Digging Deep.

Our Community Forums General Discussion Digging Deep.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 36 total)
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  • #911738
    Dickie
    Participant

    I totally cracked this weekend and I thought this might make for good Monday morning banter. My first mistake happened Friday night when I impulse substituted my pasta dish for some tasty looking tacos….in retrospect a REALLY bad decision since I had decided to do a 50 mile Potomac/Palisades loop from Rosslyn on Saturday morning. I awoke to drizzle, but still managed to drag my butt out of bed by 6:30. The ride started well enough and my legs felt decent, and since I was sweating a slight “cumin and chili” scent I had very few riders around me. As I made the turn-around off Travilah road onto River, the sun popped out and I thought “this is going to be a great ride back”. But Just like a horror-movie-gratuitous-blond mentioning “I’ll be right back”, my day went pear shaped. First came the downpour, then the rear flat on a stretch of road that had no shoulder, then the 12 utility trucks that squeezed past me as I tried to control my bike by rubbing against the barricade. Next came the slow and tedious tire change, the shivers as my body temp fell, and the inevitable dropping of my fig newtons onto the ground (which I applied the 5 second rule to). I pushed off to find that the cyclist law of wind shift had taken effect and my tail wind had joined with my pasta dish from the night before, replaced with a strong head wind and taco’s that were not playing well with the figs… who knew? I struggled to get over the next few hills and it felt as if I was riding with my brakes on… which of course I was. Yep, in my fit of rage over the spilt figs I hand’t noticed my rear wheel install error. A quick correction and I was pedaling and suffering again.

    Now I have never seen the “wheel rut” fairies at work, but they come out at night and have this amazing tool that creates a perfect carving in the road exactly the width of a bicycle tire. Once captured, your tire will follow that carving wherever it goes, even if it terminates in a ditch, which mine did. At least the grass was wet and soft and my slight crash was not witnessed (thanks again Cumin and Chili). I pulled a few twigs from my helmet and carried on but now my bike sounded like an old wooden bed in a brothel. The creaking was so loud small animals kept popping their heads out of the woods to find out what the hell was going on. I stopped no less than five times to try and find the issue.. cracked frame? negative. Broken spokes? negative. Cracked fork? negative. On my last examination and under close scrutiny I found the culprit. Somehow my rut-escorted escapade had stressed my wheels so badly that every nipple hole was cracked. Now I confess I was riding Neuvation wheels which are like the Bic pens of the wheel world but I still had to make it home the last 10 miles with severely compromised wheels, fried legs, no spare, rain, wind, and that ever present Cumin and Chili….. It was hell. I thought about calling my wife from the “3-bucks” to pick me up but I dug deep, and made it home.

    So how was everyone else’s weekend?

    #945869
    pfunkallstar
    Participant

    Sounds rough, but understand this, the “wheel rut” fairies only strike once a year – twice at most.

    #945872
    KelOnWheels
    Participant

    @rsewell19 25325 wrote:

    I totally cracked this weekend and I thought this might make for good Monday morning banter. My first mistake happened Friday night when I impulse substituted my pasta dish for some tasty looking tacos….in retrospect a REALLY bad decision since I had decided to do a 50 mile Potomac/Palisades loop from Rosslyn on Saturday morning.

    Yeah… I did that twice this weekend! First I stuffed myself on yuca & chicharrones and then went dancing Saturday night :p and then I had gluten-free pancakes for breakfast this morning. NOT GOOD PLAN. Fortunately I was not on a 50-mile ride.

    Five-second Fig Newton rule totally applies.

    #945873
    SilverSpring
    Participant

    Rsewell19

    Sorry to hear about your (mis)adventure. I’da been sitting by the road crying and calling my Bride after perhaps the second of your misfortunes. Good on you for sticking it out!

    I went to bed early Friday so I could get up for a self-imposed Metric century on the W&OD, but I heard the rain at stupid o’clock and went back to sleep. I got up again on Sunday to try it again an discovered how much I hate (but can never remember the pain of) the Custis Trail (the quickest for getting to the W&OD from my starting point in Silver Spring). Once I got the onW&OD proper, it was pretty lovely and I got further than ever before (around mile marker 26) and saw throngs of polite and happy cyclists (including, I think, Dirt). Turning around, though, I found that a) I’m not actually as fast as I thought (there was indeed a tailwind), b) just because it was dark when I started didn’t mean Mr. Sun had decided to take the day off, c) my limit right now is about 50-60 miles (but I was riding 70), and d) things just weren’t as flat as I thought. Arriving home, I discovered the bliss of a shower and a nap (dozing to the sounds of my boys killing Nazi zombies in Call of Duty).

    #945874
    rcannon100
    Participant

    My weekend was worse! I missed both my Saturday and my Sunday ride.

    #945875
    dasgeh
    Participant

    We got in a long 4 miles as a family going to church, play dates and the grocery store. It was awesome.

