I ended up getting on the bike just afternoon for my last Century ride before IMLP. After this weekend it's a two week taper. After today's training, this past week I did 23.81 hours of training. I'm probably as ready as I can be, except it would be better if I was 5 lbs lighter. Oh well.
The ride was tough. I didn't fully bonk but I had a great ride for the first 3 hours, averaging about 30.7 kph and then started to fall apart a bit. I think it's my diet. At one point I was craving a Slurpee and went to about 3 or 4 gas stations in Waterdown before finally finding a place where I got a Slurpee, snickers bar and bag of peanuts.
It was warm out and I was sitting in the shade on the sidewalk at the side of the building. It was relaxing and a special moment. I felt like a kid again without a care in the world on a Saturday afternoon. As I sat I was in a Zen state and across the street I saw the strangest sight, a 70's couple. I thought I had time travelled and afterwards wasn't even sure if I saw what I saw.
Essentially I watched a guy who was probably in his late 40's who hadn't changed his look one bit from the 70's rock era. He had long hair that looked feather waved and brushed in the back. His clothing was completely 70's. There was also a girl who was the same age and looked the same way in high heel boots. Both of them looked much younger than their age. The came out of a time capsule. I had my camera and not until afterwards did I think I should have taken a picture of them. I was mesmerized watching them.
They were walking into a rental type multi-unit house that sat behind a used car dealership. I was as if they were young in the 70's and going into his house. The house was even a 70's era house. After it all unfolded I was in disbelief and didn't even know if I saw it or hallucinated it all. Then I saw proof. The car parked in the side parking lot had the licence plate Zappa 71. I knew exactly who's car that was. I later found out that in 1971 Frank Zappa recorded an awesome live album.
I got back on my bike and the last 90 minutes of my ride took forever and I was fading. I had to make another stop at a gas station to pick up some Coke and Gatorade. Then before I got home I got two flat tires. Thankfully I had two spares. I was considering not getting new rubber put on my bike for IMLP and now that choice is no longer a choice.
The only other problem I had on my ride was with my pedals. My shoes are coming off my new pedals easily. I keep popping out when I turn my torso to look over my shoulder or hit a big bump or pull up hard. Before I left on the ride today I looked at them to see if I could increase the tension and realized that I have the recreational version of speed plays. Not good. I called Wheels of Oakville and told them they gave me the wrong version. They were good about it and thought for sure they replaced them with what I had and was prepared to get the competition ones in and replace them with what they gave me.
Then I realized they did give me what I had. Somehow I had put recreational speed plays on last time. I've been through about 4 pairs and the original ones were the competition style. Somewhere along the line I picked up the wrong pair. Wheels called me back to tell me they would have the pedals in on Tuesday and I told them that I think they didn't do wrong, it was my fault. He felt good about that as they thought they got the same pedals and still insisted on taking my pedals back and getting me the competition ones. It was customer service above and beyond. I think in his mind he felt that they know I'm not a recreational cyclist and the should have recommended the big boy pedals regardless.
After the ride and a shower I had a couple beers, playing pinball every time I filled a new glass. For the first time since moving to Ontario 7 years ago we had some mosquito's bugging us on the deck. Just as we were going to go in the house the young neighbours, Jeff and Rebecca invited us over to their deck and we hung out having beers and cigars until 3:30 am.
On the home front we've been eating lots of potato chips and dip. Reid loves dip and I walked into the kitchen and he had 4 sour creme containers emptied into a bowl and was making onion dip. It's insane how much he makes.
I also had to pass up on the opportunity to get some lockers for free. On my ride I came across these lockers at the end of a driveway with a sign that said FREE. I wanted them. I've always wanted lockers and thought it would be great for storage of my triathlon stuff. Unfortunately I got vetoed from Alice and Alyssa. Reid was with me, he wanted them too.
Long Ride - 5:25:39 / 161.19 km / 29.7 avg km
4 comments:
Great job getting that ride done. Also, good on the bike shop, great customer service is key to my business (read: money) with shops.
Ugh, Reid cannot eat ALL of that dip can he? I almost threw up in my mouth a bit when I read that the pic was of dip haha.
Way to get this week done and under your belt man!
Dude, you get such good customers service because you pay them to fix every small thing that even Shilpa could fix. You pay them to change your tyres for goodness sake. I bet they love seeing you turn up and celebrate by closing early just as soon as the cash register stops ringing, your brakes have been adjusted and you're off the premises WhahahaWhahahahahaha.
M, thanks. Yup, he ate that much, amazing.
S, true. haha. Also, tyre's is spelt tires. haha
B
I tire of how you North Americans spell tyre.
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