Time to do some training

It's a bit damp here at the moment

With the women-folk on the roads west I am relatively responsibility free. The short list is water the cats, feed the garden, pick up the mail and clean up after myself . Something like that anyway. Work has wound down from a  month of hectic five 10 hr days and a 8 hr Saturday to nothing as of yesterday.  

Wednesday and Thursday I took the Spare and a bag of cycling clothes to work. Doing this avoided being in the same room as a couch at the end of a work day. Despite my strength I haven't been able to break free of the gravitational pull of the couch. I doesn't help having a beer in my hand either as it seems to intensify the pull of the couch. I also think the location of the TV enhances the phenomenon. 

With no reason to go home after work I headed to western Dan County for the group rides. the WNBR started at Mt Vernon and the Thursday Bombay Ride started in Mt Horeb. 

I took my time Wednesday night. On the climb out of town one of the alloy nipples on my front wheel let go. It wasn't cause for alarm as the 2 cross lacing of the Wheelsmith spokes and the Sun rim held together enough for the rim to still pass between the pads with the quick-release open.  I paused at the top to remove the spoke entirely and I tucked it under the leg band of my shorts. I kept the speed on the descents to under 30 mph with the thinking that if the rest of the nipples failed I wouldn't get too badly hurt crashing at that speed. I still rode the flats and climbs as hard as I could. This reduced my pace to slightly faster than the group of Dave Mitchell and his crew. Until I saw a tandem on the climb up Cty A. I pinned it and by the top I had caught them. It was Mike and Kay on a very nice Co-Motion and they were cruising the false flat at 18 mph. We took turns until the first descent and they left me in a vapor trail as I rode my rear brake at 28-ish mph. I would catch them by the top of the climbs but we would yo-yo like this until the latter steep climbs. They finished the ride a little behind me but not by much. 

I forgot to scale the overview back before clipping the route, but you get the idea from the profile it was more of the same for 2 hours. I was slowed by Belt Line traffic so I arrived as the group was leaving. I ignored the cue sheet and rode my own route.  The XTR hub wheel from Donna was on the front of the Spare so I could descend as fast as I wanted. I have no idea how fast that was as I need another Avocet ring magnet. It was a good ride and for a moment I thought I could be in South Dakota. On the climb up Barton Road there's a farm with goats, sheep and quite a few llamas (I like llamas). As I passed the last of the llamas I was mildly stunned to see a bison grazing. Without my camera I have no proof but I can remedy that once the battery is recharged.


Yesterday I put gears on the Flyte in preparation for the WEMS event in La Crosse. I intended to do the 6 hour race. Unfortunately this morning I awoke to the heavy rain you can see at the top of the page. The La Crosse Velo Club updated the site to warn me not to make the drive as the race is cancelled.

I think everyone else is way up north. Today is the O2S so I think TmonT, Russell and Cupcake and others are there. I hope it's dry for them.