It has been a busy two days with training and work, so I’ve got to try and make this quick.

Wednesday

I had a 2 hour bike ride on tap for the day.  I did a ride out Grand Haven to meet Jennie at the end of the day.  It was a miserably windy ride with a 10 mph head wind the entire way.  Despite leaving only 30 minutes later than usual (3:00 instead of 2:30), drivers were much more rude.  I was honked at, yelled at, and flipped the bird for no apparent reason.  One driver pulled up next to me, and yelled nonsense out the window to startle me.  They pulled into a shopping center a quarter mile down the road.  I wanted so bad to follow them in, drag them out the car through their window, and stick my foot… Well, at least the anger gave me a temporary burst of energy.

I made it to Grand Haven with 5 minutes to spare and 17 new emails awaiting me on my phone.  That is what I get for leaving for 2 hours. 

Thursday

Thursday was a double workout day; 3:15 bike ride and 40 minute run on the schedule.  Again, very windy, but I was going in multiple directions so it wasn’t always a head wind.  I went all over Grand Rapids.  I headed out to Dutton, over to Kentwood for a stop at my Mom’s and then back to East Grand Rapids for loops around Reeds Lake.  At some point, I lost a water bottle out of my seat cage.  It’s odd that I lost one because I have a spare bottle that hold my tools in the second cage and it has never fallen out.

I ended up riding 58 miles, my longest ride ever.  It gave me plenty of time to diagnose some of the clicking noises my bike has been making.  I narrowed it down to the chain.  After some research, I found that a chain lasts on average 3,000km – 5,000km (1800mi – 3100mi).  I have 3300 miles on my bike.  Whoops!  So, I ordered a new chain and a new rear cassette because you are supposed to replace both at the same time as they usually wear at the same rate.  I also sprung for a bike repair toolkit.  I found three main options; the cheap one, the mid range one, and the dream.  I ended up going with the midrange one because it seemed like the best deal.  Also, I found the chain and cassette on the same site for a good price so I was able to do all of my shopping in one place and get free shipping.  I currently have Tiagra components which are a decent entry level setup.  I am taking a step up to the Shimano 105 series with the new parts.  Not a big difference, but it wasn’t much more to upgrade.

After the bike ride, I took a break for dinner.  We had grilled burgers and fries which helped refuel the tank.  After digesting for a bit, I got my 40 minute run in.  I ended up doing 5 miles in 38:37 (7:47 min/mile).  I was worried that taking the break between workouts would make it hard to get the run in, but I felt re-energized after dinner and it went better than expected.

Now it is time to get some work done and watch the Red Wings!

This is from my ride today to show how windy it was.  You can hear the wind and see the turbine at Calvin College churning out the kilowatts.

I really wanted to do a bike ride out to Grand Haven this afternoon.  The weather forecast had temperatures in the 50’s, wind out of the east, and only a 10% chance of rain (10% my ass – more on that later though).  Thankfully, I was able to do the ride, but not without a few obstacles. 

I headed out at 2:00.  The skies were slightly overcast, but precipitation free.  I was cruising along when I got stopped by a train on Wealthy street.  There is NEVER a train at this time – or at least there has never been a train at this time the other dozen times I have done this route.  I got there just as the train was starting through the intersection and it was a long train.  I sat for more than 5 minutes waiting for it pass. 

When the end was in sight, I put my helmet back on, clipped in and was ready to go when the gates went up.  I took off over the tracks only to have my water bottle fly out of the cage.  This has NEVER happened to me before.  Seeing a pattern yet?  So, there goes my water bottle skidding across the pavement.  I pull off into the first driveway and look back to find that I have managed to stop traffic once again.  Two cars (one in each direction), stopped for me so that I could retrieve the water bottle before it was flattened.  Whoever you two mystery people are, “Thank you very much!”  I am sure they were just as annoyed by the train and with traffic already backed up, they probably didn’t want to stop and hold up traffic any longer.  Question.  Do water bottle cages stretch out over time?  Once I got my water bottle back in, it seemed like they were looser than normal, but I may have just been paranoid at that point.

So, after the delay of the train and water bottle debacle, I was back on my way.  Or so I thought.  I proceeded to get stuck behind a pickup truck towing a car.  It was going so slow that I couldn’t get into a decent pace, but just fast enough that it probably would have been unsafe to try and pass it.  Finally, after a mile or so, I finally had open road.

I let loose on the O’Brien street hills, flying up the inclines with the energy I saved behind the slow moving traffic.  I thought I was in the clear.  Not so, I guess.

When I got to Wilson (the county border), I felt a couple rain drops.  I guess 10% was turning into 100%.  I figured that if I could make it to 40th avenue (another 5 miles) before the rain got any worse, I would be in the clear because after that it is all pretty much flat.  However, after only a mile, the rain started to pick up.  At that point, I felt my phone buzzing in back pocket. Crap.  I pulled off the road and checked it.  Work emergency.  Lovely.  Thankfully, I was able to get a hold of a co-worker who was able to advert the crisis for me.  By the time I had work all straightened out, the rain was picking up.  At this point, I was so pissed at my bad luck that I was determined to finish the ride.  No turning back now.

