Back on the bike...

Tuesday, July 26, 2011
I came home yesterday with every intention of doing something…what, I didn’t yet know…but something. I was thinking I should finally get my procrastinating butt on my bicycle and ride it up to Performance Bike’s and see if they had the part I needed to get my derailleur working so I could access all of my bike’s gears. I don’t now why I put these things off…maybe genetics…maybe just a gift…but I do and my training is suffering. I was preparing to ride up when I started to get a sharp and severe pain in my right ear. It had been happening off and on throughout the day, but now it was more persistent. I elected to take some Advil and lay down for a few minutes. The few minutes turned out to be an hour and suddenly I found that I was almost out of time to get to Performance. I quickly changed into my riding gear and rode the bike…it’s still rideable…to the store. I arrived there at just before seven…which, it turns out, is not when they close as I had thought. I walked the bike in the store and to the service counter and showed the problem to the tech.

“Nope…can’t help you. We don’t have those kinds of shifters anymore. You’ll have to go to a mom and pop store where they have older bikes,” he said. He made me feel like I’d brought him something from when the world was still black and white. “Seriously…you don’t work on any bikes like this? Its not THAT old,” I said. Of course he was thinking I was old…and so my bike was old…and neither of us realized it yet. Well…maybe my bike did. I asked him for a tool from his bench and went to work on it right there. In two minutes I had it fixed and ready to ride. He was kind of sheepish for not seeing the solution…of course I’d had it sitting in my garage for two weeks and hadn’t tried to fix it. Anyway, I asked him to pump up my tires since I was too old to read the pressure gauge on the pump…and I was off.

It was getting late and I knew Holly had chicken in the oven. I had told her I was going to the bike store…10 minutes away…and not that I was going to ride afterwards if they’d gotten it fixed. Okay…easily the sin of omission, but I continue to operate on the principle that it’s better to beg forgiveness than ask permission. At least I called and left a voicemail that I was going for a ‘short’ ride.

Since I was already at Golden Gate, I took the back roads to Old Mill Road and headed down at speeds approaching 50 mph. Not quite as fast as Wilson Mills…but not bad. I reached the bottom in Gates Mills to find the bridge across the Chagrin River closed…to cars…so I passed through the barricade to the other side and then up Old Mill Road to County Line. For not having ridden in a week, the climb seemed rather easy. I’m discovering again why the best climbers in bike racing are the little guys. Now that I’ve lost over 20 pounds, I kind of like climbing again. In my old triathloning days, I was always a good climber…helped by the fact that my body fat was 7 percent, no doubt.

I made it home in about 90 minutes to find Holly still working in the yard. She hadn’t missed me and the chicken was still baking. I’d covered again. I had a couple of thighs without the skins, some raw broccoli and a smoothie. A good Paleo dinner…a good ride…and I hadn’t gotten busted for riding too long…so…a pretty good night.

Bike workout: 80 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 130 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 1,200.