When the bike mechanic suggested I wash down my bike after each ride in an effort to limit the damage of my ‘corrosive’ sweat, I asked about re-lubing.
“Bikes
are designed for water so maybe…once a week?”
Sounded
good to me, until I was about ten minutes into my ride and could hear squeaking
coming from the vicinity of the crank. I
was riding by Kim’s street and considered swinging past her house. With all the cyclists in that family, they
were sure to have chain lubricant. I
hate to stop, though, and I’d convinced myself it was getting better. Well…it wasn’t.
I
rode on thinking at one point that my chain was going to snap. I intentionally rode easier as I climbed just
for that reason. I’d taken my tires to
130 psi before starting the ride and had hoped it would make a difference in my
performance time, but now that I was backing off on climbs, that couldn’t
happen.
I
felt extremely strong as I rode, though, squeaking be damned. I powered slight rises and knew I was riding
well. I’d been riding consistently and
had taken a day off to kayak, so I wasn’t surprised. What did surprise me was pulling into the
driveway three minutes faster than I’d ever ridden the course before. I immediately washed off the bike…and
re-lubed the chain. My excessive
sweating seems to break down the lubricants and adding water to the mix means
lubing before every ride from now on.
Nilesh
had seen me earlier in the day and pronounced that he was ‘pretty sure’ my hip
pain was piriformis syndrome. He didn’t
completely rule out a bulging disc in my back, which would also lead to the
sciatica pain I’d been experiencing, and prescribed stretching and
strengthening exercises to deal with both.
He also has me taking one Aleve tablet with breakfast and dinner in an
effort to bring down the inflammation.
He said that if this doesn’t work, we’ll try a more aggressive steroidal
approach just before I leave on Tour Ohio.
Bike duration: Two hours and 2 minutes.
Training Heart
Rate: 120 bpm.Calories burned during workout: 1750.
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