So, a lot has happened since, well, my last entry. I don’t even remember what I was talking about or when I wrote last. I want to keep up a little better with this.
I have been very intricately keeping track of my nerdy stats for riding thru multiple websites now (Bike Journal, Map My Ride, Velo Routes, and as of tonight, The Daily Plate). Why do I do this? I’m still not sure. I think it’s a disease, maybe?
I have a year-long goal as well as a monthly goal. The year-long goal concerns my dependence on oil, fossil fuels, and my automobile. Currently, my precious lil Subaru wagon is sitting relatively dormant in the street. She has seen more attention and better days in the TLC department. I put just over 24,000-miles on her throughout the first year that I owned her and took amazingly detailed care over her. I bought it with 38-mi on the odometer and now it has just under 42,000. It’s an ‘06 and that’s a whole shit-ton of miles, I’m sorry.
On May 22, 2008, I set a goal that I wanted to be completely car-free for at least 90-days out of the remainder of the year. So far, it’s proving slightly difficult. I have been car-free for 29 days so far! I have just under six months left to accomplish my goal and I am almost 1/3 there. I don’t know if that’s good or bad… I have to average at least 10 car-free days every month… That seems do-able? I can’t believe I went from putting 2,000-miles per month in a bucket seat to spending just under 100-miles in that same seat last month! I don’t mean to toot my own horn but toot tooot beep beeeeeeeep.
Last month, I set a goal to cycle 300-miles. With 4 days left, I broke my left pedal out of the crank arm of the little silver Cannondale. It took all the threads with it and the LBS could not re-thread the beast. WTF. At that time, I was at 295.2mi…. I felt that I would not accomplish my goal. So close, yet so far. No bicycle… No means of cycling anywhere… I hopped in the trusty Subaru for a few miles of fossil fuel bliss. I had almost forgotten just how effortlessly a car glides over pavement. Sure, my bike does glide somewhat effortlessly sometimes, but, the majority of the time, I am sweating buckets and fighting my burning legs communicating screams to my brain.
The same day the pedal broke, I went to check out a bike I was really liking from a guy in NE Portland on Craigslist. It was a 2005 LeMond Poprad, white w/ blue decals, and I loved it. I bused from West Linn to Portland (where I attended a training session for Portland’s annual bike count volunteers) and then up to NE. I am new to the whole bus thing and, long story short, I ended up walking about 15 blocks to Tim’s place in the NE Alberta area. It was nice out and sunny so no complaints.
I test rode the bike and it was great. It felt very similar to the brand new 2008 Poprad I test rode at Bike Gallery a few months prior. The bike was in immaculate condition and had a few very nice aftermarket additions (Crank Bros eggbeater pedals, Mavic CXP22 wheels laced to Ultegra Hubs, & Conti Twister Cyclocross Tires).
The next day, after work, I drove up and bought the bike for a very reasonable price. Excited, I got home and adjusted everything to my liking. The bike was sooo purdy. I had splurged on some Sidi Zeta mountain shoes from REI (the morning of) to congratulate my bike find and I was tempted to ride then and there but it was 11pm and I had work the next morning so I went to sleep. I was so tired that I fell asleep on the couch with my shiny new bike leaning on the backside of the couch.
Sometime over the course of the night, I heard a crash and I immediately woke up… The silhouette of my family’s orange tabby was on the back of the couch and the bike was on the ground… For some weird, innate reason, my first reaction was to jump over the back of the couch in pursuit of some invisible being that may have been trying to take my pretty pearl white bike!
In the haste, I caught my left foot on the front chainring and blood rushed from my foot, quickly staining the floor. I, of course, was thinking “WTF just happened?” I felt my foot throbbing and the wet trickle of blood, hot yet cool. I hobbled to the bathroom, light headed, and tried to clean up while still being pretty much asleep. I wrapped the wound up with tired eyes and went back to bed.
In the morning, I awoke to a hurting foot, a blood-stained wrap, and a slightly bent chainring. Long story short, I wasn’t able to ride that day to work or back. I drove. I was angry at the universe for putting these obstacles in my way.
The next day, I didn’t ride to work in the morning, fearing I might harm the healing process of the two gashes and the big white bruise on the outside of my foot. It felt good after that shift so I drove home and threw on the new shoes and left the house on my new bike. My legs felt like they lost 25% of the muscle and power that I worked so hard to gain over the past month. The ride was the fastest ever but it was damn hard. I got to work for our bi-annual inventory with a sweat stained back and the sting of that same sweat in the corner of my eyes.
It’s a good sensation to go from a hardtail mountain bike to a cyclocross bike. The gearing is a little higher and the geometry is creating even more new biking leg muscles. I love it. The hills are harder and easier at the same time. I carry more speed but I can’t go much slower than 7mph without feeling like I do not have the strength to pedal. On my mtb, I found myself at 3.5-5mph on a daily basis going up some of the bigger hills home.
I’ve ridden the LeMond everyday since and I fall in love with it more and more everyday.
I’m interested to see the difference now that I will be riding the CX bike much more than the MTB…
More to come. I hope to reach 400-miles this month. That’s 13-miles per day on average… Last month, I averaged 10.7 miles/day. I hope to ride in the 9th Annual Blackberry bRamble down in Eugene on August 3 with the Greater Eugene Area Riders. I plan to ride in the 43-mile route which would be most mileage I’ve done in one sitting by far. I’ve ridding 39mi in a day but with lots of resting, errands, espresso, reading and socializing. I have not ridden more than 10miles in one sitting. I hope to work my way up to that almost half century, even with the July/August heat we’ve been enduring (once again, not complaining).
Wow, I’m very talkative today… Well, I guess it’s been awhile since I really let myself loose on this page. All is well and I am well. The LeMond has taken a spill each day except today and I hope to keep the streak of no falls going. I feel pretty used to my Sidi’s+clips and also I’m more used to the bike. Up next for the LeMond will be some commuting slick tires. Right now, it is rocking 700×32c Continental Twister cyclocross tires. They are great and knobby but I plan to run Specialized Armadillo 700×25c’s to lesson the rolling resistance, pick up some SKS P-35 fenders to keep me dry when PDX decides to turn back to PDX, and then a new seat as the Bontrager seat is trying to make me unable to have children (and I want a few lil me’s biking around one day!). After that, I hope to replace the aluminum front fork (can you say f*o*r*k* *SHUDDER* under hard hill braking) with something nicer (TBD) and a Chris King headset… That is probably a few paychecks or months off. We will see.
As for now, I’m loving the ride. My arms and legs are ever so slightly sore from the climbs and descents and my bruised/cut foot is healing. Pain is the name of the game, here, and I am loving it.
