Wanna go that way

With things still a bit crazy at the shop, I had to go into work for a few hours mid-afternoon.  It gave me the perfect opportunity to try out a new route to work.  The last couple of times I have had to cross the Huguenot bridge has left me cursing everything about it.  Since they announced that a new bridge was going to be built the current one has seen very little maintenance.  It's full of big potholes and their idea of fixing them is overfilling them so now it has huge mounds.  It just isn't much fun to ride during high traffic times which is when one would normally commute.

Looking at the map I found a way to get over to the Nickel Bridge.  Not being too familiar with that area and only having negative memories of a couple sections of that route from when I was younger, I felt it would be a good thing to roll through in the middle of the day when not too much was going down.  I was quite excited to find out there really weren't any bad sections.  Hell the sections I thought might be a bit rough ended up having nice newly paved roads with shoulders.

Once on the bridge, I stopped for a quick photo of the river from a different perspective.   You can see the Huguenot Bridge off in the background.  You can also see the tower at the carillon which was were I wanted to go .  A quick jaunt down Grove and I was 3/4 of the way to work.  The rest was the same it always is.

Hug-a-nut bridge upriver
 
 Heading in that general direction

The ride home was a bit more work.  The wind had started to pick up out of the South and I hadn't eaten too much.  I was planning on grabbing lunch before I left but when it came time, I just jumped on the bike and headed back home.  By the time I had to make the climbs back through the Boulders and up Newby's Bridge my legs weren't having it anymore.  I knew what the problem was but since I was so close to home, I didn't bother eating anything more on the bike. 

I paid for that decision the rest of the evening as the sluggishness of malnutrition and dehydration set in.  After recording my daily eats and workouts into Training Peaks it would come to light I wasn't anywhere close to eating properly which I didn't really need too much help figuring out.  My caloric intake was a negative 4646.  Sounds high but when I only took on 300 calories for breakfast, no lunch and then a small dinner it isn't that far off.  It's no wonder I am so hungry today.  Time for lunch!

I feel pretty

Since Saturday, weather and work have provided me with plenty of time to rest up the hip and ponder what I was going to do with my rear wheel. I am not sure if I am being punished for recently telling Jenn that I had no interest in going to see the Picasso exhibit while it is in town. Could it be someone's way of trying to tap into my creative side? Either way I am tired of making spoke art in the middle of my rides.


I have decided to rebuild my rear wheel with all new spokes and the work order has been placed. In the meantime, I need something to get around on. I thought about pulling my rear wheel off of the cross bike. It would match the front as I have been running it for the past year. Being spoiled with all the engagement points on the King hub, I decided using the cross wheel wasn't an option. Conveniently there was another set of King wheels sitting around the house since Jenn is now running around on her Christmas present. After cleaning up the drive train and switching it over, Le Antique is now ready to roll once again.

Gloomy Days

This past week has been a mentally tough one indeed. Not a terribly lot of stuff went down as I suffered through the gray days of spring. With the onset of April coming Mother Nature thought it would be funny if she played a week long April Fools joke on all of the local weatherpersons, sending in gray clouds all week filled with rain. However, despite the ominous outlook she only randomly opened the bottom of the clouds up to drop the rain on us.

A week ago Friday, the anchor bolt on the front derailleur stripped during my commute home. I was left to spin the little ring home at a much higher cadence than the legs usually like to go. I compared my average cadence of that ride to one I had made earlier in the week and it was 14 rotations higher. That doesn't sound like much until you do the math, which I have conveniently done for you, and figure out that my legs did over 1500 more rotations in the same time frame as a normal commute home.

About 3/4 of the way home, I could start to feel my left hip flexor which has been giving me problems since the fall. I knew it was not a good thing but hoped it wouldn't linger for long once I got off the bike. The next day, I met up with the TNT crew for a ride through Goochland. It was a nice day and great ride but it did nothing but inflame my hip. Laid off of it Sunday and Monday and then did an easy ride with TNT on Tuesday night. My hip felt a little bit better but I could still feel tightness. For the rest of the week, I took full excuse making advantage of the predictions of wet weather and took the next 3 days off of the bike.

Yesterday, I met up with the TNT crew once again to lead the Saturday morning training. I was a bit worried as to whether or not my hip was going to behave itself with the ensuing climbs, not mountain climbs but some of the bigger climbs in the Central VA area. The only downside to the whole ride was breaking another spoke on my rear wheel. Each time it happens, I vow to get a new wheel but I just end up replacing the spoke and continuing on for the next few weeks until another breaks, meh.

Still not sure what I am going to do this time, I may end up replacing all of the spokes this go around. Until then, I may just throw on Jenn's pink King wheel since she isn't using it now that she is rolling around on the Reynolds for the summer. Hopefully, the high winds of today and tomorrow will blow the gray away and with it take my hip.

Sun will go down

Last night was a typical Tuesday.  While at work Lynne came into the shop for a couple quick adjustments and a few other items now that the weather is warming and staying warm.  I asked if she was planning on going out to the TEAM ride which she told me she just got done with a ride about an hour back.  After not a lot of effort on my part she reluctantly agreed to come out for a second ride.

I arrived over in the Creek of the West a few minutes before 6pm so I turned a couple of laps before heading over to meet up with the TEAM.  We had a good sized group and they were all ready to ride by 6:30pm which is sometimes a difficult feat to accomplish.  I threw out the idea of heading out of Westcreek for the first 12 miles before the sun went down and then finishing up with a few more mind blowing laps inside Westcreek.

The ride through horse country was a pleasant one.  We were able to see a beautiful sunset over a huge gorse farm that turned the clouds different shades of bright oranges and pinks.  Sorry for not taking a picture, I was being pushed down the road by the group.  I did stop once we were back inside the Creek for a quick snapshot of the abandoned streets.