Bolder. You better sit down. In fact, you might ought to skip this post altogether. I don't think you can handle it.
For the past several weeks, I have been riding naked.
No. Not that kind of naked. I'm haven't suddenly gone all kinky. I mean without technology. **gasp** Oui, mon ami. Quelle horreure. Sans le technologie.
First, my rudimentary bike computer needed a battery. Then after replacing the battery, I needed to reset the wheel circumference, and none of the little numbers in the book matched the little numbers on my tires or rims. And then I forgot my timex heart rate monitor one week. It was just a human being and a bicycle. No satellite imagery. No numbers. No graphs.
Old.
School.
But today, the minimal electronic gizodry that I have was present and working, but I did not get the heart rate monitor started and stopped at the right times, so there is no accurate heart rate data from the ride. **gulp** I don't know if western civilization will continue. More to the point, while I was involuntarily old school, mother nature was full on intentionally old school. It was about 90 degrees, 90% humidity and winds gusting to 90 miles per hour.
Okay, so the winds were 30 miles per hour, but they would not be denied. Most of the second half of the ride involved climbing hills into a wind either straight in your face or off your front quarter. Stay down on the aero bars to avoid the wind, and the lack of stability blows you off line an interferes with your climbing. Sit up or stand to climb or gain better balance and you become a sail blowing your little boat the wrong way.
Odd, though. Last year, under conditions like that, I would have become worried whether I was going to finish the ride and would have been angry at having to ride in those conditions. Now, it was just, "so, this is the way it's going to be, is it?" Shrug, find a gear that I can spin at 85+ rpm, try to relax, and focus on that little white line. "Oh well."
Speed was way down, but effort was way up. The run-off was a death march, but . . . that's the way it's going to be.
I can't change it, but I can push through it.
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9 comments:
I thought you were going to tell us you went all Bolder on us and bought all that techy stuff. I was ready to scroll down to a bunch of graphs. Instead, I find out you've been riding bare back. Greyhound, I understand it's hot there, but come on. Things could get caught up in the spokes and all hell would break loose. Be careful my friend. You're welcome Mrs. Greyhound. "No need to thank me, I'm here to help".
No map of your ride? No metrics? No "I was doing 20 in this stretch and then the wind came up and my speed fell to....", no elevation maps??!! Oh my.... oh my, oh my, oh my. And yet, you can still speak French. C'est uncroyable!
Grey, it sounds all to familar. As my bike computer went to the grave this week, new one on order to arrive this week and HR monitor has a mind of his own lately; new battery doesnt help it so I have been "naked" as well, going by PRE.
Next week should be back to reality! AND cooler weather in H-town!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Back to the basics, eh? We all have our moments. ;)
Hey Greyhound, thanks for the schwag!
I am mildly obsessed with my Garmin. But it never works when I occasionally run on trails, and I think I am the better for it... Last weekend I ran without the Garmin or the ipod! I am surprised I survived.
i know what you mean... my iPod wasn't charged today when i headed up Sardine Canyon. i thought i might die.
by the way, we're just about five weeks away from SOMA. let the smack talk begin.
Marathon number four:
No MP3 player, which makes many think I'm nuts. I don't use music in races.
No HRM. My co-worker doesn't know how I can run without knowing my heart rate. I figure if I'm still running, my heart's still beating. If it stops beating, I won't care what the HRM says.
No foot-pod/GPS/whatever. I had my watch, but just hit the lap counter at each mile. I set my pace by the guy in front of me with the big "3:50" tag on his back.
In races, I tend to be minimalist with tech. During training, that's another thing...
aha! I see you have not given up on all modicum of technology. You used your aero bars. Shame shame. I want a full retraction if your aero bottle is still on.
well, i can't say that i'm not disappointed.
but, i somehow understand. slightly.
during my wattage test today, i decided it was sufficient to only have power in watts and avg watts, time, distance, speed and average speed, cadence and avg cadence, calories burned and hr and avg hr from my powertap SL.
it a rare gesture of nakedness, i decided not to bring my Garmin Forerunner 305 along as well, so that i could have secondary GPS based speed and average speed and distance, hr, time, as well as route information and elevation.
a concession, but i am practicing race protocol, and logged the limits of technology as such.
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