Date: 7/8/08
Time: 6:15PM-7:15PMish
Distance: 11.936 miles
Average Speed: 13.3 mph
Time Moving: 54 minutes 07 seconds
Let's see what I can remember of this ride....
Well it had been planned that Jo and I would go out after work. She gets home later than I, generally between 5:30 and 6. Originally I was thinking that we would ride a whole loop, 20 miles, which is approximately 2 hours. But then we realized that the Olympics opening ceremony started at 7:30. The plan had to be changed.
So around 6ish Jo was home and we're getting all ready to go. I went through all my normal getting ready to ride routine of getting the water bottle, puting the cell phone and whatever else I'm taking in the pack, checking the pressure on and adding extra air to the tires. And I was ready to go. So I wheel out of the garage and Jo comes behind me.
I look at her bike and I'm like "umm...forget something?" She looked at me somewhat quizzically and I pointed out that her rear tire was completely flat. Which was odd being as it just came back from the shop, but whatever. So she goes to pump it up and it is determined that she has a flat. D-oh.
So she goes inside to go get a spare and change the tire and I ride around our little loop. I pull back in the drive way and she's unfurling the new tube. I've never actually changed a tire (kinda not idea for as much as I ride now, but hey we'll cross that bridge when we get there) so I thought the tube looked a bit off but didn't comment much. Then I saw the valve. "Umm is that going to fit"? See we both have road bikes with those little skinny tires. And those skinny tires have smaller valves, Presta valves. The tube she had in her hands had a Schrader, larger and what most people are used to, valve. She thought it might still fit, but called the bike shop before she tried...and it was a no go.
So then the plan was completely scrapped and I went off on my own and she went to the bike shop to exchange the spares for ones that would actually work for our bikes, so that she could ride the next day.
Other than all that it was a quite uneventful ride. Although I totally was working hard and pushing myself and so managed to post my fastest average speed yet of 13.3. Yay!
Oh and the Olympics opening ceremony was pretty cool. People in China are crazy. Staying up late to watch that was just the beginning of many nights to come.
Date: 7/9/08
Time: 8:20AM-I don't remember probably 11:20ish
Distance: 31.543miles
Average Speed: 12.0 mph
Time Moving: 2 hours 37 minutes 11 seconds
The next morning came early. But we managed to drag our lazy butts out of bed and were in the saddle on 20 minutes behind schedule.
It was crazy cool, for August that is, and so I got to wear my awesome arm warmers that I got back when it had just started to turn from cool into the summer heat. They were quite good and I like them. I have this amazing ability to be constantly cold. And the wind you generate biking can, in my opinion, make it quite chilly.
Jo was impressed how much faster it seemed like I could go. And it does feel faster, although the final averages speeds don't seem all that impressive.
I was originally hoping to go for 40 miles, and we probably could have pushed it and done it. But I was feeling fatigued even in the first 10 miles so decided to cap it at 30 miles for the day.
One amusing part was where we made our turn-around to go back was just after a long straight on a nice, although sometimes there are cars, road. Heading out, away from home, we were fighting against the wind. I hate wind it is evil and kills me every time. Jo was out ahead pumping away and I just started trailing. But when we turned around to come back you couldn't feel the wind at all any more and I was keeping up with her easily. I was even amusing myself by drifting (aka making her do more work to my own advantage).
So all in all, good, though not spectacular, ride. We then ran all of these errands which killed the whole afternoon somehow. But I did get supplies for some Christmas presents so I'm very proud that I'm finally actually going to work and plan ahead this year. And we also got more fishies - our tank is looking significantly more awesome, and less empty, now. And that evening we watched a bit of Olympics then went and saw Mamma Mia. Which I totally recommend. It's out there and in a good many ways pretty bad. But just so much fun that it trumps any flaws. And after the movie it was even more Olympics and a much too late bedtime, again.
Date: 7/10/08
Time: 8:15am-10:15am-ish
Distance: 23.813 miles
Average Speed: 12.7 mph
Time Moving: 1 hour 52 minutes 26 seconds
It was even more difficult to get up on Sunday. But again somehow we managed it.
Honestly I don't remember much from this ride. Maybe the sleep deprivation was getting to me.
Back on the Thursday prior I had wanted to do 60 on Sunday. But riding that morning I could feel there was no way that would happen. Up on the bike while peddling away, when I am normally quite awake, I totally wanted to take a nap - not idea.
Although we really were pushing it for the first 10 miles or so. Theres this one mostly flat, maybe a bit down hill section that has gentle curves but its open so you can see what's ahead. It's my favorite spot of the ride, albeit brief and I typically race through it a bit. When we hit there today we happened to be behind a small group of other bikers. Jo was ahead and was itching to pass. So when we hit the spot, having come off of some hills, she sped up to get in front. And I sped up with her....and we were definitely flying along at 20mph for a bit. Pretty durn sweet if you ask me.
Oh! one other thing. One of the stops on Saturday errands was to Dick's sporting goods where I picked up the bike gloves that I've been drooling over for quite a while now. I wore them on Sunday and while I wasn't quite sure initially, it seemed like the padding wasn't hitting where I thought it should, I didn't notice ever having the pain in my hands that I'll normally get on a ride - yay!
We just went with one loop, 20 miles, especially because we were originally going to go hiking that day as well. But both of us were pretty wiped and wanted to do things around the house.
So the hiking was canceled and I had a nice rather lazy Sunday: cleaned my room and the kitchen, read a bit, started testing and even had time to complete my Christmas present craft (it came out well, I'm happy). And of course watched the Olympics, got sucked in, and stayed up too late.
And now just because I've a bit of a theme going (the whole stay up too late Olympics thing) I shall deviate from the bike-centric blog, which this kind of-almost was.
So oddly enough while we were out on Saturday I got in line at Dick's Sporting goods and who is in the line next to us but Ally, who has been taking ballet class with me all summer. It was one of those slightly awkward moments where you first see someone in a completely new context. But the real point is that she said that our teacher had moved class to Monday. This was news to me, last I heard she had moved it from Tuesday (which was different than the original Thursday) to Thursday. But sure enough on Monday while I was at work she called and left a message to remind me that class was on Monday. Take note that it was a 'reminder' of the thing I had never been technically informed of.
In all of the original planning Monday was to be a day off so by body was not quite so keen on ballet. But I went anyways and my teacher denied that Thursday was ever an option - that irked me a bit. It was a rather uneventful class, except that I forgot my shoes -grr. And I came home and was sucked back into the Olympics, although I did exercise some will power and went to bed earlier than the past few nights.
So yesterday I finally got my rest day of no physical activity. And I used it to get a good bit of reading before, once again, letting my addiction get me. But womens team gymnastics was live. And since they're on the other side of the world that meant that it began at 10:30. But they were actually showing nearly al....
whoa the post was cut off by the MS site...how annoying.
No comments:
Post a Comment