For those of you on facebook here's the URL to the above daily dose of zen.
“Life's disappointments are harder to take when you don't know any swear words.” - Calvin & Hobbes
Um, yeah. What Calvin said. IronMan is putting me through the paces on the weights. He appears to me in some sort of motivated mood and wants to share it with me and goodMood, whom IronMan is lobbying to be renamed to miniHercules I think. After coming off one machine IronMan grabs me by the elbow leading me to another one for more torture. He finished me off with a rack run. Then he went to work and messed his knee up. I hope he gets better soon!
I took Precious (the name of my bike) out for a 12 mile ride. I was all geared up and ready to 'push it' when my son chimed in that he wanted to go too, it would be a new distance record for him. For one nanosecond, further blackening my soul, I thought about how my workout got reduced to just puttering around at 10mph. Then that was gone and I told him to hop on his bike and we headed out.
It was a nice evening and this was the third time I had used cleats. I still suck at getting my foot back into the pedal and kind of blow at uncleating too. I was explaining to my son that it was just a matter of time before I forgot to uncleat and fall over. He laughs saying he hopes to be there when it happens.
We pedal along a bike path at an easy cadence yakking and enjoying the evening. My son announces that his knee is starting to hurt and I glance over and see he's wayyyyy too low on his seat, his knees coming up above his hips for crying out loud! This kinda panics me since I've read so much about proper sizing so I slam on the breaks before realizing I hadn't cleated out. I'm frantically trying to get my left foot free, doomed. I fall over onto my son who manages to keep me upright long enough that I can get my stupid shoe free. Phew!
I raise his seat, raise it again, and again. Jeeze when did he get so tall?!
We continue on our way and eventually get back home, a new distance record for my son. Ya know what? Riding with your kid beats a serious workout anytime! I soooo hope we get to do that again, I really enjoyed it.
I then did a spin class with instructor Bill which was a great workout.
What I'm discovering as I write this up that it's boring, I need to blog more or not do some sort of weird retrospective... pick a topic and roll with it. It's just I'm sorely distracted at the moment with a lot on my mind.
I went in to the Trek Store paying some dude $150 for a "pro fitting." Long story short, I don't think it's worth it - at least in my case. I made a serious mistake of not logging enough hours on the bike before heading in. I was impressed with how close the free (well free after you shell out coin for the bike) fitting was.
My dad turned 80 and we went down and visited him and mom. That was great.
Eighty Candles
Finally this Sunday, after getting home from dad's birthday the weather was nice enough that I simply HAD to take the bike out. I took it out on a known 18 miler and had nothing but technical problems, not with the bike but with the bike's Garmin 305. It kept turning off and that was a drag so I couldn't adequately log it.
Why is it we never notice a tailwind? We sure do notice the headwinds, but not the tailwinds. Going out I battled a pretty good headwind, hating it. Heading back I had a minor tailwind and had made up my mind to savor it, enjoy it, be grateful for it. I must apply that wisdom to my life at large. When things are going well show gratitude.
I managed to hit and hold 20 - 25mph on the ride back at times. I loved that! I felt like a tour rider for maybe a minute or two when I was in the 25mph zone. There was a time last year when 25mph would terrify me, now it feels right. I want MORE!
This bike is going to take some getting use to. You'd think you just get on it and go but there are nuances. I noticed when I was pedaling correctly that I could go faster and it felt easier - go figure. I also can play with the gears much more on this bike than on my 520. With these SRAM shifters it's a lot easier to shift than with the bar ends.
I got home and checked out my bike computer.
- avg cadence 73
- avg HR 136
- avg MPH 14.5
As always, my thighs burn for you!
Be well
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