Training & travail

This was the biggest training week and will likely remain that as I got 4 rides in 8 days including the back to back TOSRV centuries a solo 50 miler over my training course for a personal best 18+ mph average and a 56 miler with my brother-in-law, Les. Sunday to Sunday totaled 325 miles. I felt strong finishing Saturdays century, averaging 17+ into the wind with my buddy Dave Mondiek who rode with me. Sunday we averaged about the same, again into a pretty stiff wind the whole way back. I had an extra 12 miles or so to get home from downtown since I had ridden directly downtown on Saturday and was really glad when I finally turned into the driveway.

I did get a good reality check on the way back from Portsmouth when I chatted with Lisa about x-country trips. At one point she casually mentioned that she had done a X-contry trip from San Diego to Savannah some years ago. When I asked how long that trip lasted her answer floored me. Two weeks, she said! Wow! That translates to 200 miles per day on average. What an inspiration.

It was also a week of bike prepping. Monday afternoon both tires came off and were replaced with new heavier, flat resistent ones. Then I went over to buddy Dave's to change the rear cassette and chain, lube the pawls, check over cables and retape the bars under his expert instruction. Dave is such a great mentor for biking and for wrenching as he shared his chain changing techniques. I was able to get through the chain, cassette and lube without incident. Then, while readjusting the shifting to the new cassette, the shifting cable broke right at the right shifter and the cable end fell into the Ultegra mechanism. We spent the next two hours trying to find and extract it -- to no avail. The bike shop guy the next day took the shifter apart further but also to no avail. The mechanism's complexity is to a bike what an automatic transmission is to an automobile in complexity and expense. I did find the shifter on the internet and bought it with delivery expected in about one week. That will be cutting it pretty close to ride the Horsey Hundred, my last big ride before heading out.

Meanwhile, I consoled myself by fixing what was in my power to fix. Somehow that was cathartic in the face of this obstacle. One of these is a very nice older 7 speed bike. I tested rode it home from dropping off my car for repairs, but that only made me long for my trusty Cannondale all the more. Cranking it up to 18 mph was a LOT of work that would have gotten me 2-4 miles more on the Cannondale. Separation will heighten my appreciation when it's back in operation.