Ride #113
Sunday, October 2nd
47 miles on the American River Bike Trail and in Folsom and Gold River and and and...
I had one taker for my "good idea" ride this morning. As last time, the ride makes a loop with a handy bail-out point at 22 miles. Which is where my companion bailed, leaving me to slog on to the turn around for the 47 mile ride.
No pics since I'm a lazy creature.
The annual Princess Promenade event was going on today. The trail was not closed, so I saw plenty of women and girls riding up and down the trail with various bits of girly princess-like attire. Mostly seemed to be sparkley crowns and pink tulle. Some women had bunches of tulle (netting like in tutus) stuffed in the back of their helmets like odd tailfeathers. Not my idea of fun. I did kind of like the grass skirt. Mostly because it was NOT PINK.
The other odd thing I saw was what my companion dubbed a "techno mohawk": a fellow who had strapped his small bike pump to the top of his helmet. Maybe Tech-mo-hawk?
And not odd, but Team Revolutions was out in force today. I have never seen so many of their jerseys out in one day. I wonder what their ride today was?
Oh, and I saw the unicyclist again. I was standing in the parking lot after my ride, trying to muster the mental and physical energy to shovel the trike into the car, when I noticed a couple trying to work out a path over the new bicycle interchange at the Hazel bridge. I stepped over and asked "Which side of the river do you want to be on" and the answer was "The other side" (not a chicken joke). So I was able to say "See that unicyclist? Follow him. See that regular bike? Don't follow him." Easy as pie.
I'm pretty beat today (came home and took a nap) and I think it was a mistake to change the seat configuration and then go on a long ride.
Normally (like, for the last 1500 miles) I have the seat tipped up as far as it will go (so I am sitting as upright as possible). I have a range of 33 to 42 degrees. Today I split the difference between the two extremes. I like it, but my legs were not ready for that much time in a new position. My achilles tendon on the left complained and my right knee complained about 38 miles in, so I hopped off and put the seat back to the usual position, then gingerly carried on to the end of the ride. I iced when I got home. Should be better tomorrow, but I might ice again.
I think the more reclined position effectively puts my feet farther away from the pedals, meaning I have to flex my ankles a bit more while pedaling. My left leg acts like it is shorter than my right (because of my hips) so that ankle has to flex more, and my right knee is the 'bad' knee. So I'm not surprised. Just grumpy.
My rear tire required a little tweaking after the flat of last ride. The valve stem was not straight from the rim. It was easy enough to deflate the tire (still on the bike, thank you) and scootch the tire and tube around until it was in the right place. It was refreshing to pump up a tire with a floor pump instead of a mini pump.
My shifting is quite noisy again, so it will be time to reapply my favorite lube, Boeshield T9. I'd better also check out the rear derailler and make sure it is all clean and tidy.
Foxy's in two weeks, I'll take some short rides between now and than and pamper my ankle and knee.
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