Today was the perfect Carolina winter day, sunny, breezy, blue skies, high of 50F. My friend Hope and I went for a 27 mile rolling hills bike ride around the dairy farms in rural Orange County. Lucky for me, it's only a few miles of riding out of town to get there. It's really a beautiful ride along farmland and horse and cow pastures, and without much road traffic. I was anxious to see how my bike felt. I've got a decent mid-range Cannondale that I bought about 8 years ago, and have occasionally upgraded parts as needed. I'm really happy with my beautiful red bike, except for the long drop from my seat to my handle bars, ~10cm. I'm tall, and long legged. The bike is 56 cm, which is perfect for my leg length. However my disproportionally shorter torso really means I should have a custom bike with a much shorter top tube; this will never be in my budget. Last week I finally scheduled myself for a bike fit, wanting to really optimize myself on the bike before I start getting into some real distance riding in the Spring. I had a higher handlebar stem and narrower handlebar put on the bike.
What a difference in comfort, less weight on my wrists, no shoulder pain, and now, lots of room to move down to the drops. I don't know why I hadn't taken the time to do all this earlier. Now I'm back to saving again to get a new more comfortable seat, and with the Ironman distance, I'm going to spring for some nice aerobars. I expect my arms are going to want to rest after that 2 1/2 mile swim.
At home, it's been a marathon boat building weekend. I think Alan's been a bit frustrated at how slowly things seem to be going, but, noone is slacking off. Except possibly me, there isn't anything to paint yet, so I just keep them company and supervise :)
1 comment:
Only thing you're missing is a glass of wine in your hand. :-)
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