Monday, September 01, 2008

Obstacles

Saturday was an epic day. I had neatly planned to start riding at 7:00 before it got hot and return home at 10:00 to ride with Cindy until 12:00. I got to bed early and was ready to ride at 6:50. Except, Dan wasn't. He'd decided to come and brought Tom along. This is the same Tom that made the first trip on the Trail of Tears, which almost ended in disaster but for a timely encounter with a fellow named Beau Hunter. By the time we got rolling, it was nearly eight. No big deal, we'd ride until 10:30, then I'd pick up Cindy at 11:00 and we'd ride until 1:00. I felt steady as we made our way up AF Canyon. Not fast, not slow, just steady. I was able to hold my heart rate low and my legs weren't aching. As we neared the Tibble Fork turn off, I stood up to stretch my legs a little when my right crank went floppy. It felt like my pedal was broken, but it wasn't moving. A first look seemed like my BB shell had delaminated. I coasted home to find the source of the problem. It turns out I'd sheared the outer lip of the BB cup off, which allowed the bearings to move freely with the shaft. No good. Fortunately, Cindy and I had a great ride. I love easy road rides with her. The route was virtually traffic free and the conversation was nice. We made our way up the back roads to Provo Canyon and up the river trail. Good times. That still left me with an 1:40 short of my goal, so I did 50 minutes on the trainer. I'd planned on doing the rest of it after my nephew's fairwell feast, but ended up with pre-form toxin food poisoning. (It's nice having a brother who also happens to be one of my best friends as a doctor.) That laid me up pretty well for the rest of the weekend. The combination of climbing and the indoor riding limited my mileage - 380 remaining.

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