No personal records for me today

After reading about personal record setting rides over at 331 Miles and Mike’s Bike Blog I had high hopes of a great ride today. Sadly, it didn’t work out that way.

I arrived at the Tennis Center just north of White Rock Lake to park and get ready to ride. I had no plan today but decided on doing some hill repeats for a change. While getting ready I noticed that I had forgotten my computer. A couple of rides ago it was my water bottles and this ride it’s my computer. Not a good way to start.

I roll out and immediately start hearing the weird noise again. When I get back from Jacksonville I’m going to have to take my whole bike in and have the shop listen to it. My rear spokes seem a little loose which makes me think that’s the sound I’m hearing but I just had the rim trued two weeks ago.

As I’m rolling down the trail heading to Flagpole Hill I ride through a large swam of gnats. I had’em in my eyes, nose, mouth, everywhere. That’s when I realized I forgot my sunglasses. I left them in the car. Dang! That’s two things I’ve forgotten and I’m starting to get upset.

: Image by orangebrompton via Flickr

I made it to the bottom of flagpole hill where there’s a four-way stop intersection. I wait for a couple of cars to go and a car pulls up behind me. I push down with my left foot (which is clipped in) to take off and instead of rolling forward my bike comes to a complete stop and my weight is totally on my left side. In about two seconds I fall over right in front of the car. Unbelievable. I was so pissed. The guy in the car is looking at me like I’m an idiot (which may be true) and it takes everything to not toss my bike into the ditch. That would have been bad though so I didn’t. It’s the only bike I’ve got.

I re-start and head up Flagpole Hill. I never saw a flagpole so I have no idea why it’s called that. For someone of my pitiful abilities I thought it was a pretty good hill. It left me gasping pretty good by the time I got to the top. I took some side streets back down to the bottom to give myself a chance to recover.

Second time up I’m about half-way to the top and my right foot comes flying out of the clip. It totally kills my momentum and I struggle all the way to the top. I ride around and try it again.

Third time up an idiot in a truck thinks it’s cool to pull up next to me and gun his truck as he flies past me up the hill. I don’t know what the speed limit is but he was way over it.

Fourth time up my right shoe pops out again. That’s it. I’m buying new clips the day I get back from Jacksonville.

Fifth time up and I basically have to crawl to the top. I’m spent.

As you can see, today’s ride pretty much sucked. I’m glad I did it though because I need the time in the saddle and need work on the hills. At some point I’ll actually keep track of the time to get to the top and see if I can start setting some PRs. I’m guessing that for folks that are in shape the climb to the top shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes.

jaxgtr

Any day riding is better than being inside an office building.

Just look at gnats as additional protein.

http://bikingtolive.com Bryan

That so true. I'd much rather suffer out on the bike than sit in my cube. Protein…interesting.

Cliff

Five times up Flagpole hill is more than I have ever done. that would be a personal record for me.

Usually I am so wasted by the time I get to the top I can't remember where the flagpole is either.

http://bikingtolive.com Bryan

Thanks Cliff. Believe me, I was wasted each and every time I got up there too. I was basically crawling through the top section. I did have a lady give me encouragement from her yard telling me to push. I managed a smile for her.

jaxgtr

That's funny. I remember once I was really struggling to get up the Acosta from the Riverside approach and an older black lady was just coming up over the top, she was about 50 ft in front of me and said, "You can do it honey, just keep those legs a-movin', now get you behind up here, come on, stroke, stroke, stroke". I started laughing so hard, I almost fell over. Once I got up to the top, she told me good job and to have a blessed day. I see her every now an again and once at the bottom at a light. I stopped and talked to her and reminded her and she laughed an told me that is was pretty much an everyday occurrence for her to encourage the cyclist up the bridge.

Bryan

Great story Brian. Most cyclists, I think, are that way. They encourage others when they need it. There are those that would rather kick you over as they go by but thankfully those are few and far between.

http://mildstallion.wordpress.com Al

"today’s ride pretty much sucked" – eye of the beholder, my friend. 5 hill repeats of a tough climb? That's going to make you stronger and fitter. Like jaxgtr said, any day riding is a good one. I had two rides outside and the weather will put me back on the trainer for this whole week. Gaa!

http://bikingtolive.com Bryan

Al, you are right. I was still pretty ticked off about everything that went wrong when I wrote this but doing those hill repeats will make me stronger and fitter. I need that pain right now. My plan is to do them every Wednesday since that's hump day.

http://www.gojoeylogano.com Joey Logano Fan

Don't mind me…. but I am going back to the beginning of the blog archive and going to start reading every now and then, and trying to leave a comment here and there when I can =D

A guy gunning his engine next to you… that's not cool at all
Cliff

Five times up Flagpole hill is more than I have ever done. that would be a personal record for me.

Usually I am so wasted by the time I get to the top I can't remember where the flagpole is either.