Wet, Wet, Wet

The weather forecast for today was scattered thunderstorms.  Can you already guess what happened???

The Weather Channel website said that the earliest it would storm was 5:45.  That gave me about an hour and 45 minutes.  I decided to just do a 20 mile ride; I would have more than enough time to do that.  Here is the play-by-play of the ride.

Mile 4 – I noticed dark clouds off in the distance, but I didn’t think much of it. 

Mile 6 – Those dark clouds started to look very stormy.  I thought perhaps they looked dark because of my sunglasses, but I was wrong.  I took off the glasses and the clouds still looked threatening. 

Mile 8 – The clouds had become ominous, so I changed my route and start riding back toward my apartment just in case.

 

Mile 10 – The dark clouds didn’t seem so bad.  I figured I was being paranoid earlier and I would probably end up back at my apartment under blue skies.  I considered heading back out again but decided against it.

Mile 15 (1.5 miles away from the apartment) – It started to sprinkle.  It was a nice, easy spring-sort of sprinkle.

Mile 15.5 (1 mile away) – I thought it would have been kind-of fun to get caught in a storm.

Mile 15.75 (¾ of a mile away) – Lightening started to steak across the sky and I took back my previous thought about it being fun to bike in a storm.

Mile 16 (½ a mile away) – Downpour.  Absolute Downpour. 

It’s hard to explain all the things that happened in the last few minutes of the ride, but I am very thankful that I had turned around when I did.  The rain was coming down in sheets so fast that the storm drains couldn’t keep up.  There was a good inch of standing water on the road; that is the first time I’ve had a wake while riding my bike.  The wind was gusting like crazy and blowing me around.  Half of my brain was telling me to go faster so that I could get inside, and the other half of my brain was telling me to slow down as I went speeding around corners through standing water.  The most painful part was the hail…at least it wasn’t very big.

I did make it back to my apartment in one piece.  I was able to actually pour the excess water out of my shoes; I couldn’t have gotten any wetter if I had jumped into a pool.  As I was drying myself and my bike off the thunder was so loud it actually shook the building.  The power flickered once and then came right back on.  The storm was powerful, but it seemed to be short.  By the time I had dried my bike off the worst part of the storm appeared to be over.  That’s why I left the screen door open while I jumped in the shower.  There is a good overhang above the screen door so the nice gentle rain that was falling wouldn’t get inside.  Of course that gentle rain turned into giant-angry raindrops driven by hammering winds.  I was wet, my bike is wet, and now my apartment is wet.  At least everything is equal J.

Not Pretty

It turns out biking is not always pretty.  Here are some examples…

Just a little rain can mean a whole lot of mud.  My shoes – and legs for that matter – are not normally speckled. 

Windy days can also lead to unappealing events.  Riding into the wind is hard work so I end up breathing through my mouth.  That is when the wind whips out what little saliva is left in my mouth and smears it across my face.  Gorgeous.

I’ve mentioned my biking gloves before with the built-in nose wiper.  At first I thought this was gross, but I have found that it is completely necessary.  My nose runs like a faucet while I’m biking.

I have seen a lot of snot rockets in the last few weeks as I have been riding with other people.  The snot rocket was first created by cross country runners and has since been adapted and implemented in almost every other sporting arena.  To perform a snot rocket you plug one nostril and then blow ridiculously hard causing a nasty mess of slime to go shooting out of your nose.  Gross.  A snot rocket that is executed correctly will leave you with clean hands, a clean face, a clear nose, and no nasty tissue.  I have yet to achieve a successful snot rocket.  

Saturday

Saturday’s ride was great fun.  I got in about 40 miles before meeting up at the park with the people from church.  Even though the weather was questionable (we did get sprinkled on a little) there was a great turn out – over 20 people!  I am continually blessed and encouraged by the awesome support of my church.  Some people were there on borrowed bikes, others were on bikes that had not been ridden in years, and there were even little guys getting towed along behind the bike. 

We did encounter some mechanical difficulties in the form of two flat tires, but we were able to find some creative solutions.  Fortunately, the flats were on two of the smallest bikes…meaning two of the smallest people.  After attempted to revive the tires the bikes were left behind to be picked up later with the car.  One of the other bikes had pegs on the back so Evan rode on the pegs with his Mom.  Emmalee got the royal treatment and got to sit on her Dad’s seat with her legs sticking out as he stood up and pedaled the entire way back.  I was very impressed by this!

The best part of the ride was our visit to Dairy Queen.  Ice Cream, Artic Chills, and Blizzards will make any outing a success. 

