Missed it by "that" much

Migraines haven't been my friend in the past few weeks.  Ended up in bed with the lights out until  3PM yesterday afternoon. So today, I made up some miles riding on my own in Rock Creek Park.  Could find anyone who wanted to ride - the forecast said afternoon rain and the thermometer said 43 degrees so people were understandably not inspired.  The bike felt amazing last week, except for my clipless pedals.  The left one kept unclipping, which was unsettling when it happened, and inefficient.  I'd had them for over 10 years so they certainly didn't owe me anything.  So off to my friends at Conte's bike shop in Bethesda where I bought my bike a few weeks ago.  They had me bring in my bike, put me on a trainer and set up my new clipless pedals and made sure they worked OK.  Awesome service.  A lot of folks I know ride with Speedplay so that's what I decided to get.  As you can see from the link, both sides of the pedal are the same so they're easy to get into, which is similar to the pedals I was using before.  

While I was at Conte's, they adjusted cables and tightened up my saddle.  What I didn't realize, was that it had shifted out of position and when they tightened the screws, it wasn't in the right spot.  About halfway through my ride, I put it all together (I'm a sharp cookie today) and adjusted the seat forward.  Turns out there are two screws holding the saddle in place, and tightening one wasn't enough (ahem) so ended up stopping three times until I finally got it where it felt right.  Frustrating: the seat was about an inch and a half too far back, which doesn't sound like a lot, but it throws everything off. Too far from the bars so too stretched out, a little too far from the pedals, not sitting on the right part of the saddle (yep, owie) and the most frustrating, significantly decreased power from using more hamstrings and glutes and not enough quads.  Anyhoo - I got it just about right just in time for the rain to start gently falling.  About 5 miles from the car so I went like a bat out of heck.  A crippled, child bat, but I booked it back down the park.  


43 degrees when I left the car, 49 when I got back.  Last week it was over 70 which I liked better.  Neoprene booties over my shoes, earband to keep my ears warm, full finger gloves.  I was warm but I'm looking forward to better weather.


Not a fast ride today.  A week off the bike, some travel, and yesterday's migraine were not the ideal training week.  Mostly I watched guys pass me, but I did pass a couple of people.  They were retirees, but I smoked them good :)  It was great to be out, I'm totally glad I went, plus I burned 1200 calories, not too shabby.  Took a self portrait with my iphone so you could enjoy the visual too.


Fundraising is going really well, 78% of the way towards my goal of $4300.  I cant thank all of you enough for helping me get there!


Well, I'm off to the showers, and the kitchen...


Go Team.

Honored Teammate Picnic

What an incredible event.  So moving, so inspiring.  Makes my troubles seem very small.  As if I needed reminding that what we're doing with Team in Training is so important, I was deeply moved.  The picture on the left is a woman who has been fighting cancer for 10 years, she thanked her husband...The one on the right is an 11 year old Leukemia survivor and her mom who spoke through her tears...Go Team.

Time for some new wheels

Well, I've been thinking about it for some time, but today I did it.  I went in to see if I could be better fit on my old bike and decided that it made more sense to start over fresh.  I think the frame I've been riding is about 20 years old, and they tell me that technology has changed since then ;)  She's a Cervelo R3, I test rode a bunch of bikes and she was the one that made me want to stay on her and keep riding, despite the 25 miles we rode this morning, and the 5K I'm running tomorrow!  The coolest thing I found out after I had picked her out?  She's Canadian, like me!  Go Team!