second day seemed to have the perfect soundtrack. Like this, for that gorgeous ride along Skyline Drive...

World Spins Madly On

Okay, so the lyrics aren't exactly uplifting, but the melody was just as light and pretty as the view. I liked it so much, I hit the repeat button.

And these for the climb up the Fred Hartman Bridge...

Bodies (as I was filling up with dread, waiting to mount the ramp to Hwy 146)
Up Up Up (right around the time the incline hit 7% grade...hee)

Right-click, save-as, and may all your bridge crossings be in cars. :)

*And I'm not even talking about riding the Galveston causeway...that part was very well planned and executed, and it was kind of a trip to ride a bike on the freeway. I don't know the names of a lot of the roads and I don't have my map handy for examples, but there was a ridiculous amount of chip-seal down there (especially the first day), and also some fairly serious road construction between Galveston and Baytown. There was this one place where a 4-lane road became a two-lane road, moderate to heavy traffic both directions, no shoulder, and rough pavement. I understand why they chose that route, since the other option was a freeway, but damn. I'm not even very skittish about traffic, and I was fearing for my life a little bit with the dump trucks and semis flying by. Other roads on the route had shoulders either too rough or too full of debris to be ridden, forcing us to use the main lane without any reason that would be immediately obvious to car traffic. To the cars' credit in both situations, though, everyone was very tolerant of the bikes. No honking, no threatening behavior that I could see...if they did think we were jerks, they kept it to themselves.

Weekday loop, the rematch

Okay, so remember a few weeks ago, when I watched some women's racing and decided to go out and time-trial my weekday loop, and was hoping for 16 mph overall? And when I looked at my stats, it was more like 15.4 and I had to bright-side all over the place in my update? Remember?

Tonight, I had me a little do-over. Final score? 16.2 mph overall, on a slightly longer course (16.4 v. 15.6). I knew I could do it! :)

open adoption

Also, I gave Amelia to her potential new owner tonight, to get fitted and then try out for a couple weeks before she buys. It was my idea...she's a little taller than me, and I want to make sure that it's a good fit before I can sell the bike to her in good conscience.

I really do hope they work out. I ride with this girl every Saturday, so it'd be almost like an open adoption. The bike will be going to a good home, and I'll still get to see her once a week. Plus, I know that the new owner would take good care of her, and take her on many long, happy rides. She's too young to retire, after all.

See, this sort of thing is why it's maybe not such a good idea to get so attached to my sporting goods (or, you know, anthropomorphize them). I almost feel like I'm selling a member of the family...but it's still better than letting her rot away in the garage like a common lawnmower. :)

old and busted...new hotness

I was pretty nervous taking the new bike out this weekend. Besides knowing that it would cause a stir at the start of the ride (this site is not the only place that I've mentioned the new bike more than once :P), I wasn't sure I would be comfortable with the gearing and handling differences right away. I didn't really have time to ride it Friday night, so I'd be leading a group my first time on the bike. The last thing I wanted to do was make a spectacle of myself by running the sweet new ride into a ditch during the first mile. :)

I shouldn't have worried. The bike's steering is more sensitive than I'm used to, but not so much that I couldn't adapt. It took me a few miles to figure out what gear would be best for holding 15-16 mph on the flats, but I was fine once I had that down.

And speaking of that, let me just take a moment to sing the praises of my new components. They're smoother, quicker, and almost dead silent. I'm not sure if it's the new (ie, clean) chain or the component upgrade that quieted things down, but I can totally sneak up on people now as long as I don't coast. :) The only time it's a little bit noisy is when I'm cross-chained on the small gears front and back, or right after I make the transition between chainrings in the front. Good thing BSG showed me during the fit how to nudge the front derailer* , or I would have that was something which needed fixing. Which is probably why he mentioned it, come to think. The short-reach shifters were also a great idea...they really do fit my hands better, and I can actually get a grip on the brakes from the drop bars now.

As far as performance goes, I can definitely feel a difference. The lighter bike didn't make as much difference on my climbing performance as I had hoped it would, but it does help. Depending on the grade and whether I had found the right gear, my climbing speed went up at least 1/2 a mph at the same level of effort. Flats and descents improved by about the same amount, and I was able to hold onto higher speeds for longer. There were a couple stretches where I was able to hold onto 20-21 mph for a few miles. Without a tailwind, even! :) The biggest difference I noticed, though, was in acceleration. It's a lot easier to get a burst of speed out of this bike than the Pilot.