Big, Bigger, Biggest

Big News: I'm a "strong rider"

The cold weather is back again and it has been raining on and off all day.  I thought the weather would keep people away from the group CIBA ride today; I was partly right.  The weather kept the amateurs and slow-pokes away, but all the hard core bikers still showed up.  This was the best group I have ridden with so far.  Now let me clarify that last sentence.  I have ridden with very good bikers, but it has always been in small groups of two or four.  This was a big group of good riders.  I knew they were good because their jerseys boasted of their biking feats, like The Hilly Hundred in southern Indiana.  For the most part, I was able to keep up with them on the 26 mile ride, and one of them even said I was a strong rider (go me!).  They are a pretty fast group.  At one point tonight I got toward the front of the group and was feeling good spinning along at 20+ mph.  Then, out of nowhere, two of the guys went zooming past me like they were on rockets.  I think they must get all that speed from a turbo-boost button on their bikes; either that, or the fact that their legs are more freshly shaven than mineJ.

Bigger News: The invitation

Toward the end of the ride one of the guys invited me to ride with them tomorrow night.  The feeling I got from the group was that today was the easy ride, and tomorrow will be the real workout.  That makes me a little nervous, but I’m going to ride with them again.  I feel like a middle school student who just got invited to a high school party.  I think they’re going to kick my bicycling-butt, but I’m excited!

Biggest News: Solution found

I finally have an answer for the hair/helmet hindrance.  I’ve tried a lot of different strategies: ponytails, pigtails, bandanas, ect, but I’ve never been quite satisfied.  I find that I am jealous of the bald guys while riding because their helmets go on so smoothly and seem to fit so snuggly.  Today I found out that I can weave my ponytail between the helmet and the straps to get a much nicer fit.  I figured this out after the ride and was so excited I wore the helmet around the apartment for a while, but then I started to feel really silly so I have since removed the helmet.  I’ll have to wait until tomorrow…when I go riding with the big boys…to wear the helmet again.

Bike Like Bekah

Another fundraiser with some people from church.  Come out and join us; it will be a lot of fun!!!

Join us in support of Rebekah Deal and her upcoming adventure to ride her bike from San Diego to Seattle to raise awareness and funds in support of Blood:Water Missions.

Blood:Water Mission is to empower communities to work together against HIV/AIDS and water crises in Africa

www.bloodwatermission.com

We will be taking a 5 mile fun ride with Rebekah as she prepares for this journey. All funds raised through these efforts will go directly to support her efforts and Blood:Water Mission

Hummel Park – Plainfield

Meet in Softball Field Parking Lot

May 21st at 12 Noon

5$ Per Person / 10$ Per Family

Contact:

Don Chastain ddchasta@gmail.com (317)313-5587

Thank You

A big thank you to the people at Gear Up for tuning up my bike.  I rode 20 miles today like it was a piece of cake on my finely tuned clean-mean-machine.

Side Note: Biking and running use very different muscles.  Since my bike was in the shop yesterday I thought I would go for a run; no big deal.  However, I woke up this morning with some sore legs.  There is a ramp right outside my classroom and I’m sure I looked ridiculous as I waddled down it today.

One Month

One month from today I will arrive in San Diego, CA.  That’s just a little over 4 weeks; that’s just 30 days; that’s just 720 hours; that’s just 43,200 minutes; that’s just 2,592,000 seconds.  No more saying, “I’ll work out tomorrow.”  It’s go time.

I started a list a few months ago of things I have to accomplish before I leave.  I’ve crossed a few things off the list, but most of the time I look at it and think, “I’ll take care of that when the trip gets closer.”  That excuse isn’t going to work anymore; the trip is close.

I’m very excited for the trip.  I can hardly wait to meet my teammates and start this adventure with them.  In fact, on my way to work the last few days I found myself doing a little dance in the car because I could hardly contain my excitement. 

Sadly, all that excited energy turned into nervous energy this afternoon.  What if I can’t bike that far?  What if I can’t accomplish all those things that are on my list?  What if my teammates don’t like me?  What if all my flights get cancelled?  But don’t worry, as I am typing this I am already starting to forget my nerves and return to my exited state.  I think my emotions will go something like this over the next four weeks:  excited – nervous – super pumped – petrified – thrilled – scarred – delighted – anxious – elated – tense – and then back to excited again.  Maybe this is good training for the ups and downs of the mountains I will meet out there.

Padwan

Saturday’s forecast of rain in the late morning must have kept some people from joining the group ride, but three other riders and I dared the rain to find us.  Of course, the rain did find us about one mile into the 22 mile ride, but we were not discouraged.  In fact, we ended up adding more miles on at the end of the ride so that I finished the day with 44 miles.  

I was the most inexperienced rider there and that was actually a great thing because for the entire ride these three guys were teaching me all sorts of useful cycling information.  I am Luke Skywalker and they are my Obi-Wan Kenobi.  They taught me about some of the bike laws in Indiana, shifting, the formula between my gears and the distance I travel per revolution, staying hydrated and energized on long rides, and techniques for climbing hills.  My favorite hill technique was to look at the top of the hill and envision myself there, but if it’s a big hill it’s better to not look up.  I’ll probably use the“not look up” technique a lot this summer. 

