Full Weekend

What a big weekend. It's one of those ones that feel like it was a week long!

FRIDAY
I kicked if off with some frantic equipment checking and double checking. I was rushed since we had to be to a party by 8pm-ish so I had just barely enough time to assemble and tune the Tri-Bike in preparation for a big ride the next day. This is the first real ride on my new bike. I got one cold late fall ride in when I first picked it up but it was short and painful from trying to hold the aero position for the first time. I decided to mount my race wheels since I wanted to see what they felt like, plus I want to get my money's worth out of these things. They aren't cheap!
I have been tolerating some lazy shifting from my rear gears while it was on the trainer, but that is not acceptable on the road. I was happy to find that all that was needed is a quick adjustment to the B-Tension screw and the thing was shifting perfectly!
Which brings me to the open-heart surgery I had to perform on my peice of crap Garmin GPS. I hate Garmin. Pi$$ poor service if you ask me. My GPS would shut itself off if you hit a bump the right way, and it would lose the data for the current ride. That makes me very unhappy! Anyhow, Garmin said they would fix it under warranty after a $75 bull$hit depot fee of some sort. Right. Warranty my a$$. In the states some people were able to get a local retailer to send it for free on there behalf but here in Canada it goes to some third party repair depot which obviously doesn't care. Regardless, after some quick research I found the problem. A blatently obvious design flaw which caused a ton of people to complain about the same problem online. Garmin, you suck! I figure I would take the chance of fixing it myself. If I break it, then I'll put the $75 to a different GPS, preferrably not from Garmin, as opposed to paying a stupid depot fee for something that should have been corrected for free. Garmin, you Suck!
I used my fingernail to crack the outer case seal. Ow, that hurt. I cut myself in the process. No matter, it came apart perfectly! I seen the problem immediately. Piss poor leaf springs attached to a board that is directly conncted to the communications ports. Idiots, anyone with half a brain could have told you the connect/disconnect of the port would screw it up in time. So I took apart the comm port, cut out an extra spacer out of an old tube by using the original lousy spacer as a template. Insert both spacers and voila! The connection should be solid now! The hard part was finding the proper non-permanent waterproof adhesive to attach the two bodies. I could not find the loctite product that I had in mind so I just used some generic crap. The danger is that if I used the wrong stuff and the case is permanently sealed, thus I only get one chance at making the repair and will never get it open again. I got it back together just fine but I question the adhesive made a good enough seal all the way around, I dont want water leaking in. Oh well, time will tell. Did I mention Garmin, you suck!
That evening we hit a Conquer Cancer fund raising party at a local cycling-themed cafe. It was great to chat with some of the best riders in the area, except this time we weren't in lycra and helmets. People looked different! I even got to meet an Ironman that was willing to share some fun stories. We stayed up a little past our bedtime but I think it was worth it.

SATURDAY
Slept in an extra hour to make up for the late night. There may have been a slight touch of procrastination mixed in since it was 4 celsius in the morning but supposed to jump to 15 celsius in the afternoon so I didn't want to rush out the door. Getting ready was easy, I had laid everything out the night before. Deciding what to wear was tough, I second guessed myself a million times. I don't want to get far away from home and find I'm freezing to death, but I didn't have the means to store extra layers if I got too hot either. Anyways, I gave up and commited to a decision because it was getting late and if I am going to pull the long ride off, I would like to get home before dinner!
Off I went. Sun shining, no wind and dressed just right. Getting out of the city was a pain. I have new pedals and they are really hard to get in and out so I hated stopping for lights cuz it was risky getting going again. I also had my eyes peeled on the road, I didn't want to ding my fancy carbon wheels on their maiden voyage. I made sure to avoid the man-eating potholes.
Having planned an out-and-back-ish loop I was faced with a bit of a headwind on the country roads. This was offset by a bit of a downhill trend so I didn't mind. I ignored my speedo and just held a speed that 'felt right'. If I pressure myself to hold above 30km/h I may burn myself out before the end. I also have to consider, this is my first ride outdoors. On a new bike. In cool weather. The longest ride I have done in 8 months. With only indoor trainer workouts, I dont know what will happen to my ability to hold aero position on open road. I decided to take it easy.
For the first half of the ride I struggled to find a happy medium for my neck. I strained to look up and down the road. It hurt. Eventually I settled for looking just in front of the bike with the odd look up when I expected cars or intersections.It is nothing like riding a road bike, there will be no touring on this bike. Did I mention it was painful? Actually, I am relieved because my shoulders felt great the entire ride. Last time my shoulders practically gave out on me while trying to hold me up. A better fit on the bike fixed that it seems. So the only discomfort to deal with at this point is my neck which eventually settled into a spot that was 'as comfortable as it is going to get'.

I picked one beautiful route. The roads were perfect, I only counted 2-3 small sections of rough road which is nothing considering the distance I travelled. Things were smooth and fast. I took a brief break at the halfway point and the odd stop sign just to stretch things out. I had to stop to eat. Seriously, I am such a frickin' noob. I stopped to eat and sometimes to drink. Sad. I was just playing it safe, I didn't want to crash the bike on the first time out. I practiced drinking on the bike, the hard part is getting the bottles back in the cage behind the seat while still rolling. A couple occasions I had a hard time finding the hole. Eating was completely out of the question. Partly my fault since I didn't pre-open the package of powerbars before setting out on the journey. No matter, for the first ride I am better off getting the stretching in with those feeding breaks. I think it worked out well.
The return trip was fast. I put a little extra umph into the pedals and held an above 30km/h average the entire way. The only thing that slowed me down was the silly number of pee breaks I had to take. I cant hold aero with a full bladder, and I had to travel great distances in discomfort to find an appropriate spot to stop. I definitely drank too much considering temperatures but it was better than dehydrating. I dont think I will be so discreet next time, its hard finding bush/trees along open country roads. I think I'll just hang it out the side as I roll..... :)
Mrs. LoTC also got out for her first ride on her new bike. Not only that, it was her first ride in ummm 6 months or so? She did an entire 100Km. She's hardk0re like that. Thats my hawt babe for a wife! I'm so proud of her!

SUNDAY
It worked. I came up with every excuse in the book to not go running, as did the wife. Joining this running group worked out well since we were forced to get out of bed and arrive at the trailhead on time to start our run. If it was up to us we would have skipped it. Joining a scheduled running group was just the extra kick in the pants needed to get out the door. However when we arrived at the trailhead we were the ONLY people to show up. Apparently everyone went running the day before in the sun. I am OK with that, I am here and getting my run in regardless. This is what we paid for. Luckily one runner did join up with us and I ran with her for the entire loop. At the end I doubled back to go pickup the wife and to my surprise she wasn't far behind! Wow, she ran exceptionally well for someone that just did a killer ride the day before. She's one tough chick!
The rest of the day consisted of drinking Ceasars by our closed pool. I stripped down to my boxers and laid in the sun tanning on our lounge chairs. It was great! Well actually I have to admit the thought of 'Its too hot' came to mind. I actually didn't like being hot. I'm too accustomed to the cold weather. Wow, we are just never happy are we! It probably didn't help that I was feeling warm from my body repairing itself after some hardcore riding and running over the last couple of days. Regardless, I earned those ceasars, and bag of baked chips, and Dairy Queen Blizzard(Ice Cream). I think I need to do another century ride now though.

Ohh it Burrrns!!

Aero burn. My sleeves slid up while riding in the aero position and it cooked my arms. It was even more swollen and red the next day. It was very painful! Note the stripe caused by the RoadID!








TRAINING:

Bike - 5:56hrs 172Km (7:00hrs including stops)
Run - 2:00hrs 19Km