Long ride Saturday

After much coordination, I opted for a long ride from my house with Nemo and GS this morning. MD was out of town watching his daughter play volleyball I was hoping to swim first but I stayed a little late at my March Madness gathering and the pool at 8:00 am didn’t happen. The plan was to be wheels down by 10:00 but Nemo had a little trouble making it at the assigned time. He had a good reason though. He needed to stop off at the store for some cold weather tights. Here he is donning the new gear.



Meanwhile GS and I are patiently waiting. GS had some family commitments but rode with us for the first 25 miles. Here’s GS ready for our cool morning ride in March.



I was eager to try out the new rubber I recently installed on my Airborne. I worked furiously on Thursday and Friday to get all the old glue off these rim and mount some new tubular tires. I recently changed to Continental Giro tires since I had a few flats last year and didn’t like spending $65 - $70 tires on the Continental Sprinters. The Giros are only about $35. They are a little heavier but about half the price. I have gone many seasons without flats but the last season and so far this year I’ve had 4 flats on tubular wheels and 2 on clinchers. Tubular flats were starting to get expensive. You have to replace the whole tire. Here is my trusty steed. She is pretty when cleaned up but she is rarely clean.




We had a leisurely ride which was nice since the last couple outings have been a little fast or hilly. I was very happy to have a nice flat slow ride and just get some blood flowing. If you can believe it, I did get a flat on my new tubbies at mile 46. I got almost 1.2 miles per dollar on my new tire. The tire change went pretty well considering my frequent difficulty with too much glue. I’ll be back to the bike shop on Monday to drop some more coin on rubber. That’s 3 visits in 5 days. It’s a good thing I like chatting with the owner. He is eager to sell me a new Kuota Kredo and I might fall for it.



We only averaged about 15 mph today. Nemo and I rolled out to Milford Center, up through Marysville, got a little lost for a bit, found our way back to Osterander, and finally Muirfield. We did goof with a few sprint signs but mostly just bullshit and rolled easy. Everything you’d want for a March ride.

We topped it off with a little transition run up Muirfield to UDF to get used to transition legs. The run was also easy paced. I’ve got to stay fresh for our 21 mile run tomorrow.

Stats
53 mile ride (3:30)
3 mile run (23:00)
157 lbs