Of course, part of me was afraid that this is only my imagination...I want the new bike to be better, and therefore it is. After looking at the graphs from the two rides this weekend and comparing them to the graphs from the last time I did both courses, I do think that at least SOME of the improvement is not just in my head. To wit:

Club ride--8/11 on the left, 9/8 on the right:

This comparison is a bit misleading, because I am dumb and I forgot to press the "stop" button on the GPS on Saturday before I loaded the bike in the car and drove away. So it was still recording as I started driving home, and that explains the top speed of 40.1 mph. The new bike may be fast, but it's not THAT fast. :)

However, you can see that the most miles were covered at 16 mph on the first ride, and 17 mph on the second. (I should also note that ~14 miles of this route occur after the "official" ride is over...there's a smaller, slightly faster group that rides an additional 7 miles out to the smoothie place, then back again. So our beginner ride does not actually average 16 mph...the main part of the ride is more like 14-15.)

And now, the more significant of the graph comparisons. This was still a group ride, but there are several pace groups and I'm not responsible for anyone but myself. So, I just did the speed I was comfortable with, riding primarily with one other guy who's about my speed. I rode with the same guy both weeks, so that's also constant. Here's that one--9/2 on the left, 9/9 on the right:

On this one, the high point of the bell curve is shifted TWO mph to the right in the 2nd graph. There is also more activity in the 20-25 mph range, which is nice to see. I had hoped that my average might be closer to 20 overall, but my recorded moving average ended up only 16.8 mph. Still, it's almost a full mph faster than last week. I'm also pleased to see that nothing under 14 mph gets over a mile of road in the 2nd graph, unlike the first one where 13 and 14 mph had a significant presence...mostly in the "hills"**. I'm still dropping to the low 14s on the longer inclines, and there was one uphill right after a stoplight where I dropped to 9 near the top. It was about 22-23 miles into the course, and I had sprinted through the light right before I hit the hill. I was a little bit scared that I was completely used up right there, but I recovered by the next roller. I took that one at 17 (had to redeem myself) and felt fine for the rest of the ride.

Anyway, the scale on this comparison is also a bit different on the 2nd graph than the first...the high distance is 5.5 miles instead of 6, so even though the peaks are taller in the graph, they might be shorter if they were to the same scale. There's probably a way to make motionbased display them to the same scale, but I'm either not smart enough to figure that out or I'm not yet ready to pay $12/month for the standard subscription. And I still haven't figured out how to make the Training Center software display anything to my satisfaction, so this is the best I've got. :) As a general comparison between weeks, I think it paints a fairly accurate big picture...particularly because the overall shape of the distribution is nearly identical in the befores and afters. Considering the terrain was exactly the same and the weather was similar, this makes total sense. Bottom line? It appears that I am faster on the new bike, but only a little.

Song: Watch Me Go (link removed)

Side note: The naming poll is currently neck-and-neck. Need more votes! Make your voice heard! :)

*with either the compact double or Ultegra (I'm not sure which makes the difference...maybe both), I don't have to hold the lever to upshift the front like I did with the 105 triple. However, if it gets noisy after shifting, moving the whole lever micro-adjusts the derailer.

**I'm being charitable here...there is a little bit of rolling terrain on the course, but nothing is very long and the inclines don't even hit 4%.

Quest for 5000: Complete!

This morning, somewhere around the vicinity of Sterling Ridge and Warbler Bend, a lone cyclist looked down at her bike computer and saw 20.71 miles. She then looked around furtively and, having confirmed that there were no witnesses, did a small on-bike victory dance.

In case you hadn't guessed it, that cyclist was me. And the reason for the victory dance was that I had officially ridden 5,000 miles on my Pilot. If my original odometer had worked consistently and correctly, and had I not replaced it with the Edge, it would now read 5004.33 (or thereabouts). I can totally ride the Orca guilt-free. :)

(Also, got there just in time...I finished the ride at around 11:00, cleaned the bike, showered, and immediately brought her to the shop so that BSG could get the wheels and stuff before they closed for the holiday. I am the queen of the last minute, baby!)

Orca update - see, what we have here is a failure to communicate

Someone had a flat on my ride yesterday, using up the last of my CO2 cartridges. I was actually happy about this, though, because it gave me an excuse a totally legitimate reason to go in and check on my bike build.

I walked into the shop and started looking around for the CO2. I caught BSG*'s eye a little earlier than I expected, so I walked over to that side of the shop. He comes out of the back and says, "Any progress on the wheels?"

Um, what? "Oh! I didn't think you needed them yet, I've been waiting for you to call. They're still on the bike."

Then we had this short conversation in which I realized that I'm really bad at reading subtext. I'm always so convinced that I do everything wrong and everyone will hate me, I'm very good at picking up slights--even where none may actually exist. When he took the frame last Saturday, BSG said something like this when I explained that the wheels and handlebar were on the other bike: "Okay, we can get those parts later. I can do the seatpost and stuff now, then put the wheels on, probably next week."

