Eclectic Echoes

Today while we watched the Deutschland Tour this morning on Cycling TV, Johann helped me put new cleats on my Sidi Dominator’s (by far, the best mountain/spd shoe I have ever used!) and switch out the pedals on the bike from the Shimano SPD-R’s — which I loathe — to some straight SPD’s until I can get some Coffee Covers for my Speedplay’s.

Finally after a lite lunch I headed out for a short day at work. Really I only had to get a package packed and labeled for UPS pickup tomorrow. Unfortunately somehow time had escaped and it was now 1pm. As I stepped outside the temperature was in the triple digits and the humidity was at 90%. It felt like a sweltering hot Montgomery Alabama summer, not Mystic Connecticut.

Armed with 2 liters of water on my back and two weak energy drink bottles on the bike, I headed out of Mystic and straight into a 10–12 mph headwind! Off the big ring…and start spinning. I thought really hard about taking the cross country shortcut between Groton Long Point and Bluff Point, but it is a rocky path with lots of sharp gravel sections…

After two and a half hours at work, I refilled the camel back and bottles and headed home. About a third of the way home though I caught a piece of glass in the front tire, a tiny sliver really, but sure enough straight into the tube. As I rolled to a stop I heard the rear tire start to hiss. Sure enough… Double flatted. Damned glass shards…that’s three flats by them in two weeks.

Unfortunately I was only prepared to fix one tube at best, so I ended up borrowing a cell phone to call Tammy. She and Johann picked me up and we went straight to Mystic Cycle Center for a pair of Armadillo tires, more tubes, and two new patch kits.

While it might have all the makings for a miserable ride today…commute only, too hot, head wind, double flatting, that hill. Actually it was the single best ride since getting back on the bike. Sure I was miserably hot and sucking down water constantly, but I was spinning much smoother and I could feel the smoother spin in my climbing and riding into the headwind. It just felt better today than it has since Idaho. My form is coming back…now to get my weight all the way back down.