An Easy Start to the Week

It is very dark now when the alarm rings.  It is still dark when I push off away from home.  I’ve added a reflective band around my waist to increase my visibility for the first half hour of the ride.  Slowly but surely the sun rises a little later each morning now.  Sooner than we hope, the entire ride will be in the dark.

I pulled out the fixie again this morning (I rode her on Friday to breakfast) but noticed that the front wheel was binding up a bit.  It started as I tried to re-tighten the axle nuts to stop a noise.  As I tightened the nuts, the wheel didn’t spin freely.  It was not hitting the brakes.  I backed the nuts off as much as I dared so as to not lose the wheel and pushed through the added resistance all morning.  I’ll have to get the wheel into the shop.  Meanwhile, maybe a wheel from another bike is the ticket.

This morning’s ride was at an easy pace.  There were 3 of us on fixies.  I had a top speed of 34.5 mph on Friday and added to that today, reaching 34.9 mph.  That may not seem like much to some, but remember this is a fixie and that speed means my legs were spinning at a high rate.  In fact, the calculators say 155 rpm for that speed.  I am pleased to say it was smooth as silk, even though it made my heart rate climb into the red zone.  I needed something to wake me up this morning.

This Ride: 22.5 miles
Malaria Campaign: 1197.7 miles
Funds Pledged: $598.85
Contributed in support: $1,487.60

Total = $2,086.45