(Not the best written blog by me, but I am tired after writing 3 papers for school tonight. This will just have to do. The title though I decided about 20 miles into the ride yesterday though.)
Saturday morning was as crappy an October morning as I can remember. It was raining, and in the lower 40s as I drove the boys to the baby sitter, and we prepared for the Groovy Gourd. We knew that at least 50 people had signed up for the tour, and even with the weather, we decided to just ride to the starting line. (It was only a mile away...)
The final count for those who actually attempted the ride was 7. (But the shirts are freaking awesome!) Nobody who signed up to do the shortest ride did such, and a few of use went for each route.
The funny thing is as we got ready to start, we wheeled my bike into the dark hallway near the restrooms, just so the collected people could stare at the mystical glowing bike. It hadn't been in the light long, but it was enough to show off what it could do.
The first thing I learned was that riding a fixie for the first time as part of a bike tour in 45 degree weather while it is raining and still attempting the 25 mile route is really stupid. The first 3 miles were fine, the cold hurt and extremities were going numb, but I have had that happen when running before. The bike ate its way though the bumps on the bike path with ease, though it did remind me harshly that there is no coasting on a fixie. I took the hills with gusto, early on at least.
About a mile or so into the ride, we went through a short tunnel under a road, and that was enough for my bike to switch on the glow, for about 2 seconds, my bike was green, and then it was white again. It is always a treat to see the glow appear suddenly like that.
My wife was on her Schwinn Fastback, which did give her a fair bit of advantage. I also realized quickly that my seat needed to go up a bit higher, and the handlebars were a bit too low for me. (Another reason you don't do a 25 mile ride as your test ride.) Still, for the most part, I kept up with her, and usually got to the top of the hills before her. Glowie though, she gets mean. A fixie does not care that you are getting tired, your clothes soaked through from the rain. I wasn't wearing my heart rate monitor for that ride, but I know that my pulse was higher than normal for a ride.
Much of the route was along my normal training routes except for a section I was unfamiliar with. This section included some decent hills that I would have loved to hit in better circumstances. I rode up all of them, even though it left me drained at the top. Ruthie, however, ended up walking up one of the hills. (Remember, she as on a Sora equipped road bike, I was on a fixie with Mountain bike bars.)
We finally got to the only rest stop, about 20 miles into the ride, but don't hang out there long. Standing around while wet is not a good thing. We were feeling worse, and it showed.
It was fortunate that the stop was actually on one of my main training routes, and we decided to take a shortcut home. We got to one of the more interesting downhills, and I fought the bike to keep the speed unusually lower than normal, as my wife was hitting the downhill much slower than normal. We skipped the bike path enterence (She didn't trust the two downhills if we were to take that path back to the start, and we didn't want to go along the prescribed route to the finish. We took surface streets back downtown, put the bikes inside the city building, and tried to warm up. (We debated going strait home, but the furnace isn't fixed yet.)
We warmed up there a bit, and I rode home alone to retrieve the car. (Ruthie had a hair appointment that morning after the ride.) I didn't even bother with putting the rack onto my Vue, I just pulled off her bike's wheels, threw them in the back and put her frame in the back seat. We brought home 3 gourds, (it was the groovy gourd tour!) and I got to unload. My jeans were soaked, all my layers were saturated with water. I changed to my only spare pair of jeans, and put on the gourd tour shirt before heading up to see my oldest son's soccer game. This did not help anyone warm up, and after the game, we headed out to the mall for a snack. Where I ate and promptly fell asleep at the table in the food court.
I woke when my wife called to tell me that she would meed me at home, and once home, I slept for a few more hours. I don't know if it was the exhaustion of riding in the cold rain, being on the fixie, or all the shivering afterwards, but I felt like the exertion was worse than when I had done either of my half marathons.
After I slept, I threw Glowie onto the repair stand, and cleaned it off with baby wipes. (Seriously, I still buy wipes for that very reason.) I couldn't find any paper towels, so I had to skip relubing the chain. I did flip the stem upside down to add a little hight, raised the seat a bit more, and adjusted the brakes. (Front only. It is a fixie after all.) I then put the bike into the garage and reassembled my wife's Schwinn. I had to adjust her brakes a little, dried it off, and cleaned it up a bit. I will probably hit both with some lube in a few days, but they seem fit to go.
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