I got back on the road and started flying.  I threw my bike in the big gear and started mashing away.  After a couple miles, I looked down and realized that I had averaged 23-24 mph over 3 miles.  Yikes!  I realized that I had to pull back a bit not only so I didn’t burn out, but also because by that point it was pouring and the road was getting slick.  The next few miles were in the 19-20 mph range which was probably a bit safer for the conditions. 

While it was pouring, I looked down and noticed that my tights were foaming.  Interesting.  Backing up a bit.  This morning, I hand washed my tights and threw them in the dryer in preparation for the ride.  Apparently, I didn’t rinse them enough and now I was foaming.  Thankfully, it wasn’t too bad and with enough rain, they seemed to fully rinse out.

At last, nearly 20 miles into my ride, the rain started to let up and my luck started to improve.  I made it the rest of the way without incident – other than getting filthy dirty.  Green Lightening and I were completely covered from head to toe, front wheel, to back.  I gave up on drinking from my water bottle.  For some reason, this didn’t look very appetizing:

By the time I made it to Grand Haven, I was soaking wet and filthy.  When all was said and done, I had a pretty good ride.  My time spent riding was 1:44:35 although it was more like 2 hours including the time I had to stop for the 36.27 miles.  I averaged 20.8 mph over the ride, but had the wind at my back nearly the entire time which obviously helps a bit.

Jennie shot a couple pictures of me to capture the dirt. 

I should have grabbed a a picture of my backside too.  I had a skunk from seat to neck – it was impressive.  When I got home, I threw all my clothes in a bucket of soapy water.  However, I will be shocked if my bike jersey is ever white again.  If it does whiten up, I could do a commercial for our laundry detergent.  After showering, I had to hose off Green Lightening – again.  It seems like I am washing it after almost every ride these days.

Oh well, I survived and in the end had a good ride and experience I won’t forget.  All part of the training I guess!

In case you lost track, here is a summary of the events from the first half of my bike ride.

At least it sure felt like it today.  We had sunny blue skies all day long with temperatures creeping up into the upper 30’s.  I decided to take advantage of the great weather and did an outdoor bike ride; my first since December 2nd.  I had a relatively light work morning so I decided to take off early and head to Grand Haven to meet Jennie when she got out of work.

I knew going into the ride that the wind was out of the NW – the direction I was headed.  Nevertheless, I decided to stick to my plan and head into the wind.  I figured that it would be a good mental workout as well as a physical one. 

It was an absolutely brutal ride.  I’ve done it dozens of times before, but this was by far the hardest.  The first half is rolling hills with a couple of big climbs. The wind wasn’t too bad at this point because the roads were lined with trees and/or houses which helped block it.  However, the 2nd half of the route is through farmland where it is completely flat with nothing to block the wind.  There were times when it felt like I wasn’t even moving.  I almost wish that I had been doing an out and back, rather than stopping at Jennie’s work so that I could have taken advantage of the tail wind (like Lance and Chris did in Hawaii).  Oh well, I still wouldn’t have averaged 56kmph.

Despite the wind, I managed to stay fairly warm.  My feet, which are normally the first to get cold, stayed nice and toasty thanks to my Specialized neoprene shoe covers.  I also had on my bike shorts with tights over them, a long sleeve compression shirt with a bike jersey over it, a balaclava, and gloves.  My hands and forearms did get pretty cold near the end of the ride, but stayed warm much longer than I thought I would.

When I finished, I grabbed this screenshot from my iPhone of the weather conditions.  If it wasn’t for that damn wind, it would have been perfect weather.

My time and pace for the ride was horrible compared to my previous rides.  It took me 2:20:03 to go 36.24 miles (15.5 mph pace).  Compare this with the last time I rode this route in October when it only too 1:47:27 for a 20.2mph pace.  Like I said, the wind was brutal.

After the ride, I rode home with Jennie and we got Big Bob’s pizza for dinner; the perfect fuel after a long ride.  I decided to skip my 4 mile run today figuring that the ride more than made up for it.  Now, it is time to get a bit more work done before I fall asleep at my desk.

Today was one of those rides where nothing seemed to go right, but in the end it turned out to be a great ride.  I had a course all planned out in my head and it ended up changing twice during the ride due to unforeseen obstacles.  My initial plan was to ride southwest towards Holland and then north up to Grand Haven where I would meet my wife at the end of the day. 

So, I started off on the Kent Trail bike path hoping to take that as far as Jenison.  This would keep me off some of the busier sections of Chicago Dr.  Didn’t quite go as planned though.  As soon as I got south of Wilson, I hit mud.  You have to realize that #1 the bike bath runs along the Grand River and #2 October set a record for rainfall in month.  Yeah, not good.  After the first patch of mud, I thought I would be OK.  But it kept getting worse.  And worse.  And worse.  I ended up having to turn around before I ended up under water.  Once I got back to dry land, I inspected my bike.  I wish I would have taken a picture then, but I was so covered in mud, I didn’t want to take my phone out of my pocket.  My tires were so caked with mud, they were as wide as mountain bike tires.  I had gobs of leaves stuck in my brake calipers.  And did I mention the mud? 

