Fifty-one weeks ago, the day after the April Morrisville 200 km Brevet, I figured I'd do an easy "spin-out-the-legs" 30-miler. Instead, I serendipitously ended up doing something else.
Some of the back-story behind that year-ago ride / post ended up in the editor's waste-basket ... a sort of "leave some things from the ride on the road, don't put them in the blog" kind of thing. A question I'm asking myself is whether it would be safe ... now ... to pick those items out of the waste-basket. Hmmn.So ... this year I had excellent legs upon completing the brevet, and all night long, and excellent legs when I went to have some fun on the bike, and I made no on-the-road serendipitous encounters that changed my plan. [This now concludes the comparison of last year and this year that was a main theme of my 200 km brevet post.]
Here is a safe piece from the waste-basket: I was quite tired after the 200 brevet a year ago ... I had no legs for helping anyone ... let alone someone as fast on the bike as Lynn (who was training for the PacTour Elite Tour).
Not as safe: (1) Lynn had ridden the 200k the day before really hard because: (a) she needed to ride hard, and (b) she was expecting some quality help for at least some of her scheduled 170-mile training ride the next day. (2) However, her expected quality help had ridden the 200k hard enough that he didn't think he would be of much help to Lynn, or perhaps his legs were begging for a shorter, easier ride ... i.e., a recovery ride.
And ... one or two pieces stay in the waste-basket.
I did, however, get passed by two young female cyclists / triathletes while I was southwest-bound on Carpenter Pond Rd. I asked if it was okay if I latched onto their wheels, and upon getting a "sure, but we're taking it easy" and they wondered aloud about slowing me down, I latched on and explained that I too was doing "easy" since I had done 125-miles the day before. Gosh, it was nice to have someone else block the wind.
I was headed southeastward on Kemp Rd when I decided that my chain and cassette and chain rings needed a good cleaning. Not having a "work-station" or other decent alternative to hold the bike up-off-the-ground, I knew I'd be in for a serious session of bending over. So ... I stopped and called a particular bike-shop owner / mechanic to find out if he was going into his shop on Sunday, and if so, could I use one of his work-stations to make cleaning my drive system easier. Gary usually avoids his shop on Sunday, but he had a customer that was coming by to transact some business, so he gave me the go-ahead to come by ... but he was still riding and it would be awhile before he got to his shop.
That was more than okay by me; I wanted to stop by the Bayleaf Fire Station and find out from LT how the 100-miler Irregular crew ride had gone the previous day. (That story has been covered elsewhere.) LT and his crew, and a Captain (but not Capt. Tom) were doing a training exercise on the side of the fire station -- when I sauntered around the corner, the Fire Capt. asked if he could help me -- I said "oh, I'm just here to harass Lt. Dave; didn't mean to interrupt." The Captain responded "it is always good to harass Lt. Dave."
So Dave and I chatted about our respective rides the day before while the Captain continued to supervise a ladder-raising exercise. After several minutes, maybe more than several, I bid adieu and headed for Gary's.
I got to Gary's shop before he did ... so I waited in the warm sunshine (and mostly out of the wind). After Gary arrived and he brought some stuff from his van into the shop, and I had brought my bike in ... Gary looked at my drive-system and gave me a disparaging look, shaking his head at the state I'd let things get into. Gosh, it had only been two weeks since Gary had last seen my bike, albeit on the road during a ride ... and I'd only ridden about 400-miles since then ... in completely dry conditions.
The upshot was that I got a couple excellent hands-on lessons in removing my chain (it had a "missing link", so that was not a big issue), cleaning and lubing everything including the derailleur cables, and putting the chain back on. Net result: a much quieter and much sweeter shifting bike.
I rode on home. Recovery ride completed.
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I must have been really, really slowly that 7 or 8 miles after leaving Gary's shop. I was averaging nearly 15 mph when I arrived there.
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Apr-03:
JRA Recovery Ride; 47.9 m.; 3h,20m in-motion; 14.3 mph.
Jan tot: __9 rides; __671.4 m.; _46 hrs, 38 min; 14.4 mph.
Feb tot: __7 rides; __606.0 m.; _41 hrs, 18 min; 14.7 mph.
Mar tot: __7 rides; __544.8 m.; _35 hrs, 06 min; 15.5 mph.
Apr tot: __2 rides; __173.4 m.; _11 hrs, 06 min; 15.6 mph.
YTD tot: _25 rides; _1995.4 m.; 134 hrs, 11 min; 14.9 mph.
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