What I heard was "I am very busy, and have a specific method that I use during a bike build, which is something you know virtually nothing about in the first place, and in the second place, I have limited storage space back there girlie, so don't call me, I'll call you."

What he actually meant was, "I understand that you need your current bike right now, so I'm just going to go ahead and work on the stuff that doesn't require the parts you are using. Here's a ballpark estimate of when I'll need the wheels and handlebar, but the sooner you can get them to me, the sooner we can get this thing rolling."

Basically, he treated me as if I were a completely normal, non-neurotic customer, I ran that through the filter of my own insecurities about the whole deal--hello misunderstanding! Anyway, we got it worked out, and I felt much better about this encounter than the last one. It was still just as brief, but I felt more like a regular customer and less like a know-nothing dork. I think that given just a little bit more time, I can get to where I feel just as much at ease in this shop as I did in the last one. Maybe more.

Oh, and all the new components are in! I'm dropping off the Pilot tomorrow morning so that he can change out the wheels and handlebar, and the entire build should be done sometime this week.

Also, after ~35 miles yesterday and 27 today, I'm so close to 5000 miles I can practically taste it--just a little over 20 miles to go! I'm planning a 30-40 miler tomorrow (weather permitting), so I'll totally make my mileage goal before I hand Amelia over for disassembly. Woo!

*Bike Shop Guy

I feel so high-maintenance, part II

The Orca frame is at the bike shop. After storing it in my office for 6 months, I'm a little bereft.

The good news is, he won't need the parts from my Pilot for at least a week, so I can finish getting to 5,000 miles before the new bike is ready (as of 11:00 this morning, I have about 84 miles to go). This surprised me, because I thought he'd just store the frame with all my various components from the Pilot until the other parts came in, then do the entire build at once. I guess that's not the way it's going to work, though--the timeline he gave me today is a gradual build over 1-2 weeks. I'm fine with that, but it just highlights how little I know about how any of this is supposed to work, especially with a smaller shop.

I also thought I'd have more input on the parts ordering...but beyond confirming that I wanted a compact double, he didn't really ask any specifics. I trust that he'll give me a good build for the quoted price (he did say that), I'd just feel better with some kind of spec sheet to refer to. Maybe I'll get that when they place the order, I don't know.

Anyway, I'm out of my element, totally insecure, and therefore I'm having to continually beat my inner control-freak into submission. I feel like I'm going into this thing kind of blind...and possibly handcuffed. I paid more for the frame of this bike than I did for the entire Pilot, and now its fate rests completely in someone else's hands. Someone else whom I've never worked with before, and know only by reputation. And who I'm discovering is not much for conversation, really. I mean, not specifically with me, but just a quiet sort of guy in general. Since I usually rely on other people to steer 80-90% of any conversation, it's a little unnerving to try to build a business relationship with someone who doesn't really DO that. I know this will get better over time as I get more comfortable with everybody there, but right now I just about have an anxiety attack every time I go in. Today, I even had a friend go in there with me for moral support, and I still felt like Dorkus von Spazzenstein.

Anyway, all of this is MY issue, not theirs. From just the few short conversations I've had, I'm totally confident that the build is going to turn out great in the end. Once I get past my fear that they think I'm a fat-girl wannabe hanger-on with more enthusiasm than sense (or get past worrying about what they think, even though part of me might think that too), we're going to get along fine. I need to build a little trust, is all, but unfortunately I'm very slow about that. For now, I'm just going to try not to freak out about it, and vow not to call for status before Labor Day. Hopefully, I'll hear from them before that.

Song o' the day: Make Me Want to Stay (link removed)

building Keiko

after juggling some financial stuff, it looks like I'm going to be starting the build process on the Orca next week. I talked to the shop guy* today, and he gave me the same numbers he gave me on Thursday. This confused me, I guess because I thought that he was going to do a quote on specific components...otherwise, why ask me to get back with him on Monday or Tuesday? Then again, maybe he was asking me to bring the bike in on Monday or Tuesday, and I just misunderstood? Hell, I don't know. I feel all insecure and high-maintenance right now. And also kind of dorky.

Whatever the case, turnaround time on the build will be at least a week, which means that I'm going to have to do it in phases. I think that phase 1 is going to be simply getting the Pilot back to its stock parts, so that I can still ride while the new bike is being assembled, and sell the old bike more quickly afterward. Phase 2 will be the actual build and fit, which I was happy to hear is included in the build price.

