Feb-20: Of Ships and Shoes and Breaking Away and. . .

1. I don't always ride as slow as I did today. Sometimes, but not always. More likely on a Sunday after a hard Saturday ride. I plead the remnants of my head cold. Evidence?

 2. Even after cleaning up, a look in the mirror reminded me of something a classmate's / teammate's mother said back when I was in sixth grade.

There was an organized basketball conference for the elementary country schools in Whiteside County. 7th & 8th graders made a team. 5th & 6th graders made a team. And if your school was as small as ours (~ 100 kids in 8 grades), the substitutes for the 5th & 6th grade team came from the 4th grade. And, you guessed it, the 6th graders (and maybe the 5th graders, too) made most of the "bench" for the 7th & 8th graders.

Anyway, one game, at our school, Bob Bolivar's mother said I looked like I had "been dragged through a knothole backwards". Yeah, I probably should have been at home in bed and not playing in the game.

That same sentiment probably applies to today's ride. I do note, however, that my "in-motion time" was only three minutes slower than the famous ( \:roll-eyes:\ ) Range Road Rover from Christmas Eve day, just two months ago.

 3. There was some snow remnants on the heavily-shaded ditches / banks of Range Rd. But not comparable to Dec-24-09.

 4. I have received word that there was an interesting / amusing incident on Robert's Chapel Rd amongst the short crew today. But no photos! :-(

Martin,

Thanks for the ride today as usual. We had an incident (thankfully humorous) on (I think) Roberts Chapel Road related to Tito's duct tape. The road was a long uphill. I was lagging behind. Smitty was back there with me for some reason. Tito started coming back to us. His gears had locked. He couldn't turn the crank. Then the chain threw. About this time, I was going by him and said I'll wait for you at the top. Then I looked back once I got to the top and he was lying in the middle of the road with Smitty standing over him. I said oh, no and rode back down. The others had not seen this and were waiting even further ahead where they couldn't see back down the hill. He had slowed and slowed until the bike stopped. Naturally, he couldn't get his duct tape foot out and the bike, unfortunately, was falling to that side. So down he goes. Then when Smitty and I were trying to get him remounted, having his foot attached to the bike made it where we couldn't get his butt back over the rear of the seat. But, we finally did. It was quite a scene. I figured you would want to include this in the log.

For myself, very tired today. I've been working out a lot. But, there is in shape and in riding shape. I wasn't in riding shape. I was way back on the hills. But, it was fun, good weather, and good fellowship.

IvaHawk
  
A photo would be pretty much like the photos of turtles caught in the middle of the road -- an animal unable to move quickly, needy of a samaritan to throw him off the road. luckily for me, there were many samaritans today, to purchase duct tape and re-attach my shoe, to pull me off the road, to help me stand up with a bike stuck to my foot. 
 
 Tito 

  
 
 5. Earlier, just as we were about to leave the stop in Butner, Tito walked over to me and said "my cleat came completely off my shoe."  I was dumb-founded; all I could think of was that I had not brought my mutli-tool, and even if I had, it wouldn't have been of any use because this was a situation WAY beyond part of Cheeta's pedal falling off and WAY, WAY beyond the Hawk's cleat becoming loose.

Luckily, Cheeta' had his wits about him, and suggested a "Breaking Away" type solution .  Ivan apparently purchased some duct tape, and Wave and Cheeta' and other(s) were soon at work.  Going with the theory that a photo can be worth a thousand words:

 6. Some good things about today's ride:

 - My head, chest, HANDS, and FEET were WARM all ride!
 - There was good conversation going around the crew today.
 - I didn't cough even once while in motion on the bike.
 - My expected coughing fit after the end of the ride did not materialize. There was just some tiny bit of coughing. I was having mixed feeling about finishing the ride: the "pain" from lack of energy would end, but I was mightily worried about the probable coughing fit.
 - JohnH slowed on Old Weaver and New Light and Ghoston, etc. so he could ocassionally look back and check on me. Thanks! He claimed that he knew he couldn't keep up with Lee at that point. I'm not sure I believe John on that portion of his story. (BobH and Norris took the long way home from Creedmoor; probably thinking that they'd get home sooner going longer than they would if they had to stop repeatedly to wait for me.)
 - I got in a 65 mile ride! Twelve straight months with at least one 100k ride each month. Wimpy compared to the rando guys, but, hey.

 7. After the ride, I learned that I became an Uncle again earlier today! More male Shipps in the world!

 8. I intend to start near-term future rides at 15 minutes before the hour, and avoid the crush. Of course, once we start riding starting from PUE @ 0600, the "crush" won't be a problem. Btw, I can't wait until we can start rides at 0600! Why, you ask? Because it will be W-A-R-M !!!

 9. Next week, the scheduled ride is the Bearpond-Bobbitt 70-miler. The Ruin Wall, aka, "Charlie Grissom Mountain", will make today's Range Wall seem as child's play. The nice thing about the Bearpond-Bobbitt route is that once one has scaled the Ruin Wall, the ride is flat and very gentle rollers. Even an injured guy on an injured bike , with only the 39/19 gearing available can ride the last 40 miles, spinning in that easy gear, at an average 16.0 mph.

10.  Today's suspects (13 total):

 - short course:  ~ 50 miles:  Snapper (aka, Cheeta'), Wave, Duke, Hawk, Smitty, Tito, Ivan, JohnA
 - long course: ~ 65 miles + to-and-from PUE distance:  BobH, Norris, LeeD, JohnH, me.
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Feb-20: 
 
PUE: Range Road Rover, w/ Little Mtn Rd; 65.0 m.; 4hrs, 21min; 14.9 mph.

Jan tot: _4 rides; 208.5 m.; 12 hrs, 54 min; 16.1 mph.
Feb tot: _2 rides; 115.2 m.; _7 hrs, 34 min; 15.3 mph.
YTD tot: _7 rides; 324.7 m.; 20 hrs, 28 min; 15.8 mph. 
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good ride today. my gps data...Smitty (color-coded Red to celebrate Wolfpack victory over Wake)
    Smitty's GPS data -- short crew, stranded turtle moment
  
As recorded on JohnH's Droid GPS app:
    JohnH Droid GPS data.  Be sure to click on "Irregulars (End)" on the left side.