On the ride I experienced my first biker vs. dog battle.  I’ve had dogs bark ferociously at me, but they have always been behind a fence.  There was one dog who chased me for a while, but he was didn’t sound too mean and he wasn’t very fast so I out ran him quickly.  But this dog was a battle.  The four of us were riding along a back country road and the guys knew that there was a dog at this house.  Even though the dog will chase you, he is always gated in.  We heard the dog coming and my adrenaline started pumping as the big German shepherd came running toward us and the gate that was left open.  I think the dog was just as surprised as we were that the gate was open because he came running through and didn’t even slow down before he ran straight into one of the guys.  Taking a direct hit from a 50+ pound dog added to the wet pavement, there wasn’t anything this guy could do other than fall gracefully.  Fortunately, the dog broke the fall of the bike and rider, so the only injury was a little road rash on his knee.  The dog was so confused by the whole ordeal he just stood and watched as he remounted his bike chain and we rode off. 

Overall it was a good ride, but this padwan still has much to learn.

Flat

My new skinny tires worked really well…until I got a flat.  The flat was not the tires fault, but I’ll get to that later.  This was my first ride with the skinny road tires and, to be completely honest, there wasn’t a huge difference; I wasn’t all of the sudden able to ride 30 miles an hours.  However, I was able to average 17 miles per hour on my 27 mile ride and that is a little faster than my usually average.  I think the tires gave me better coasting distance and a bit more speed on the downhills.

The tires were not the only factors that made me go faster today.  This is one of the first sunny days we’ve had in quite some time and I had been looking forward to my afternoon ride ever since second period when the sun started streaming through my classroom window.  I think the sunshine helped me go faster. 

When I was about four miles away from the end of my ride I noticed that my average speed was only a few tenths below 17 mp, so I challenged myself to see if I could get up to 17 mph by the end of the ride.  I kicked it into high gear and was pushing hard.  Then I hit a BIG bump.  This was not little crack in the pavement, this was more of a gap between the trail and bridge.  The bump rocked my bike pretty good.  It jumbled my computer sensor and even rang that silly bell that's on my bike.  I stopped quickly to realign my sensor and as soon as I started riding again I could tell that something was wrong.  My back tire was completely flat.

To fill my tires I use a small hand pump.  Before I left today I thought maybe I should invest in a bigger pump for my apartment so that I can fill the tires with more pressure.  At the time, it seemed unnecessary, but now I will definitely be purchasing a larger pump the next time I’m at the bike shop.  Even though I topped off my tires before I left today I think the back tire was still a bit squishy and that is why it split on me.

Fortunately, when my tire blew I was on the trails so I didn’t have to deal with car traffic, and the other great news was that I just so happened to put my extra inner tube in my back pocket as I was leaving today.  This was the first time I had ever carried an extra tube with me, and I’m glad I had it!  I was able to change everything in about 10 minutes.  I thought that was pretty good, but I’m sure I’ll get a lot faster this summer.

New Tires

 I put new skinny tires on my bike last night. This was actually on my to-do list for a few weeks ago, but it turns out that bike tires are sold in packages of ONE. Bikes have two wheels, so I logically thought that tires would be sold in pairs…chalk that up to the ever growing list of things I’ve learned about bikes. The second tire that I ordered arrived yesterday. Of course I was at work when the package was delivered, so I had to go to the post office to pick it up. I thought about driving to the post office, but then decided to ride my bike. It felt kind-of poetic riding my bike to pick up my new tire.

Before leaving I went through the logistics in my head. Do I need to take a bag to carry the tire home? No, it will fit in the back pocket of my jersey. Is there somewhere to put my bike while I’m inside? Yes, I’ll only be inside for two or three minutes, so I can just leave it unattended outside.

When I arrived at the post office I was met with the longest line I have ever seen at that office. Only one teller was working and there were plenty of people ahead of me with big awkward packages that needed to be shipped…so much for only being inside for a few minutes. I had a bit of separation anxiety while my bike was unsupervised outside, but it was just fine out there.

As I was standing in line I started to feel a little self-conscious as I looked around. Most of the other people were on their way home from work and wearing suits or cute summer outfits. I stuck out like a sore thumb sporting my padded spandex shorts and obnoxious yellow jersey. The truth is everyone else was probably jealous of me because they had to pay $4.25 per gallon to drive their cars to the post office. I was able to make it there without using any gas. It’s a good thing I decided to bike, and not drive, across the coast this summer.

Changing the tires actually went better than I thought it would. I had read some reviews that these particular tires were exceptionally tight and difficult to get on the rims without puncturing the inner tube. I was able to do it all by myself…and as far as I know I didn’t ruin the inner tube. I felt pretty cool and accomplished as I disassembled and remounted my tires. By the end I was covered with just the right amount of dirt and grease. Fortunately, I was able to keep the grease on my hands and sweatpants, and not on the carpet in my apartment.

When I got to this stage in the tire-changing process I got a little nervous that I would not be able to put all the piece back together again :)

Here is the difference between my new and old tires.

















I haven't had a chance to ride on the new tires yet, but I'll let you know how it goes.