I may see about disassembling (or would that be re-assembling?)Amelia this week...it shouldn't cost too much, since it's just moving a cassette from one wheel to another and swapping handlebars. If I had the tools and even a shred of mechanical ability, I'd do it myself. :)

Song of the Day: Brand New Key (link removed)

The chorus of this song has been running through my head all morning...no idea why. Also, I love the Dollyrots' album title...if I ever put out a CD, that's totally what I'd want it to be called. :)

*I could probably use names here, honestly, because anyone who lives in the area has likely already figured it out, and those who live elsewhere have no reason to care. I'm a big, fat Google-chicken, though, so I'm going to continue to be vague.

progress, as measured by attitude

Someone on the Team Estrogen forums asked about the Tour de Pink the other day, which prompted me to go back through my fitness logs to find my TdP ride reports. As I was searching through all my old posts trying to locate September 2006, I got to wondering how I really felt about cycling when I was a newbie. (I still kind of consider myself a newbie, but I mean TOTAL newbie) Well...compare and contrast.

On spinning classes:

2003: "I have discovered my personal hell..."

2007: "The spin classes don't really stress [my achilles] either, except during the out of the saddle/high resistance drills. If I keep my entire workout seated/low resistance and just alter my cadence to match the class effort, I think I can still keep them as part of my routine."

In fairness, the instructor I love so much now is NOTHING like the instructor for that first horrifying class. I still hate those guys. (But I could totally hold my own in his class now.)

On charity rides (exactly the same 40-mile route at the same time of year):

2003: "I started to get a little nervous as we were coming to the starting place, because even though the literature said that only the 62 and 100 mile routes had hills, we had driven over a whole lot of hills to get there. I expressed my concern to Rob, and he pointed out that we were in Texas hill country...what exactly did I expect? (Answer: that "Texas hill country" was a little further west. I thought that didn't start until New Braunfels or so.)"

2006: "The ride went reasonably well, considering that I had to contend not only with rolling hills, but also a soul-killing headwind. I averaged 14 mph on-the-dot, which is half a mph faster than last year. Of course, I did 20 fewer miles this year, missing all the "real" hills..."

Another bit from that first ride report that reminded me how much more confident I am now--"I watched other people get out of their cars, and all but one was skinny and had road bikes and special shoes. I was starting to feel a little inferior, with my hybrid, walking shoes, and plus-size cycling clothes. I told Rob that I wanted to sit in the car until 7:55."

Shoot, now I'm prone to do a full costume change right there in the parking lot after a ride, un-skinny body be damned. :P

Reading some of those early ride reports was good for me, I think. My Saturday ride gets a lot of brand new riders, and I'd almost forgotten how intimidating it can be when you're first starting out.

the last update on the Garmin

The cadence sensor on the new bike computer is now working fine, thanks to the folks at Bike Barn Champions. I took it there Friday night, and Jason had it working for me in about 10 minutes. Apparently, it's not enough to just scan for the sensor, you also have to specify in one of your display profiles that you actually want to see cadence. Um, okay. That may have been a good thing to include in the manual, Garmin. :)

I rode with it for the first time Saturday...took me a while to get used to all the displayed fields. I'm not sure that I'll want all of them up all the time like that...it was a bit of information overload, and one of the values I really wanted to see (HR) wasn't on the default display. I was able to fix that yesterday, though, so that the 8(!) displayed fields were the ones most useful to me (cadence, speed, HR, total time, distance, time of day, heading, and % grade). Still might be a bit of overload, but I couldn't decide which of those to leave off in order to go to a smaller number of displayed fields. Heading and grade I could probably do without, but now that I've got them, I kind of want to play with them a bit.

The GPS seems to be pretty accurate. My cateye (when it was working) used to measure my Saturday ride at 22.6ish miles, as did the GMap Pedometer. Routeslip has it at 21.97, but that's with a bit of guessing, since part of the loop is a road not yet known to google maps. The Edge says it's 22.14, which is right in that margin of error...especially since I forgot to press the Start button until I was a couple blocks into the ride.

The best feature, by far, is the ability to upload my workout data to the computer. First, I tried the software that came with the device (Training Center), which was pretty decent. It made me a map (oooh, pretty!), told me all the stats I wanted. It also had accurate HR measurements, so apparently the chest strap was recording even though it was not on the display.

One thing that I don't particularly like about the PC software is that it graphs everything according to zones. The app tells me how much time I spent in zone 1-5 in speed and HR, but doesn't display any reminders of what those zones actually are. And it also displays speed as minutes/mile by default, when I'd much rather see mph. It looks like that is toggled by a profile setting which I've reset a couple times now, but I have yet to make it stick.

