After weeks and weeks of freezing cold temperatures, we finally had a nice warm Saturday for a long bike ride! Yay!
I set out on my newly resurrected road bike for a 40-50 mile bike ride at about 1:30 pm. Kind of a late start, but I thought I had a few hours left of daylight. From my earlier trainer ride, I remembered that the rear tire was worn. So I inspected both tires. The rear one looked rideable. However, the front tire had a few spots where I could see some of the fabric showing through the rubber. Not good. Since it was already getting late, I did not want to take time to change out the tires. I thought they’d be okay, but put some duct tape on the worn spots just in case. Haha, that fixes everything, right? I tweeted about it, and got some funny replies:
Very soon after setting out, my arms started to ache and my IT band at the hips hurt. So I stopped and tilted the nose of the saddle up a little to help take some of the weight off my arms. I also moved the saddle forward a little! My hips felt better, but basically my arms hurt the entire ride. I felt like my wrists were having to twist to grab the hoods, and also felt like my arms were spread too wide. Maybe I need a narrower handlebar. The whole ride I kept longing for aerobars so I could rest my arms! Today – one day later – my arms are really sore. I need to figure this out if I am going to do the “Blood, Sweat, and Gears“ century ride this summer.
I rode 50 miles yesterday. I tweeted some photos along the way for fun (see below). At about the 35 mile mark, I was starting to get worried about running out of daylight. I decided no more stopping and tweeting! A little bit later, I passed some kids selling something on the side of the road in support of the crisis in Haiti. I had some money with me, so I stopped and bought 4 chocolate chip cookies for $5. Yummy! I thought it would be nice to take a picture of them, but opted not to because I thought that might creep them (or their parents) out.
The last 45 minutes of the ride was a little scarey and cold because the sun was beginning to set. I had moved the rear blinky light from my tri bike to my road bike, but forgot the front light. So, I turned off my music* and was very alert to cars turning into the lane ahead of me. I made it home safely, and had a cookie and hot cocoa for my post ride snack 🙂
Here is my twitter stream, with comments that came in. Twitter is fun!
*I listen to music while riding solo. Bad idea I know. I only have one headphone in, and I don’t have the volume cranked up real loud, so in general, I think it’s okay.
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Your blog is fantastic! A great model for others...good luck with your training.
I wish we had cold weather like that. It was nine here in western New York last week. Nine! You're considered a wimp by all your training partners if you wear tight over 30 degrees. I'll be a comfortable wimp.
Yay for cookies!!!!!