    A vaguely remember my husband sending in some broken Neuvation wheels and getting them fixed for a fraction of the new price. And then we had a talk about how maybe those wheels should stick to the trainer and training rides (v. races), — they’ve held up well since.

    #945882
    KLizotte
    Participant

    Despite liberal application of 100 SPF sunscreen, I now have a bad case of “cyclist tan” and a nose that rivals Rudolph.

    I’m also pretty sure a local Potbelly restaurant now keeps a photo of me behind the counter since I kept sneaking in to steal free ice and water from their soda machine.

    #945886
    PotomacCyclist
    Participant

    Holy moly! At least it can’t get any worse, can it?

    My weekend went OK, although I think the heat got to me at some point. I did a hard long run workout (5 min. threshold effort intervals), a short recovery bike ride and a hard swim workout (threshold intervals and sprints) — on Saturday. On Sunday, I did a hard long bike workout (long threshold effort intervals, 12 min. each) trying to beat the t-storms (which never came) and then a threshold effort brick run afterward. (My pace/speed wasn’t quite as fast as usual, but I chalk that up to the mid-90s temperatures. I was still pushing fairly hard during the speed workouts.) I deserve an easy day today. Maybe just an easy 15-min. swim and 10-15 min. lazing along on CaBi (just to get my daily points for the National Bike Challenge).

    #945888
    Dickie
    Participant

    @PotomacCyclist 25344 wrote:

    I did a hard long run workout (5 min. threshold effort intervals), a short recovery bike ride and a hard swim workout (threshold intervals and sprints) — on Saturday. On Sunday, I did a hard long bike workout (long threshold effort intervals, 12 min. each) trying to beat the t-storms (which never came) and then a threshold effort brick run afterward. (My pace/speed wasn’t quite as fast as usual, but I chalk that up to the mid-90s temperatures. I was still pushing fairly hard during the speed workouts.) I deserve an easy day today. Maybe just an easy 15-min. swim and 10-15 min. lazing along on CaBi (just to get my daily points for the National Bike Challenge).

    Holy Crap Potomac, you’re a machine…next weekend I’m hitching my creaking bike to your seat post and letting you drag me to Potomac….. seriously, inspiring!

    #945889
    Dickie
    Participant

    @KLizotte 25340 wrote:

    Despite liberal application of 100 SPF sunscreen, I now have a bad case of “cyclist tan”

    Wear that tan with Pride, I outline mine with a Sharpie!

    #945891
    Dickie
    Participant

    @dasgeh 25333 wrote:

    A vaguely remember my husband sending in some broken Neuvation wheels and getting them fixed for a fraction of the new price.

    Thanks dasgeh, Yeah I already sent out an email to Neuvation. They are actually really good folks on the CS side of things. The wheels have been fine for the price and I’ll keep them running for the small rim replacement cost.

    #945893
    Dickie
    Participant

    @KelOnWheels 25330 wrote:

    gluten-free pancakes for breakfast this morning.

    Sounds pretty awesome to me, of course that depends on the topping I suppose….I would not suggest Cumin and Chili.

    #945894
    PotomacCyclist
    Participant

    While the workouts weren’t nearly my longest ever (because I’m focusing on speed over endurance for the rest of the summer), it was probably one of my hardest training weekends ever. I’ve done the run, bike/run hard workouts before, but not in combination with the full swim workout. (In past years, I’ve skimped a lot on my planned swim workouts, cutting many of them short. But not this year.)

    If I keep this up, I better be getting a PR at the Nation’s Tri this fall. (I’m also building in cutback weeks every 4th week, to avoid burnout and overtraining.) I haven’t actually done a full Olympic-distance tri since fall 2010. Last year I did the sprint tri at the (former) Washington DC Tri. Then the swim was canceled for last year’s Nation’s Tri because of heavy rains during the days before the race.

    I’m also training for my first marathon, the Marine Corps Marathon in October. While I’d really like to finish in well under 4 hours, I’m not going to be as concerned about my time. It’s probably best just to focus on finishing strong in my first marathon. I’m not sure if I’ll do any more marathons after this one. I’ll see how it goes. While I find running somewhat enjoyable, I’m still not sure if I will enjoy racing on foot for such a long period of time. The strange thing is that a stand-alone run distance seems to bother me more than running an equivalent mileage as part of a triathlon. It just feels odd to me to go out there and run without having biked immediately before. I may have to hop on a CaBi bike for 15 minutes before the MCM, if possible. Then wade through the huge crowds to my start wave.

    #945895
    Dickie
    Participant

    @rcannon100 25332 wrote:

    My weekend was worse! I missed both my Saturday and my Sunday ride.

    Hope that was by choice and not some misfortune, hope all is well.

    #945897
    KelOnWheels
    Participant

    @KLizotte 25340 wrote:

    Despite liberal application of 100 SPF sunscreen, I now have a bad case of “cyclist tan” and a nose that rivals Rudolph.

    I need like SPF 1000. I stopped at a stoplight in full sun this morning and I’m pretty sure my skin started to smolder.

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