“Ride #40: That was Brutal”

I left the house early for the half-century, so that the guys at Mystic Cycle would have a chance to look at the front derailleur if I still needed them to. Turns out that I didn't need them to, as my repairs from the night before worked perfectly (surprise!).

So, I hung around the shop for 45 minutes, making a big wish list of bike-related stuff that I'd like to have. The list isn't that long, but this stuff's expensive!

They were having major computer problems the whole time I was there. I got to talk to one of them about it for a few minutes, and it turns out that their point-of-purchase system was upgraded this winter from DOS to Windows, but the company that makes the software doesn't actually offer a way to move the data from one oversion to the other. That's so weird, so stupid, that I was actually speechless for a minute. Somebody wrote a little hack that was supposed to convert some of their old data into a format that the new system could read, but it corrupted most of the information in the process - including their customer records, and their product information. Ouch.

Also had a chance to talk to the guy that manages their website. He's pretty psyched about the idea of Conversant, as he's currently doing (or "not doing" might be more accurate) everything with Word Pad. Again, "ouch".

Oh, wait, this is supposed to be about a ride!

There were 14 of us this time. That's so cool! Again, a very busy downtown Mystic came to a complete halt when this little parade passed through, and a group of kids yelled out, "Are you having a race?"

My time for this ride wasn't very good, frankly, but there are three reasons for that. First of all, the ride was very windy, which we all hate. The wind was at our backs for the 15 miles or so, but it was in our faces for the last 15 when we're all tired. Second, I rode a lot more of the hills this time, and I pushed myself very hard, so hard that by the end I felt like I was trying to push the pedals with legs of jelly (or lead). I did everything right, coming up out of the saddle and rocking the bike back and forth in time with my cadence. Unfortunately, doing everything right means that you're more exhausted at the end of the ride than if you take it "easier" like I've done the previous two weeks.

Corinne teased me about that last night, in fact. She was acting worried about me because I was so tired after I returned home, and I had a hard time explaining why this ride was harder than the previous rides. Oh well. Didn't help any that the wind had completely died down by the time I returned home (so I had no evidence to back up my claims).

The third reason: more equipment problems! I didn't even realize it until 30 miles into the ride, but my handlebars were pointing off to the right by about eight degrees. That's the sort of thing that doesn't bother you at first, but the longer you ride the more it starts to hurt. It made my back and shoulders sore. This is probably the least significant of the three reasons, but since I've made a habit out of whining about equipment problems, I had to mention it.

The "pack" didn't catch me until seven miles past the point where they caught me last week, and in fact they didn't all catch me! Admittedly, I'm still skipping the first big hill, but I've done that every week so this is definitely a big improvement.

My top speed on this ride was 47.6 miles per hour (last week was 48.4). I was climbing the hill that would lead to this speed when the pack caught me - and passed me. Rick, of course, was in the front, and he was very surprised to find me right on his tail going down the other side. I yelled "pick it up, ladies!" and he almost jumped off his bike. Heh. Of course, they dusted me going up the next hill, and that's really the last I saw of them.

Stats: 50.26 miles in 175:01 minutes, for an average speed of 17.23 mph.