More Ramblings

Last week was not the best week for riding, as it seemed that there were several days that I could just not fit in a ride, either because of rain or schedules. But I did end up working out at New Washington (the smallest branch library in my system) on Thursday, and took some back roads to get out there, as the state highway was closed down for repairs.

It rained in the early evening so when I was driving home I saw this rainbow (though it was quite this bright, I cleaned it up a little with one of the software programs we have).

On Sunday I drove up to near Bloomington to do a road race. Annie and Jim came to meet me at the start and stayed for a lap or two of the race. It was nice to see them before they head off to Europe.

As for the race itself, it turned out to be something of a disappointment. It was 45 mile race on a 4.5 mile loop, with two hills on course, one right after the other, and I was able to maintain a top ten position for most of the race, until about the 8th lap, and then I started to get tired. I was able to hang on to the main group (and even move up again near the front) right up until the last time we climbed the first hill. That was when the field attacked and my legs failed me. I had entered the race under no illusions of winning or anything, but had hoped to finish with the field, and there went that. I cannot say for sure, but I think that I did finish dead last. The disappointment came from doing what I felt was a lot of work during the race. I did not start any breakaways, but in the first 7 laps, I probably chased down or helped to chase down the majority of breakaways that people tried to start. Oh, well.

These are just some photos from the short recovery ride I went on yesterday.

Indiana Summer

Just a couple of pictures from my ride earlier this week. The spring wheat has turned and is ready to harvest, and the flowers are all starting to bloom. The weather here has broken after two weeks of insanely heat and the last few days have been great, with the highs in the 80s and low humidity. It would be wonderful if the weather could stay like this all summer. As for my riding, I have a race coming up this weekend near Annie and Jim's. It is a 45 mile road race, so it will be the longest race so far this year. My last race was cancelled because of a storm that came through Indianapolis (and areas south of there) that dumped 10 inches of rain on ground that was already swollen with water and in rivers that were at flood stage, not a good time.

Many rides

Okay, these photos are from several different rides that I have taken lately. Riding has been kind of frustrating lately due to the fact that I have been having some bike trouble and also because of the weather. In a one day period it seemed to go from 80 degrees and no humidity to 95 and something around 65-75% humidity, which makes for some increditibly lousy riding. This top pic is from a ride last Sunday that started out well, but at around 23 miles into the ride my legs just kind of quit working and I ended up crawling back home.

Then my bike trouble hit. Or should I say, it was all my fault. I used to think that I was a decent bike mechanic, well come to find out, I was the one who was causing all the trouble with my bike because I had failed to install my cranks correctly after I had taken them off to fix something on my bike. In the end I I trashed both my crankset and bottom bracket. Ugh.

Well, anyway, here is a picture of an Indiana dream house that I found on my ride last night. It comes with unlimited choices for bathrooms, that is one benefit with all those trees around.

On a nicer note, here are some day lilys that I passed on my rain shortened ride tonight. When I saw them I stopped to take a pic and get the wheat field behind them.

Here are my new cranks - 10 speed Campagnolo Record crankset from just before Campy started making outboard bearings. These are really nice to ride, probably the stiffest cranks that I have ever ridden (actually i think that this design might be my favorite crank design of all time) - yes, yes, such a complete and utter bike nerd, oh well.

The heat is on

Summer has officially arrived here in the Ohio valley, as the temprature was above 90 degrees today, and the humidity was already clinging to everything. I waited for a while after work to go for a ride, hoping that it might cool down just a tad, but I don't think that it did. I was just doing a shake-out ride tonight, taking it easy and kind of stretching my legs for my race this weekend.

I did one of my usual routes, heading outwards Charlestown and then riding some of the country roads between Charlestown and Sellersburg, before coming home through Sellersburg. I had the wind at my back heading out, and felt really good as I was cruising along at 37 kph with what felt like little effort. But I certainlhy paid for that on the way back, as I was riding into the wind most of the the way home.

If you can't tell from the picture, that road is STEEP. Like, get off your bike and walk steep. And let me tell you, it's no fun to walk in carbon fibre soled shoes. On a wet mountain road. That's so steep your bike feels like it's going to slip out of your hands and you're going to have to chase it back down the two kilometers or so you've already climbed.

It was a tough ride.

We didn't intend to take the road we ended up taking. We missed the turn to the easier climb. When we realized, we thought we'd give it a shot. And I'm glad that we did, now that I'm safe at home. But it took a lot out of me, bringing to mind the hills on the Great Northwest Tour when I was seven years old. At least then I had an excuse for getting off and walking--I was seven years old!

Actually, I'm not telling the whole story. It was a beautiful day. A great way to start June. And two thirds of the ride was dreamy. The rice fields shimmer in the sun and the temperature is still comfortable. The summer heat is around the corner, and knowing that makes a day like today all the sweeter. But there was that climb...