Motionbased.com was much cooler. The upload process was a little more involved (2 steps instead of one, heh), but their data format was much easier for me to understand. I also liked that it brings in weather conditions as well, and that it showed the moving average speed (15.5 mph) on the summary in addition to the total average (11.7 mph). The PC software only showed the total average, which made me a little sad...the moving average is better for my ego. :P

In looking over the data, I was surprised to find that I've been pedaling much slower since my cateye stopped recording cadence. In the first part of the ride, I was shocked that what I had thought felt like 80-85 rpm was actually closer to 70! This probably means that in the past couple months, I've been using higher gears than I should have...no wonder my ankle has been giving me trouble. I've now set cadence alerts, so that the unit will beep when I'm pedaling less than 75 or over 95 rpm. I'm banking on that being more helpful than annoying, but we'll see. I've also got a HR alert set up for anything over 160 bpm. My average HR on Saturday's ride was 159 bpm, which is much higher than I'd like for a 22-mile ride with two rest stops. I think it was more the heat/humidity than the effort, but all the same...I'd rather not be anaerobic for over an hour if I can help it.

So, my first impression of the Edge is a good one. I think it's going to be a great training tool, and I'm looking forward to seeing the numbers change over time, as I get better/faster/hopefully lighter.

Update on the Garmin install

Well, after the class at 24-hour fitness today (which actually had an instructor this time, but sadly was not all I'd hoped it would be), I went over to the bike shop across the street. They are of the same chain as my usual shop, so I felt I could trust them. This option also had the bonus of avoiding the guilt of asking my regular shop to troubleshoot something that I bought elsewhere.* I was thwarted however, when the guy at this location didn't know anything about the Edge, and immediately tried to call his friend for advice. Who, of course, is one of the mechanic guys at my usual location. Sigh. See, this is what I get for attempting to cheat on my bike shop. And with its sister, no less. :)

At any rate, I now have a plan of attack--I'm going to try replacing the battery in the sensor tonight, followed by a hard master reset of the receiver. If that doesn't work, I surrender and make a lunchtime trip to my favorite shop. I think I'll come bearing cookies.

*I don't know why I continue to feel guilty about this, since I do it constantly. Love 'em, but price will win over loyalty every time. I do buy my small stuff there, and they get all my service work regardless of cost, but I still feel like a traitor. Residual Catholicism, maybe?

installing the Garmin Edge, the Joy way

My new gadget came today! My first thought as I took it out of the box was--"OMG, it's huge!" The second was, "no way this is going to fit on my stem." Third: "hee, that sounds kinda dirty." Yeah, I'm twelve years old.

Aaanyway, I half-assed the quick-start instructions by skipping immediately to step 3--turning it on and configuring the basics. After telling it that I speak English, I live in the Central time zone, I would love for it to observe DST (hopefully, it knows to start that in March now), and that I have both HR and cadence sensors, I turned it off and did step 1: charge the battery.

After watching TV for a while, I decided to go home* and mount it on the bike. First, I removed the zip-ties and cabling for the Cateye (RIP, Cateye, you served me well...until you QUIT). Then I tried to decide where to put the Garmin mount. There wasn't really much deciding to be done, since I was right about it being too long for my stem. I did give it a valiant effort, though, tried several different mount angles (hee)...it just wasn't happening. So I gave in and put it on my handlebar, even though from a distance it probably looks like I've strapped my cell phone on there. I'm hoping that I'll end up with a longer stem on the Orbea or that the bike shop guys have a better idea, because it's a butt-ugly setup right now. It'll do the job till September, though, and that's really all I should be concerned with. Or so I tell myself, even though I'd kind of rather just carry the thing in my pocket. Maybe I'll get used to it.

With the receiver mounted, I set to work on the sensor and magnets. I knew I had to be careful with these, so I actually read the instructions before touching any of the parts (I know, right?). Then I loosely mounted the sensor like The Book told me to, and started in with the magnets.

Well. Almost immediately, I ripped the sticky rubber back completely off the cadence magnet, while correcting an overconfident initial placement. Of course, try as I might, I couldn't get the sticky piece to go back on the magnet, so I had to attach it to the crank arm solely by zip-tie. Satisfied with the position (the little red light came on the sensor when I turned the pedal, which is what The Book said it would do), I moved on to the spoke magnet. After some sliding and screwing and copious swearing, I finally got it positioned correctly (the green light blinked when it passed, per The Book). Then I decided to get fancy and make both of them work at the same time. Oy...it was like plate-spinning for a while there. Any adjustment I made to one magnet made the other one lose contact. Slide the spoke magnet a nanometer--green light! Tilt the sensor out a little--red light! Readjust the speed sensor arm--green light! Eventually, I did get the perfect combination, and had the led all flickering like a Christmas tree. Tightened all the zip ties, rechecked the sensor response, and lo, there was much rejoicing.

