Reflections On A Broken Seatpost

So I was riding around today, minding my own business, when this car decides to pass me right before a patch of potholes. I can't swing out, and even with the cleanest line, I still hit one or two of the smaller holes. My bike made a little bit of a popping kind of noise, but I thought everything was ok. See, the springs in my brakes aren't as strong as they used to be, and they weren't good brakes to begin with, so there's a good bit of play in the levers. Usually they rattle around a bit when I hit something, so I thought that was it and just rode on. As I kept going, I noticed that my seatpost had a kind of vibration-dampening quality that I hadn't noticed before. Kind of unusual because I've used the same post for the four years I've had the bike. I thought it was no big deal until vibration-dampening slowly turned into mushy-feeling. I decided I didn't want to end up riding ten miles without a seat, so I went home. Turns out my post had a two-inch-long vertical crack, one inch in each direction from the collar. So now I'm using an old Bontrager Select we had lying around. I have yet to see how it rides, but I wouldn't mind it being a little harsher than the old one. I'd rather feel connected than not have a sense of the road.

-Russ

Perfection

I was going to wait until Sunday to write about this, but since today's my first day out of school and the official start of my new life, here it goes.

This summer I'm going to be perfect.

Yeah, I know you're thinking "What? It's summer break! Party time!", but no, it really isn't. This summer I'm going to do everything right. I'm going to stretch, every day. I'm going to eat right, every day. I'm going to go to bed by eleven, every day (unless I'm not home). These are just a few of the good choices I'm going to make this summer, every day. And I'm going to write about my journey to well-being every day I post, for a little bit of extra motivation to keep me going.

Wish me luck!

-Russ

Thanks Again To Chagrin River Cycling

They've just posted another video, this time of the Race for Alex. The one they took of RATL was pretty good, I'm hoping this one is too. I haven't actually watched it because the computer is acting up a bit, and I don't even know right now which race it is, but enjoy anyways.

A First-Class Week

What a week. Here's the breakdown by day.

Sunday: Race for Alex, with possibly the largest field I've ever ridden (54 to be exact). Except it wasn't any different from any other race, since I didn't go any further than ten back. I cleared the tracks every lap, much better than last year, when I just rode over them. Here's the breakdown. First lap, everybody's got ants in their pants or something, because they all want to go like 30mph. Nobody even tries to break away, they just ride a 5-man TTT on the front. Second lap everybody comes to their senses and they realize nobody can win after a 20 mile TT effort in the group. So they try a 20 mile TT off the front. Solo. So I tell everybody to let each one go, and they listen. Ten minutes later we just roll up, not really chasing, to the guy who fried himself off the front. So the strong but not too smart guys are taken care of, now I just have to worry about guys who are saving their energy. Lap three was pretty bad for me. A guy went off the front, and I thought he was somebody else. When I looked around to make sure he was ok to let dangle, it turns out the guy who I thought just went off the front was sitting behind me and the guy up the road was his teammate, who could actually stick it out solo. So off I go, trying to bridge, and I get away. But I don't have enough to make it all the way across. I hang out for three or four minutes but I know I'm wasting myself, so I let the pack get me. Doug keeps things moving and eventually we catch the other guy. Lap four and five I sit in, trying to recover some for the sprint. Lap five I float back a little too much, and Rich brings me back up to third wheel going through the last corner. I get in the line, but the two guys in front of me decide to pull off, so I'm left in the wind. We're real close to the 200m, so I thought I ought to just go for it instaed of pulling off. So I sprint too early and still end up sixth. I feel pretty good about that considering all the work I did in the race. And it was worth $55. Sweet!!!

Monday: Ok, so nothing really happened Monday biking-wise, but it was still an amazing day. I'm in AP Chem right now (well, not anymore, school ended today) and since we took the AP test in the middle of May, we don't have anything to do. So today, we made fun stuff with chemicals. Like smoke bombs and contact explosives. All in a closed, supervised, scientific environment of course, but it was still crazy fun.

Tuesday: One-hour rain ride. I'm trying to get used to riding in the rain a little more ever since I really sucked it up at RATL 3. So the ride went pretty well, and then I cleaned my bike, which is really relaxing for me for some reason.

Wednesday: Another 20 minute set of 30-30's, just like last week. And, just like last week, I raised my 20 minute peak power, which I use as my LT power. So far it's up 3% since the last time I did a power test. I think I could get at least another ten watts if I did a straight TT, well rested and no intervals. After my 30-30's, I did another 20 minutes at z4 and averaged the same as my LT power from the last test. It didn't hurt nearly as much as I remember, even after 20 minutes of intervals.

Thursday (Today): Last day of school. We got out at 10:06 and went across the street for the end-of-the-year Band Bowl. After about ten minutes The Man decided to stick it to us and said we had go further away from the school. I'm not really sure he can actually do that, we weren't on school grounds or anything, but we left anyways. The next closest place to play was the Bath Community Center, four miles away, so we went there. I had my bike, everybody else went by car. I got there while everyone was still getting out of the second car, no headstart except for the time it took for everybody to pile in. This just reaffirms my belief in bikes as the ultimate commuter vehicles, and hopefully riding to band camp every day this summer will win me some converts.

That's all for now, hopefully I'll get an update in after Mill Creek on Sunday.

-Russ

Sharpening the Saw

One day, a long, long time ago, there was a woodsman. On this particular day the woodsman was running a little bit late to his job cutting down trees. To save himself a little bit of time, the woodsman decided to skip sharpening his saw, a bit of maintenance that he usually did every day. So the woodsman gets to work just in time and he starts cutting up some trees. The woodsman notices right away that his saw really isn't sawing quite as well as it should. It takes the woodsman an extra ten minutes to take care of the first tree. As the day goes on, the woodsman's saw just keeps getting duller. In the end, the woodsman finishes his work an hour and a half later than he would have with a sharp saw. The moral of the story: Think long-term. It's usually better to do something that will make you slower in the short term if it will make you faster later.

Today I sharpened my saw (really my legs) for the Race for Alex tomorrow. I felt pretty good - almost 100% - and I'm hoping that today's ride loosened up the legs enough to make a difference. Only six more points for my cat 3 upgrade!

-Russ

Perfect Ride

What an amazing day. 60 degrees, just warm enough to be comfortable, just cold enough that I barely sweat. Mostly cloudy so I don't get the sun in my eyes on the way home. Hard intervals, hard enough that I almost puked at one point, but I still finished them all. Eight stoplights, all timed perfectly so I never even had to slow down. The tire I found flat this afternoon and pumped up before I left still held 90 psi when I got back home after two hours. I live for rides like that.

In the humor department, I rode by this house today with a flooded front yard that hadn't been drained for probably a month. Next to the water, which was at most a foot deep, was a sign. It read:

Danger: New Pond

Private Property

Please No Fishermans

Signed, Mrs. Crazy

No, that isn't really her name, but yes, she really did sign it. Just though that was worth sharing.

-Russ

Faster Than A Speeding Bullet

This guy built a bike. It has a jet engine. His bike goes 50 MPH. Last year, my top speed was 55 MPH down Wheatley Road into the valley. I don't have a jet engine. That makes me feel good just thinking about it.

-Russ