That which Rolls

I’ve been training to do a Century Ride, on (or near) my birthday in May. I need to wear myself out so I don’t think about being old.

I did 30 miles 2 weeks ago, 45 miles last week, 54 miles on Saturday. I overshot a little on the last one. I was supposed to do 53. It was a little rough at the end but not too bad. I feel like I’m in a better place with climbing though I could be a lot faster. I think, by better place, I just mean I can climb without thinking about the top of the hill and how I’m not there yet. I just keep pedaling.

Someone looked at my elevations on daily mile and commented that my last ride had a lot of climbing and that surprised me because I didn’t remember a lot of climbing. Mainly I remember tearing downhill on 96 going north for almost 10 miles. The shoulder was so smooth and so wide and the cars were not menacing even though it was a main drag. I think it’s the only time in my riding life I’ve ever been able to go that far, that fast, without a stop sign or a climb.

We’ll see how I feel about climbing when I do the Canandaigua Lake loop next. Those hills on the west side of the lake are pretty brutal. If I can finish that loop and feel like I didn’t just barely survive I’ll do a dance. It won’t be pretty, but I’ll do it.

This last ride bumped my eddington number up to 27. It was also the second longest ride I’ve ever done. Which I guess is cool but it almost seems lame because I talk about bikes and riding all the time. It makes me feel a little like I’m full of crap. Which I may be.

It took me a long time to talk myself into going for a ride on Sunday. When I finally went out to get my bike I discovered the rear tire was flat. I was annoyed and whined a lot on twitter. I probably could have ridden my other bike but instead I just complained loudly about the tires I have because they’re so hard to change. I blamed the tires, but really the rim tape had shifted and the flat came from a spoke hole.

Apologies to Bontrager Lite Hardcase but you still are a nightmare to change. I need fingers with some kind of super strength to get them off the wheels and at least 5 zip ties to get them back on. I wasn’t smart enough to keep things like rim tape around so today I’m hoping to make a trek to a bike shop I’ve been meaning to check out for ages.