Morning Stats

Distance: 11.60 miles
Time: 00:41:13
Terrain: Road: Rolling
Bike: Specialized Allez Road
Club: 2010 TerraTrike Car-Free Challenge
Weather Conditions: 57F, light mist, overcast. Chipmunk index of 7.

Morning Ride

I tried to break my record from yesterday … 11.6 miles in 39:55, but I missed it by a half minute.  Actually, that’s pretty good considering that I’m wearing heavy clothes today and crappy converse sneakers because my regular sneakers did not fully dry out.  Yesterday’s ride was wet and messy.  Also, my extra pair of sneaks in in my sister’s car, so all I had were my converses.  It really made em appreciate having good shoes normally.

The chipmunks were really busy today.  They were zooming across the pavement, rather than their usual run stop chew something run stop scratch run stop look scared.

I also thought about slowing down a little bit today, because I realized that I was zooming past things breathing hard the whole way.  There seems to be an opposite correlation between pushing hard and seeing interesting wildlife.

Note to self: slow down and enjoy!

Can’t believe there are only 3 days left in the challenge.

Day 24 I was on the stupid computer all day long, but at least I got my flat fixed.

Day 25 I felt like crap so I didn’t ride.  Not riding made me feel worse, but I was anxiously awaiting a ride for day 26.

Day 26 Morning Stats

Distance: 11.60 miles
Time: 00:45:00
Terrain: Road: Rolling
Bike: Specialized Allez Road
Club: 2010 TerraTrike Car-Free Challenge
Weather Conditions: 58F, cool, overcast, no humidity. Chipmunk index of 3.

Day 26 Morning Ride

Back in the saddle!  Felt wonderful.  That’s all I have to report.

Day 26 Evening Stats

Distance: 11.60 miles
Time: 00:39:55
Terrain: Road: Rolling
Bike: Specialized Allez Road
Club: 2010 TerraTrike Car-Free Challenge
Weather Conditions: RAINING! Chipmunk index of 0

Day 26 Evening Ride

SETTE Vexx Fuse Riding Glasses

It was a very wet ride, but it really put my new riding glasses to the test and proved their usefulness big time.  My feet were totally soaked – felt like there was water sloshing around in them.  Nasty.

KEEN Commuter Sandals

I can’t wait to purchase some riding sandals from REI.

One nice thing I did during the ride home was to stop and grab a HUGE bundle of clover for the bunnies and strap it onto my lunch bag with bungee cords.  It must have looked funny seeing some dude flying down Rt. 179 with a 8 inch pile of greens and flowers strapped to him.

Morning Stats

Distance: 13.40 miles
Time: 00:40:20
Terrain: Road: Rolling
Bike: Specialized Allez Road

Club: 2010 TerraTrike Car-Free Challenge
Weather Conditions: 7:30a – 75F, partly cloudy, nice air.

Morning Ride

I was making excellent time.  I had already made it 13.4 miles and I was only 40 minutes into my ride, so yeah, I was haulin’ ass.  In Collinsville, I had to make the decision to take the old bridge and the trail, but that was a lot of up and down and bumpy stuff, so I decided to stay on the road and continue kicking ass … much to my dismay.  About 100 feet past the old bridge on 179 I heard a sharp popping sound.  By the time I was approaching the church acorss from Bridge St., I started feeling resistance from the bike … by the church door I felt the dreaded gachunk gachunk of a flat.

ANGER!

But lesson learned; just yesterday, another competitor in the challenge, River_rider, mentioned getting a flat, and I responded that I’d be sure to get a spare tube and pump and carry it.  Of course, I didn’t, and this is where it got me.

Tonight, I hope to get to the bike shop before 7 so I can grab a new tube and get the bike back on the road tonight or tomorrow morning.  I’m thinking about installing the Slime tyre liners again too, which is contra to the wisdom of the guy who sold me the bike at Bikers Edge 2 in Torrington.  Let’s see who’s right.

Morning Stats

Distance: 5.90 miles
Time: 00:25:00
Terrain: Road: Rolling
Bike: Specialized Allez Road
Club: 2010 TerraTrike Car-Free Challenge
Weather Conditions: 73F, sunny, slightly moist. Chipmunk index of 1.

Morning Ride

I made kind of crap time getting in, but I was riding right after eating a big breakfast of a veggie omelet with feta, 2 pieces of toast and 2 cups of orange juice.  Not exactly your typical pre-performce power-up.  But it was prepared by the lovely Sharry Revillini, a chef of limitless talent and lucky for me, my wife.  I also got up late so I had to keep the ride short. Bummer – I felt like doing the 16 mile ride.

Incidentally, I’m still on the same tank of gas that I had on May 15, and that’s not even the day I filled up … I think I’d filled up like 5 days prior.

WOW!  DAY 20 in the contest!

Evening Stats

Distance: 5.90 miles
Time: 00:35:00
Terrain: Road: Flat
Bike: Specialized Allez Road
Club: 2010 TerraTrike Car-Free Challenge
Weather Conditions: 5:30p – 75F, sunny, humid. Squipmunk index of 1.