Now all that was left was to test all the parts together. I put the (gigantic, cellphone-esque) Edge into the handlebar mount, and got on the bike. Pressed start, started pedaling, and hey--I was getting speed data! But where was the cadence? Got off and checked that the red light was still coming on. It was. I consulted the book. It very (un)helpfully gave me an overview of cadence training, but offered no insight as to how to make it show up on the display. I was on my own. I tried a "restart scan" option for the cadence sensor--nothing. I rebooted the Edge. Nothing. I did note that both the cadence and the heart rate sensors had little icons with flashing Xs over them at the top of the display, which I'm guessing means that it can't find them. So I tried a rescan again, then I tried another reboot, then I put the head about 3mm away from the cadence sensor and rebooted again. Still unsuccessful. After yet another rescan (accompanied by a long, loud stream of profanities) didn't do the job, I gave up. I hooked it up to the wall charger and left it to charge the battery overnight. If it still doesn't register cadence in the morning, it's off to the bike store for a professional look-see. Hell, maybe while they're at it, they'll find a less ugly way to mount it.

*since I used Rob's credit card for checkout (totally with his consent beforehand, despite what some of you may have heard elsewhere...there was a little bit of a misunderstanding re: paypal checkout), it shipped to his house. Which...should probably update y'all on the status of the marriage, since I've been quiet about that since the separation. That's a whole 'nother post, though, and nothing's really set in stone anyway. For now, let's just say that on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is "divorced" and 10 is "happily married", we're at about a 5 and climbing. Slowly.

Dear Austin Urban Assault Race...

...I can has do-over please?

I wasn't going to write about this tonight, but I obviously am not going to quit thinking about it anytime soon. Maybe writing some of it down will stop the incessant second-guessing in my head and let me get some sleep already. :)

Our UAR was...not as good as it could have been. I mean, it was fun, more fun than last year...but due to a flat, some less-than-ideal route choices, and me ONCE AGAIN thinking in completely the wrong direction on the landmark clue, we had to forgo the last two obstacles in order to meet the time limit. Our course still ended up at about 25 miles. I have no idea what our on-bike speed average was, because my computer absolutely refuses to work properly. It decided to go on break about 2 minutes into the preride, and just never came back.

The bright side:

• 78% on the bonus quiz got us into the first wave! In fact, it put us in the top 20.

• My teammate (B.) and I were more evenly matched this year than Noah and I were last year.

• We only hit one really long checkpoint line, and we were able to alter our route to skip it and go to the 1st landmark, so that we could use the line time to figure out where the 2nd landmark was. (Unfortunately, I still had no bleeding clue, even after we had completed the next TWO obstacles.)

• I wasn't completely incompetent on any of the obstacles this year, although the inflatable at Bicycle Sport Shop was a trial. It was fine until the rope climb, where the girl immediately in front of me just could not make it up. After 15 seconds or so of watching her struggle and slip back down, I tried to help by bracing her feet, but it just wasn't happening. After about a minute's struggle, she decided her socks were the problem and let me play through while she took them off. After spending all that time observing what NOT to do, I actually got over pretty quickly (That girl may still be in there, for all I know.)

• B. ruled the rowing and letter hunt obstacles (though once we had most the letters, I figured out the anagram).

• We had good search help, and everyone was very nice and cooperative. Including that other team who gave us the answer AND directions when I finally, desperately asked them about the 2nd landmark.

• The food was good.

• I set a new PR for field tube replacement! (more on that in the suck section)

• Even though we were nearly wiped out (or at least, I was), we didn't walk that final stretch...we crossed the finish line running. Well--jogging. :)

• I won hats in the raffle!

• Though we still didn't finish every obstacle, we finished 9 of them and covered 25 miles of road in 4 hours. This is compared to Noah's and my 6 obstacles and 14-ish miles in nearly 4 hours last year. Yay, improvement!

Teh suck:

• On the way down to the rowing dock (our third obstacle), B. hit a huge pothole, causing a front-tire flat. While the flat-changing itself didn't take that long (personal record!), it let a lot of people get in front of us...a lot of people who were taking the obstacles in the same order, which meant lines.

• I didn't discover until 5-6 traffic lights in that I was pushing the wrong pedestrian button to make the light change. This is despite the large black arrows on the buttons indicating which is which. Yeah hi, I'm an idiot.

• I nearly lost a cleat, after being lazy with the screw-tightening when I put them on yesterday. Also? Probably should have ridden those shoes before today. I mean, I only fell once, but I spent most of the race clipped out on the right side. While it was better than trying to run in road shoes, the "nothing new on race day" rule still holds.

• I had a tendency to WAY overthink the landmark clues. Other people, they search for "austin composer coffee lake" in some order and they hit it right away. Me? I ask my google researcher to include "take care of business" (based on that being part of the secondary clue) and somehow get it stuck in my head that it's a music venue of some kind. Thus starting a virtual wild goose chase all over Austin that didn't get us anywhere near the right place. I would make such a shitty detective. Hoofbeats almost always = horses, Joy, not zebras. Or Elvis, for that matter.

