Sophia, Sunshine, and Cycling Gods

Well, today was the first time I took out Sophia, my Cervelo, since November. Since then, I totally torn down the bike and rebuilt it. Let's just say that I didn't put it back together quite right. The front derailleur wants to shift down to the little chain ring all the time. When I'm in my aerobars I pretty much have to keep my hand on the bar end shifter because it wants to slowly drop down. Also, I can't pull the shifter up all the way either. And my handlebars aren't on straight. And I did a very shitty job on my handlebar tape. Other than that, the bike is fine. The rear derailleur works like a champ.

The weather in Austin has been awesome lately. Actually, it's a little warm because it jumped from high in the 50's to high in the 80's. It almost completely skipped oven the 70's which is perfect riding weather. Either way, it was sunny out and I went on another 30 mile lunch ride today. IT was great being back on Sophia and getting in the aerobars and just going hard and fast. I used to think that I was faster on my road bike, but I felt much stronger today on the Cervelo. It was windy as hell and the bike was squirrely from the crooked handle bars, it being a tri bike which isn't fun in a crosswind, and I'm not used to steering in aerobars. I kept getting blown all over the place which made the ride interesting especially when big garbage trucks buzzed me. I just did the 30 miles at a hard pace and I noticed that even when I was going strong, my heart rate wouldn't get as high as it would on my road bike but I was going much faster. This is good.

I did have one problem. I got a piece of glass in my tire and had a flat. I changed the tube and got out my CO2 to fill it up. It was empty. OK, I'll just get my spare cartridge. It was empty as well. Wow, I'm such a dumbass. Well, I'll just call some people at work and try to get a ride back to work. It wouldn't be that big of a deal since it was beautiful outside and relatively close to work. Eh, it was still a good day since I got out for at least 45 minutes. I started calling people and about the 5th unanswered phone call, I saw another cyclist coming down the road. I waived him down and told him my situation. He hand a hand pump and after about 4 minutes of pumping, I was back on my way. Then, as I was about to get back on my bike, another cyclist rode by as well. The cycling gods wanted me to ride today and I sacrificed a package of chocolate covered donuts in their honor after I got back with the ride.

Overall, I had a great ride today. Unfortunately, I was at work at 5:30 this morning and didn't leave until 8:30 tonight so I didn't get in a run. I'm about to hit the sack now and get up for a swim tomorrow.

Man, it was just a great day to be alive and ride and I'm very happy about that.