September 12, 2000

I didn't ride any this past weekend, as I was recovering from Friday's long ride. I had planned to ride Monday, but I decided to spend some extra time with Corinne. The result was three days off, which almost always causes a drop in performance (though not always, as my logs will show you if you look).

For my birthday, my parents gave me (at Corinne's recommendation) a $100 gift certificate to Mystic Cycle Center. I stopped by on Monday, I thought I'd buy a new helmet. They talked me out of it!

Apparently, you're not supposed to replace your helmet every year as I had thought, and the only reason mine stinks is that the pads in the front are full of sweat. They pull out easily, as they're only attched with velcro, so I can just throw them in the wash.

Instead, I'm going to get clipless pedals. A couple of guys that work at MCC stopped what they were doing to talk with me for awhile, and they both said that I'm doing quite well for an "enthusiastic amateur." I'm too big for my bike, and I'm using pedals with toe clips which force me to do most of my pedalling with the very end of my feet. In their words, "your foot is wrapping around the pedal when you push down, and coming mostly off the pedal when you pull up." They both assured me that I'd see a huge improvement in my performance with clipless, so I'm going for it.

Now I just need to find cycling shoes (road style, not mountain style) in size 51 (or 15, if they're in American sizes). We haven't had much luck yet.