• I'm also discovering that I'm not very good at letting go of an idea and listening to another perspective, even when I'm trying to keep an open mind. It's humbling and frustrating to realize I am not always the smartest person in the room. Also, I think there's such a thing as being too prepared. The bigger and fuller your box is, the harder it is to think outside of it.

• Also, I think I picked the hilliest possible route to Mozart's. 35th east to Exposition to Enfield, up and down rollers the whole way. Even if we weren't already half-wasted by that point, we would have been afterward. And then I had some brake issues at the intersection Lake Austin, and nearly got creamed by a duckboat. And tourists yelled at me. Awesome!

• Also, when we got there, the volunteer said they were closing the checkpoints in 5 minutes. When we got to the 3rd landmark, the volunteer said that while we could try to make it to Rio Grande Mexican, they were starting to close up the obstacles. So, after assessing how tired we were and considering that it would take us another 10-15 minutes (at least) to make it to the final two checkpoints which might be closed anyway, we headed back to RunTex. While waiting in line for raffle tickets, though, we overheard someone saying that they had extended the checkpoint times another hour because people were complaining that the course was too long for the time limit. So we totally could have made those last two checkpoints, had we known. Damn!

So, while I can't help but be a little disappointed in our finish time (especially since our sister team finished nearly an hour before us), it was mostly due to bad luck (B.) and flawed strategy (me) and not a lack of athletic ability. And it was an improvement over last year's performance, so that's something.

Next year, baby. Next year.

Weigh-in, some bike drivel, & FMF, 6/8/07

Yyyyyeah...I'm beginning to think I need to see a doctor, or get some blood tests or something. 201.2, despite a sub-1800 calorie average* and regular exercise. Judging from my *cough* volatile moods, I think it might be Bloat Week, but still. Ridiculous.

*I know this isn't terribly low, but I haven't had any trouble losing weight at this level in the past. I wasn't, like, losing 3 lbs/week or anything, but I sure as hell wasn't gaining.

I brought my bike into the shop yesterday, because the last time I was in (to fix that chain rub thing I mentioned briefly a few posts ago) I had a brake cable that needed replacing. We also talked a little bit about the weight-distribution issues I was having on the bike (too much weight on my hands). Bike Shop Guy (BSG) suggested a refit, because we hadn't done one since they changed the handlebar (and I changed the pedals, and the saddle, and my shoes...) and things were probably off. (I don't really have anything more to add to this, but I think I needed one more parenthetical notation in this paragraph.) (God.)

So I dropped it off for the cabling yesterday at lunch, and went back for the fit after work. Everything went great, BSG adjusted my seat height and my cleat position, and would have moved my seat back if the rails had been longer. He suggested a seatpost with a 20mm offset, since my current saddle is pushed back as far as it will go. This was a relief to me, since I was a little afraid that this new fit would indicate that I needed a shorter reach. If that were the case, then buying the Orca was a mistake. But no...it actually needs to be longer, which is what I was hoping for. Whew! (Except I was kind of hoping that it would need to be longer in the forward direction...a new stem is cheaper than a new seatpost.) Then we talked components and saddles a little bit...he agreed with my component choices for the Orca (Ultegra 10-spd, compact double crank), suggested a saddle. It was nice...I felt very competent, which is a feeling I don't usually get in the bike shop.

Then I paid, left, loaded my bike, and forgot my front wheel in the parking lot. Sigh. So much for competence. :) I didn't even notice it was missing until 45 minutes later, when I went to put my bike together and test out the new fit--whoops, where's my wheel?!

After nearly throwing up at the thought that I may have run over it on my way out of the parking lot(though I think I would have noticed), I frantically searched for my receipt with the bike shop's phone # on it. Then I noticed my phone had new voicemail. Sure enough, BSG had seen the wheel fall as I drove away, I didn't run it over, and it was safely tucked away at the shop. I called back to thank him, and I'm picking it up today.

Just once, I wish the universe would let me get through an entire day without dorking out in some fashion. Hell, maybe it's just God's way of keeping me from getting too cocky. :)

Anyway, music. I actually have some this week! (UPDATE: links removed.)

As I've mentioned before, I have huge playlists. This is because I bore easily, and anything less than a 50 song rotation gives me too much repetition from day to day. Thus, my normal playlist size is anywhere from 100-300 songs. Even with this many songs in the shuffle, I can tell when it's time to switch 'em up when I start skipping 5 songs for every one I play. My commute playlist (232 songs) is nearing that point now, but there are a few songs that still get played every time they come up. This week's selections are a sampling of those.

Stay Gold, Ponyboy - The Get Up Kids While I do like this one in the car, the workout playlist is where it really shines. The tempo change part is great for keeping the cadence up.

