ToT 28: Chain[ring] of Fools...

Saturday was a nice 2.5 hour ride, punctuated by three brief rainshowers. Stuck with the shop ride for 45 minutes and it struck me how group riding isn't necessarily training, and vice versa. Some of the guys apparently planning on going short kept attacking each other on hills. At one point I'm rocking 750 watts up this nearly minute long hill, going about 18 MPH uphill - that's an uphill speed I don't touch unless I'm in a car, a strong car - and it occurred to me that a series of extremely hard 1 minute efforts is exactly what I don't need prior to Bakers Dozen. So when the opportunity came to take a different turn, I took it, and kept it steady L2/L3 for another 1:45 or so. Mission accomplished - didn't do any high effort work but ended the ride with blown legs, a sure sign of effective aerobic base training.

Sunday was... well... 5 minutes of really enjoyable flow at Rosaryville. I hooked up with Baler and Snoop's Daddy hoping to get in two hours of steady riding and handling practice. That lasted about 5 or 7 minutes, until after the first creek crossing. I stood up on the nearby hill, did a hard stomp to get some acceleration going, and busted the chainring. Not the first time that's happened, but doing it on a 32 ring rather than a big old flexy 53? Those little suckers are supposed to be stout-er than that. Oh well. At least it wasn't a bad walk back; I only had to walk maybe a third, and pump-tracked the rest of it. I sure hope my pals had a nice ride. Me? I went to Family Bikes and asked Jon for a new ring, hit Home Depot for some plumbing fixtures and went home and sweated some new joints on the laundry room pipes so that I could get a new faucet installed in the tub.

Yep. Not everybody could handle this kind of glamour. I've got it well in hand, though.

ToT 28: I Call It
The Trail of Tears for a Reason