Getting back on the bike after a 4+ year break…I thought I could easily commute to Avery Point and back. No big deal, only around 5 miles. Unfortunately I procrastinated until I had no choice. The car is in the shop for repairs and I have classes at 8am every morning and work after that. Gotta get there somehow, and ideally would like to avoid a rental car.
As luck would have it I got a stomach virus on Saturday night, spent all Sunday on the couch with a fever and unable to eat anything at all. Monday the fever was gone but I still couldn’t eat more than plain rice, miso soup and saltines. Bright guy that I am I decided Monday night that I couldn’t afford to miss any more classes or work and bike in Tuesday morning.
In the morning I saddled up my 20 year old Cannondale (sweet road bike — Campy grouppo, down-tube shifters, 700×20 racers on Mavic rims…Oh, that bike took me all over southern Germany…)
Great bike, but not as a commuter, especially when I haven’t been on the bike at all in 3 years and not much in the past 6. The frame is super light, but also extra stiff, every watt of energy into the pedals might go to the road, but every bump in the road also goes straight to your gluteous maximus. It doesn’t help that the seat on that bike is a 20 year old Sella Italia, ultra narrow, racing seat from when I was much younger and riding every day…
I headed out feeling okay and confident that I could get to Avery Point in well under 45 minutes, but I gave myself an hour and 15 minutes just to be extra-safe. I took the “back way” to avoid some of the steep rollers along the most direct route. Funny thing, living right on the coast, and following the coast to a destination right on the coast, one would think the ride would be pretty flat…NOT. Our house is at 6′ above sea level and Avery Point is at 6′ above sea level, but in the middle are a bunch of rolling hills. Some are short and steep, some long and steep enough and a couple that are long and steep.
By only about mile four I had a few of the hills past me but my energy was completely gone. Four lousy miles. The next mile, all up hill — at a ~8.5% grade, ok really it was a 6.5% grade average — took me almost 20 minutes to finish–longer than the previous four miles combined. I was devastated mentally and physically. Luckily it was virtually all downhill from there. Of course it wasn’t just 5 miles, but rather 9.4miles to Avery Point. So it took me far longer to get to school than I thought, and by the time I got there I was a wreck.
Looking on it though, I had only just recovered from being sick, Saturday and Sunday I had eaten nothing, Monday only 20-30 saltines, a bowl of white rice and a bowl of miso soup. I was fortunate to have finished at all. Especially for not having cycled at all in over three years and being 4 stones over my previous cycling weight of about 165-170lbs.
Wednesday I stayed home save for a ride out to the cycle shop. My sit bones were so sore from that 9 mile ride I could barely sit. Even sitting on the couch was a painful process, I have to do something about either my weight or that seat. Ideally both!
