The Ride
I rode in a car to the starting position with a couple of friends that live in and near my neighborhood. It was nice to leave the driving to someone else and to have companionship for the ride to
Marion, AL from Birmingham. We left my house at about 6:40 am and arrived in time to pick up our packets, pump up our tires, mount gear, get to the starting line, and attend the pre-ride briefing. Not rushed, but not much time to spare.
This ride represented the opportunity to achieve several objectives for me (results in
red):
- Try out new tires: Specialized S-Works Turbo's 700X24c which have lower rolling resistance that I have used in the past and a fatter profile - Unable to evaluate
- Try out my new homemade nutrition instead of my old practice of Espresso Love flavored GU - Success
- Try out my new fit on the bike - Success
- Try out the new wider seat which was loaned to me as part of the fit (he measured my butt and gave me a wider seat....trying not to think about the implications, personally) - Success, it does fit my as...
- Find out if I can ride 100 miles and run a little given the fall Ironman Chattanooga event I'm training for - Success
I achieved all of those objectives, but it was NOT smooth sailing for all of them. The biggest and most prevalent issue for the ride was a combination of rear brake friction and rear wheel to frame friction. After about 10 miles on the ride my rear wheel started emitting a chirping sound, like a bird. So, I pulled over and adjusted the brake which helped, but the chirping returned quickly. I pulled over and investigated again. I discovered that the back wheel would not freely spin. It was rubbing against the frame. So, I loosened the skewer, moved the wheel back a little, and tightened up the skewer again. Unfortunately, this process continued for 5-6 more episodes until a fellow rider helped me by holding the wheel center and back so I could very securely tighten the skewer. Needless to say, this created some frustration, thus "mad". On the flip-side, the purpose of trying these things here, was to not try them in an Ironman race. So, SUCCESS.
Although, I took advantage of the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and 1 whatchamacallit bar at the rest stops, all the rest of my nutrition was my homemade concoctions. I didn't notice any difference in how I recall feeling as a contrast against the same practices in the past where GU was the option. For liquid, like last year, I only consumed water. All Good!
I felt good on the bike and I believe that I was more comfortable overall than on the previous configuration. Thus, I would call the fit a success. The concluding run was slow, but no problem. Good enough for first one this year off a very long ride.
My car-pooling mates were kind considering that I finished after them given the frequent "stop and fix the wheel" episodes. They even graciously waited while I ran.
The Details
April 19, 2014: Birmingham, AL