If I Were Brave - Shawn Colvin

Good Man - Josh Ritter I think this one may be on the list because it's so recent for me...I finally got around to watching the House season finale on Wednesday, and downloaded this song immediately afterward. We'll see if it has any kind of staying power.

What Sarah Said - Death Cab for Cutie I finally got sick of I Will Follow You Into the Dark, but I still indulge my morbid romanticism every time this one comes on. Maybe because it makes me think of my mom.

Just A Sign - Allen Wayne Damron Still my favorite song of all time, probably proving that my tastes aren't terribly well refined. :)

Right click, save as, and enjoy your weekend!

T - 4 days...

...till the MS150, and my bike's in the shop with an as-yet undiagnosed problem (the clicking was not the pedals after all, and it's driving me crazy), and probably a Thursday pickup estimate. I brought it in on Sunday, and they haven't had time to look at it yet. I'm trying not to get too upset...I understand they're busy this close to a major event, but I brought it in for a tune-up two weeks ago, mostly to fix this very problem. It's not like I waited till the last minute, here. I tried to be proactive, dammit! :)

UPDATE: The official verdict came in tonight...it is the pedals. I had thought it wasn't because it clicked on Sunday even with my right foot out, but I guess I was wrong. Or I was right last week. Whatever...time to replace the pedals. Now, whether to switch to my other SPDs or go straight to the Quattros I bought last week*...that is the question.

As if this wasn't enough to be anxious about, I've yet to decide where I'll be starting the ride. I'll either go from the Woodlands start or the team start, and both have their pros and cons. The Woodlands has familiarity going for it (both route and people), the team start has wind direction and distance. The team route is 10-15 miles shorter than going from the Woodlands, and goes almost directly NW. If the SE wind forecast is correct, that means a direct tailwind most of the way. The route from the Woodlands is SW, so more of a crosswind. Basically, the team start would be easier physically, the Woodlands would be easier emotionally/mentally. I'm just not sure which is more important to me in an all-day ride.

I'm also not sure yet how I'll change clothes in La Grange 3 hours (God-willing) before my hotel shuttle starts running...I could take the shower shuttle, but I would really rather not deal with that nonsense when I have a perfectly nice, private hotel room to shower in later. However, sitting around in my cycling shorts for a few hours is a Bad Idea, so I'll have to find my overnight bag and somewhere to change shortly after arriving at the fairgrounds. Not a big deal, just one more thing to work out.

Other than those things, I've mostly ironed out the details. I've determined what I'll wear, what I'll eat, and which bag to bring. Transportation to and from the start and finish is covered. I'm over-hydrating now, and I'll start carbing up tomorrow. Training-wise, I'm as ready as I've ever been. I'd like to be lighter, sure, but I have no one to blame but myself on that one.

*trying to resolve some hotfoot issues I've been having on longer rides. The quattros have a larger platform, but still have double-sided entry that I like with the SPDs.

on knowing just enough to be dangerous

When I picked up my bike this afternoon, I overcame my fear of being a freddy little pest (pesty little Fred?) and insisted that they put an 80mm stem back on it. After three weeks on the 38cm handlebar and 75mm stem, my shoulder pain has eased a bit, but is still not even as comfortable as I was with the 40cm handlebar and 80mm stem (the discomfort of which had prompted me to change out the handlebar in the first place). So, essentially, my attempt to fix my shoulder pain actually made it worse.

I've tried to suck it up and ride through the pain, hoping that it would improve as those muscles strengthened, but now it's been over 200 miles, and I'm looking at a 120-130 mile weekend coming up. The thought of stabby shoulder pain for all those miles is more than I can stand. This way, I figure I'll have about 40 miles between my commute and my club ride to figure out whether the shorter stem was the problem, and I can always swap it back before the century if it doesn't help. I wish I had insisted on the 80mm stem in the first place...then I'd know which change made the pain worse. As it is, I'm starting with the stem, and if it feels the same, I'll try the 40cm handlebars with the 75mm stem.

I have such a hard time working with the bike shop guys...not because they're ever rude or dismissive of me, but because I sometimes feel like they should be. I don't race, my bike's full of chips and scratches, I have no mechanical sense whatsoever, and I barely average 15 mph. I am painfully aware of how little I know about this stuff, so I feel unqualified to tell them what I want, even when I've researched it to death. Whenever I'm in there talking about lengths and angles or, say, buying a carbon handlebar, I feel a total poser. Like that guy who knows nothing about computers, but wants to tell me how our network domain should be configured based on something his brother-in-law read in a magazine last week. That guy bugs me. I don't want to be that guy. Yet, every time I ask for something at the bike shop, I feel like that guy.

Of course, if being That Guy gets me through a century without feeling like someone's stabbing me in the back every time I turn my head, I suppose it's worth it.