A confusing wakeup and a fast morning ride

This Ride: 21.9 miles
Month: 437.4 miles
2011: 2,644.9 miles
Total since 1/1/2010: 8,764.6 miles

Day two of my vacation and I awoke disoriented. I had to ask what day it was. I don’t even know why I needed to know other than the fact that my schedule is absolutely crazy busy.

The ride on tap for the day was “Terrible Tuesday”.  It is generally a fast pace.  I had conflicting “tasks” all morning so I wasn’t sure how fast I was going to go.  Bryan was out for a recovery ride after his first 400k last Saturday.  Jim was out for only the second or third time this year.  This was my first real ride after the bike fitting yesterday.  I also wanted to ride fast.  Mix all that together and you have a very confused man on a bike.

There was no rain overnight.  There was a line of rain showers headed toward us, with an expected arrival time of around 7:00 am, so it looked like we would be dry.  This was also the warmest morning of the year so far, about 70-72 degrees.  Six met at the Rusty Bridge and Ben joined us along the way.  We had a reasonable pace for the first few miles, and it gradually accelerated.  I opted to ride with Jim and avoided the hill in Round Bay.  By then, Dan and Bryan were well off the pace, creating three distinct groups.  I slowed considerably to ride with Jim as he was struggling up the hills on Old County Road, and we were passed by the fast group before we got to the trail.  On the trail, I picked up speed and Jim is experienced enough to hang on to a wheel, so away we went, up to about 24 mph along the trail.  He later told me that his heart rate was above 160 while drafting.  Mine was there too, pushing against all that wind.  We eased it off some on the way back, at least until B&A Blvd where I again set the pace, this time with Jim and Bryan in tow.

It was a good fast ride.  It was in fact, my fastest ride on the 5:45 route this year with an average of 18 mph over the course of the ride.  (Count that toward increasing fitness or my bike being dialed in … or both.)  I was tired by the end of the ride, so I pulled up a few miles short and headed home.  I’ll try to get out again later today for either an easy ride or the Tuesday Pizza Ride, depending on what the weather looks like.

I am noticing my muscles working a little differently with the cockpit reconfiguration.  I’m working some parts of some muscles a little more, and some a little less.  I did have some mild numbness in my hands, but that could be due to the fact that in dialing in the bike, I asked that the seat nose be dropped one click.  I was concerned about numbness in my man bits when the seat was level since I felt more pressure than I like as we were making the adjustments.  I also notice two things when standing in the pedals.  First, that’s when I notice the handlebars being back a bit.  The balance is a bit different.  Second, when I go back to the seat from the standing position, I glide back more than I sit “down”.  Who would have thought that 1 cm would make that much difference that is is noticeable?  But then, I do have over 8,000 miles and hundreds of hours in one position on the bike, so muscle memory will be strong.  So far, I’m feeling good about the adjustments and am glad that I got it done at least a few days before the 200k.