I was somewhat surprised to find that he trike was shipped fully assembled, which means Terratrike not only did the extra work, but paid for a more expensive delivery.  I don’t have a picture of it, but the carton it was shipped in had “Congrats, James!” penned on the top with a permanent marker.  That was a really nice touch.

Today, I took a few pics of me modeling my Cruiser.

I don’t have any further details yet, but I’ll post them as I know!  I’m so excited I can hardly contain myself!!!!

Fortunately, I had the Winding Trails Triathlon later that day, and I did alright!  The tri included a 4.99 mile off-road bike trail.  Fun!  My road biking paid off in a 3.75 minute gain in mountain biking time, which accounted for most of my performance increase from last year.  I swam a little slower, but I ran faster, beating last year’s time by a minute.

Well, yesterday was the last day of the Terratrike 2010 Car-Free Challenge.  I’ve got my fingers crossed.  I don’t know if they have a winner yet.  I’ll post later if I won.

I don’t plan to continue blogging about my rides unless something significant happens, but I shall continue to log my rides on bikejournal.com.

I’m too lazy to copy and paste the stats today.  My ride to work was 9.6 miles (I think), and it was easy and fast!  Nothing much to talk about there.  I’m continuing to work on spinning more and transferring more energy into a full turn of the crank and I’m seeing the benefits in time and speed and reduced fatigue.

Ride 2

I had to go to an off-campus meeting only 4.1 miles away.  Getting there was a little tricky due to construction and it just being a non-bike-friendly road, I I beat the traffic.  I used a truck as my marker and I got there before the truck.  I cheated a little and treated myself like a pedestrian a few times.

Ride 3

Coming back from my meeting was not as easy as getting there.  Rt. 6 in Bristol really sucks.  I got hit by my first car, in fact!  But don’t worry, it was more like a rub than a hit.  I didn’t even fall over or anything.  Someone didn’t see me and took a right into a business, forcing me to kind of bounce off their car.  I thought I executed the move pretty slickly.  They didn’t even realize that it had happened.  I pulled up to them to see if they wanted to exchange info or anything, but the girl said if I was OK, then no need to exchange info.  So we went on our way.

Exciting!  It was a nice beamer too.

Distance: 22.90 miles
Time: 01:09:00
Terrain: Road: Rolling
Bike: Specialized Allez Road
Club: 2010 TerraTrike Car-Free Challenge
Weather Conditions: 61F, cool, overcast. Chipmunk index of 3.

Morning Ride

The first chipmunk I saw was running about 20mph across rt 179, just after the Ocean State Job Lot in Canton.  He avoided a truck going one way, a car going the other, and me.  I cheered him on.  I found out from my pals at bikejournal.com that I’m not the only one who talks to the animals a lot when they’re riding.

I told myself as I was leaving the house that I was going to try to keep a mild pace.  It was almost a 23 mile run, and I didn’t want to overdo it.  Well, I overdid it.  My average speed was 19.91 mph.  I hope I’m not stupid on my ride home.  I really should chill out and have a nice long recovery ride.

I’m starting to look at cross bikes … maybe I shouldn’t be.  The one I want is made by Pinarello.  The dude at Benidorm Bikes in Canton says I just asked him for an Aston Martin.  It turns out that maybe I should be looking for a new mountain bike for the type of riding I want to do.  Damn.  I really had my sights set.  Wouldn’t you?

Evening Stats

Distance: 22.90 miles
Time: 01:30:00
Terrain: Road: Rolling
Bike: Specialized Allez Road
Club: 2010 TerraTrike Car-Free Challenge
Weather Conditions: 66F, partly sunny, nice sunset. Chipmunk index of 0.

Evening Ride

Tonight’s ride was long and beautiful.  I took my own advices and kept the pace comfortable.  I even took a minute to stop at the Canton Creamery and have some delicious, home-made ice cream – tahitian coconut with chocolate chips and cinnamon – and I ate it while I was riding.  I marveled at the irony of burning calories and eating a bunch more.

I have to go feed the cats.  They’re bugging my wife.

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 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.

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.