Evening Ride

This evening I didn’t push hard, I just tried to work on technique and let the crank spin freely.  My feet want to point at 45 degrees toward the ground all the time.  This works certain muscles and doesn’t make the most efficient use of each turn, because it puts the most pressure on the downstroke.  Ideally, I should make 75 – 85% of each turn on each side a working motion.  The only time when it’s acceptable to have very little energy is transfered into moving the bike forward is just before it begins the next cycle from the top.  By the way, don’t take my word for science.  I’m just putting into my own words what I think I’ve heard from other cyclists.

Day 20 is done, man.  I hope I can wake early enough tomorrow to ride the whole way to work.  It’s the BAYYYST!

Morning Stats

Distance: 11.60 miles
Time: 00:35:00
Terrain: Road: Rolling
Bike: Specialized Allez Road
Club: 2010 TerraTrike Car-Free Challenge
Weather Conditions: 8:30a – sometimes sunny, sometimes foggy and cool.
Chipmunk index of 7.

Morning Ride

Took a nice easy 11 mile ride to work.  The road seemed to fly under me.  I made really good time getting to work.  I was dripping with sweat when I arrived, but I did not feel very tired.

Evening Stats

Distance: 11.60 miles
Time: 00:40:00
Terrain: Road: Rolling
Bike: Specialized Allez Road
Club: 2010 TerraTrike Car-Free Challenge
Weather Conditions: 8:15p – 68F, dark. Chipmunk index of 0.

Evening Ride

This was my first ride at dusk in a long time.  The sky was beautiful, but the bugs were out in full force.  I ordered some eye-wear that should be arriving in a few days.  It has replaceable lenses that sort of wrap around the eyes, so I hope to avoid getting pelted in the eyes with bugs.

The Stats (2 rides)

Distance: 11.60 miles
Time: 00:38:00
Terrain: Road: Rolling
Bike: Specialized Allez Road
Club: 2010 TerraTrike Car-Free Challenge
Weather Conditions: 74F, humid, foggy.

Distance: 11.60 miles
Time: 00:47:00
Terrain: Road: Rolling
Bike: Specialized Allez Road
Club: 2010 TerraTrike Car-Free Challenge
Weather Conditions: 71F, very humid, foggy.

The Rides

NOTE: I’m recording this a few days after the ride.  Took a ride from Winsted to Canton visited friends, and then headed back.  Not much to report except that it was humid as hell and there were torrential rains while I was visiting.  It was probably good that I didn’t get caught in that.

Stats

Distance: 16.80 miles
Time: 01:00:00
Terrain: Road: Rolling
Bike: Specialized Allez Road
Club: 2010 TerraTrike Car-Free Challenge
Weather Conditions: 9 – 10am – 73F sunny. Chipmunk index of 1.

Ride

I had to go return something to Lowe’s in Torrington.  The ride was nice.  That Stillriver Greenway is smooth as silk.  I wish all the roads were like that.  I made good time on the new bike … approaching 17mph.

Stats

Distance: 12.70 miles
Time: 00:55:00
Terrain: Road: Hills
Bike: Specialized Allez Road
Club: 2010 TerraTrike Car-Free Challenge
Weather Conditions: 74F, sunny. Chipmunk index of 1.

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Did the Burr Mountain thing again -12.7 miles.  BEAUTIFUL!  Added a swim to the mix.  I’ll add details later.  Saw some geese.  ”Ah look at the ducks!”

Headed out to Kent Falls for hiking now.

UPDATE: added stats above.

WOW!  15 days in [to the the 2010 Terratrike Car-Free Challenge] already?

Today I put in 20.6 miles.  12.8 on the Sandblaster, 7.8 on my new Specialized Allez road bike that I picked up on my way home.  I haven’t ridden a road bike in 18 years – not since the Sandblaster, actually – so it was a little weird, but holy smokes you can get up to speed fast on these things.  And hills?  What hills?  I feel no hills in Winsted!  I have to really be careful to shout my presence out to walkers on the trails way earlier.  By applying the same amount of power to the pedals that I would on the Sandblaster, it propels me maybe 10 – 20% faster.  Getting to work will be a snap!  I’ll miss the mud and off road parts until I can score a cyclocross bike.

I have to thank my grandparents for this new bike.  They’ve given me the financial foundation to be able to replace my broken junker with something so fine.  So: thank you, Bumpa and Mimi!  You’re always here for me!!!

Only thing that sucks is that now I have to start locking the bike up again.  Worrying about having things ganked is so lame.

In my bikejournal.com club, Yort (Troy) slipped past me this morning, and I crept a little past him once again during my ride home, maintaining 7th.  However, people tend to stockpile miles over the weekends and drop them like they’re hot on Sunday night, so it’s a real skinny 7th place.  I’ve no doubt about that.

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UPDATE: put on another 2 miles by going to the health food store to get somethign for my legs.  They’re not recovering from the ride on Thursday.

UPDATE: put another 2 miles on to get ice cream for my sister since she was insistent (and I secretly liked any excuse to freaking use the new bike).