Ride around St. Joe County

Decent ride on Saturday. Was threatening rain all week in the forecast up into the previous night. I started out in full tights and long sleeve layers, but after just putting my bike together and preparing for the ride, I realized I was way over-dressed. It was humid and I could tell it was going to get hot. I changed into my shorts and jersey with compression under layer and was out and on the road in minutes. Only got lost once and had to ride down a half-muddy dirt road for a couple of miles to get back on track. It was actually probably the best dirt road I could have ridden out of all the dirt roads I've ever seen - packed down well and almost absent of washboard. Bike only slid out 3 times or so. About a mile down the road I spotted some Amish and their work-horse tied up to a yard cart of sorts with a kid in it. Rather than spook another horse (you might recall the Amish buggy incident last year) I got off the bike and walked about .15 miles and approached slowly. Had a nice chat with the Amish dad with kids staring at me and my bike the entire time. Turns out the horse is one of the family's most skittish ones and before leaving, the dad was sure to thank me for being thoughtful enough to trek past carefully. The rest of the ride was full of swearing and grit-teethed anger for I rode into a 15-18mph wind for the next hour or so in both the West direction, then South, which then turned into a cross-wind. Terr'ble. Riding down on the drops is a HUGE aero advantage, I had no idea. Just hard to breathe down there, with my knees/quads almost up into my chest. It's terror on the arms too. Nearing my parents house, I maxed out at 37 mph downhill. I still am waiting for the right time and road conditions to break 40 mph. There was still too much of a cross-wind for me to try this time. This ride proved to me that I am ready to take on 40-60 miles rides as regular workouts now.

Training Run

First training run using Patti's Garmin watch. The (notsosmooth) way I run and the unfamiliarity with the watch made it so hard to figure out what it was trying to tell me, I gave up and just ran until I was tired, took a 1 min break, then turned around and ran back. By the splits looks like I was running pretty fast out of the gates, sure didn't feel like I was doing much of anything. Of course, I'm used to traveling along at 18-20 mph pace on a bike. Happy with the pace, my goal for the 10K is less than 1 hour. Just have to draw out the distance over the next month or so and I should clear my goal. I had some decent cramping going on when I got back. Both calves and my right shoulder somehow. I must run really tense or something. I can barely lift it right now. My right foot is killing me still. Oh well, just keep going I guess. Lather it up with some Aspercreme and it will be as good as new. HA HA...yah, right.

Fast Ride, Busy Route

Nothing eventful to report, except it was nice an warm tonight, full-on sun which made the trail very busy. Hit the roads just after rush hour, traffic was all scawry-face. Lots of cyclists out.

Para-athlete

Okay, I was hoping to tell you right away about "Gene the Riding Machine", but more on him later because something else fantastical happened today. Decent ride first off, first group ride with club members. Pretty casual pace 16-19mph. I left the group at about mile 30, for I had to be home for my daughter's birthday party festivities. Best part was about 2.5 miles from home (mile 34) the left crank arm just decided to eject itself from the bike. WTF!? So I went back to get it. Investigate. Of course, no tools - doesn't matter though the spindle is completely stripped. Only option I saw was to ride one-legged (hence, the para-athlete reference) all the way home. Wow, it's really tough (and awkward) to try and keep a 12-14mph pace with literally one leg. Several runners said "hi" to me, then had a very confused look as they watched me ride past with one dead leg. I was laughing the entire way. HA HA "how does this happen!?" So anyways, Gene...probably in his early 60's, old time racer I find out. In 2006 he set out to ride "a bunch", not realizing where that would get him by the end of the year: 22,000 miles over the span of 348 days. Sirs, that is over 63 miles a day!! Man...someday I aspire to be "Gene".

Sand Lake Sprint

Terrible day at work plus problems with the Garmin plus crunched for time for a birthday dinner out plus chain not reaching second chainring equals MAD Italian. This was a sprint time trial, I like to call it. Transitions across roadcrossings are still very gravelly, so had to slow down at each crossing. Whipped off 10 miles in just over 32 minutes. Avg speed was 19. Later this summer, I want my "regular" average to be 20. I'll use these short sprints as fitness markers toward that goal. Heartrate between 165 and 170 for almost the entire time. Painful, but very good. Oh, and I fixed the calorie burn calculator in the Garmin. Just had to re-pair the sensor to the base. 100%.

Rush Ride

I was rushed this morning to find time to ride. Last night the route I planned was over 30 miles, I knew this morning due to the weather forecast I was not going to have time to ride and still make it to church in time. So I ad-libbed the route. Was decent out. No wind. Which made it seem like more than just 32 degrees. I could have swore it was more like 40. Today was also one of those days I did not even feel like riding, so it was a long haul. Best part about the ride was about 17 miles in I got onto a newly paved section of Northland Drive. Man...it was like riding on air. Not a vibration or noise to be felt or heard. I could ride for days on road like that. Glad I got out to get some miles in, maybe next time I'll push myself harder and will be in the right frame of mind. Still cannot get the calorie burn numbers to show right on the Garmin. Off to the forums, to troubleshoot I guess.