Falling into place

Things are falling into place. I'm hurriedly preparing for Cycle Oregon which is in 3 weeks. I ship my bike out next Friday, so that needs to be in order and my legs need to mostly be in order in...1 week. lol.

So 3 weeks ago I bought a new saddle and have been trying to get used to it. My first 60 mile ride on it didn't go great. It was bearable, but at the end I felt like I had bruises on my bones. Then two days later I rode and still had major bruises. Today I felt much better and mostly forgot about saddle pain which is awesome! That means I didn't have any pain. Albeit I was climbing at times so I probably only spent about 70% of the 2 hr ride in my saddle, but I'll take that. Saddle, check.

New cassette! Kevin and all his preparedness convinced me to get a new cassette. So I bought a SRAM PG-1070 11-28. Compared to my 12-26 it felt really good, especially on these hills. Luckily my shifting and chain seemed OK with the new cassette. I didn't have time to make adjustments to the derailleurs but it felt just fine. I'll check chain length later. Cassette, shifting at 90%.

I still need to play with my seat height and cleat position. My right knee was hurting, so I moved the cleat back a few millimeters and that helped a lot. No pain now, but my knee doesn't always click back into the kneecap. I'm thinking that my seat a smidge too high or too low. Seat height, cleats, at 70% complete.
Shoulders are alright but towards the end of my 25 miler today I was starting to feel pain in the middle of shoulders. I had to consciously lift myself up and that helped, so I'm not sure if that was due to poor form or being too crunched on my bike. Stretch, reach, 50%.

I think one more good long ride and a few more short ones will definitely help me get my adjustments close to good enough. I was contemplating bike fit, but I think I'll be alright without it. The hills here have made me stronger and mentally ready for what lies ahead.

Strava. I finally joined Strava. After about 2 years riding without a computer I think I was ready to see how I have been doing. Mostly I wanted to understand how certain hills feel and compare them to the grade. This way I will also be mentally prepared for the climbs on Cycle Oregon. Note: 4% grades are fine. 6% is slow but doable. 8% not fun and slower. >10% sucks balls.

Now the question remains, how will I train after my bike gets shipped off? I'll have a whole two weeks without my baby. So two plans. Plan A: Finish building that beater bike and use that for training. Plan B: Lots of Yoga. I'm gonna try for plan A but really it might not happen cause this bike is bare bones. The plus to doing lots of yoga means that I will be more prepared for yoga teacher training which starts the weekend after my ride. But really I would like to have my beater bike up and running so I can use that to get to yoga class which is gonna be 4 miles away.

I love bikes.

Brazos Bend "Hike"

Today I went with Caitlin and Adam to visit Brazos Bend State Park. It was pretty nice. Great weather except for the 10 mph gusts. Saw plenty of gator and birds. Adam and Caitlin were pretty impressed by the gators we saw.


It was a 5 mile hike around two lakes, and admittedly, it was really flat and not challenging. Caitlin said it well, this is not a "hike" even though its a hiking trail; it's more of a walk. We walked around Brazos Bend. heh. It was a good change of pace from just running. I brought my awesome orange North Face hiking pack and stuck 6 lbs of Epsom salt in it for a little more of a work out, but since we weren't really going up an down, I don't think it made a big difference. Next time I'll do 15 lbs. haha.




The flat terrain of Houston has been worrying me since half the MS 150 is hills. I need more hill training, and it'll be hard finding it. I can get up to 16 mph on flats but getting through those hills in Bastrop are another beast altogether. I don't want to be falling on my new bike. Agh why are bikes so expensive?


And yes I know about spin class, but those are only good for flats too. Getting up out of your seat is nothing like actually going up a hill. It's like getting up on flats. grr. Stupid Houston...