I had brought a 3rd water bottle with me on this ride rather than just 2 because I knew it would be a longer ride (the 4th water bottle on the seat post rack has my tools, spare tire, and ID in it).  I decided that I would have to use that water bottle to clean out the calipers as best I could because there was so much mud between the pivots, I was worried it would affect my braking ability.  The water bottle didn’t get me very far though.  I still had lots of mud.  Thankfully (I guess), I was close enough to the boat launch that I could refill the bottle in the river and continue to clean out the brakes.  That water bottle is now going through the dish washer at least twice to clean off whatever filth I managed to pick up in the Grand River.

Miles 11 & 12 are where I ran into the mud.  Mile 19 was a horrendous winding hill that
climbed 150 feet in about a half mile.  I felt like I was going to tip over.

Finally, I was back on my way.  I had to back track about a mile to pick up Chicago Dr – the road I was trying to avoid in the first place.  It ended up not being too bad.  There was one hairy spot where two lanes of traffic were exiting the highway at the same time causing me to essentially end up in the middle of the road.  I managed to pull off on a side street and weave around there before popping out on a street called Cottonwood; one I had never been on.  I pulled out my phone at this point to see where I was.  I wasn’t as far south as I had wanted to be, but I knew this would get me where I wanted to be.  And beings as I had already lost some time messing with my bike, I knew I was going to have to cut the route a bit short. 

So, on I went.  Headed west finally.  Now, I knew going into this ride that there was going to be a wind from the WNW.  What I didn’t know was how strong it was going to be.  It was a steady 15mph or so wind the entire time.  And this is a horrible course for a WNW wind because you head about 22 miles WEST and then about 6 miles NORTH.  So, wind in your face the whole damn way.  I put this ride in the mental win category.  There were so many times I wanted to say screw it and turn around so that the wind would be at my back, but I knew that mentally I had to push forward.  Despite being a very flat road, the wind made it feel like an uphill battle the entire way.

After much effort, cursing, and worrying that I would run out of water with only two bottles left, I finally made it to the end point.  I ended up getting there a bit earlier than I had to and thought about tacking on a few more miles, but at that point, I was absolutely beat.

My bike post ride.  This is after I cleaned out the brake calipers and road another 30 or so miles.

With the bike loaded and Jennie out of work, we headed home.  I was starving at this point, so we stopped by McDonalds.  Normally, I avoid fast food like the plague, but I have been craving one of the 1/3 pound angus burgers ever since I had one on the way home from a ND game a month ago.  I gave into my craving and got one along with biggest Coke they had and some fries for Jennie.  It was sooooooo good.

Mmmmmm… post ride junk food.  Makes it all worth while.

In the end it was a 40.63 mile ride (I was hoping for closer to 50, but sometimes that odds are just stacked against you) in 2:31:29 for a 16.1mph pace.  I wish I would have had a power meter for this ride because it felt a LOT harder than some of my rides where I am pushing 20mph.

After I got home, I did my best to clean my bike.  Thanks to the time change last week, it now gets dark here at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  Ok, I exaggerate a bit, but suffice to say, it was dark by the time we got home.  I got out a bucket, turned on the flood lights, pulled out my trouble light and got to work.  Under the little bit of light I had, it looked clean, but I’ll have to check it out in the daylight tomorrow.

As planned, I was able to do my long bike ride today.  It was a 36 mile ride out to Grand Haven.  Usually an uneventful ride, I had a bit of an equipment malfunction along the way.  I was about 20 miles into the ride as I approached a red light.  As I slowed down, I twisted my right foot to unclip from my pedal.  Except my foot didn’t come free.  I tried again and realized it was stuck.  Thankfully, I was able to quickly unclip my left foot and avoid tipping over at a standstill in the middle of traffic.  That would have been embarrassing. Despite unclipping, I still almost tipped over because I am so used to balancing on my right foot at a stop; leaning left, instead of right, just seemed awkward.

After I got through the light, I pulled over to inspect my bike.  I found that the cleat on my right shoe was missing a bolt and the second bolt was loose.  I ended up taking a bolt from the left shoe so that my primary foot for stopping had both bolts.  I tightened everything down and was back on my way.  I still had 15 miles to go and was slightly worried about the left shoe only having the one bolt, but there was nothing I could about it at that time.

My equipment malfunction.  If you can’t tell, the top bolt is missing

I ended up making it to Grand Haven without further incident.  Once I got there, I loaded up my bike for the ride home with Jennifer.  As soon as we got home, I dropped off Jennifer and took the car into the repair shop for some scheduled work.  At the shop, I pulled my bike out and biked the 4 miles back home.

As for my shoes, I am hoping to find a replacement bolt at the hardware store so that I don’t have to order a whole new set of cleats.

Stats: 36.19 miles in 1:47:27 (20.2 mph)