Broken Spoke

Friday Bike Ride:

Nice ride on the trail along the railroad tracks going through Lake Woebegone, if a bit rough, but about halfway through the ride I discovered a broken spoke on the rear wheel. Turns out that my happy little bike actually NEEDS all of its spokes, and the rear wheel bent just enough to rub against the rear sprocket a little bit on each revolution, and probably on the brake pad as well. The bend became progressively worse as the ride went along, as did the rubbing of the tire, and I was happy to get back home after 52 minutes.

Also it turns out that I don’t know much about my bike. I bought a spoke and some cone wrenches, removed the rear wheel with no problem, but couldn’t figure out how to remove the Shimano hub. Another trip to the Gateway Cycle Shop and the mechanic there showed me how to replace the spoke; there is a special tool for removing that hub. It looked quite easy when he did it! They're out of that tool at the moment, but I'll buy one when they come in because do need to be able to replace spokes.

Saturday (today):

Rode to Northland Tennis Courts where the St Croix Valley Runners gather before and after their 5-mile run, then rode the grass trails in the park north of the county maintenance shed, buzzed the runners a few times, stopped to chat after their run, then rode home. Probably about 22 miles in all, a very enjoyable ride. On the long legs I apparently had average speed of about 14 mph. It seems that’s the best I can do with this bike right now. Some minor pain under the right kneecap in the second half of the ride. I guess that’s just going to be with me for a while. It goes away after a day off from riding, if not sooner.

Friend Doug was quite helpful with advice this morning after his run. He’s been an avid biker, even owns a bike stand for servicing bikes. He actually has two sets of wheels for his mountain bike, one for trail riding and another with smoother tires for road biking. The road tires are quieter, and can be inflated to a higher pressure for less road resistance. It’s still a heavy bike, of course, compared with a real road bike. He also mentioned that the most important place to reduce weight on the bike is the tires. I have to think about why that would be. I weighed my bike today after the ride: 37 pounds. Professional road bikes can weigh 20 pounds less! Does that really matter at all on the flat? Of course it matters on hills - it’s as if I weigh 20 pounds more than I do.

Oh man - I don’t want to get sucked into biking. I really do enjoy it though. One of the joys of running is the chance to see lots of countryside that I wouldn’t bother to drive past, but a bike can double that. On the other hand, a runner who keeps his eyes open and head clear isn’t at much risk of serious injury except from external forces like cars, but a biker can get into a lot of trouble all by himself. So far so good for me, but I’ve had some close calls, nearly tumbling into ditches and the like, and I've taken one tumble while trying to jump a low curb. As with all of life, experience will help as long as it doesn’t produce overconfidence.

Running:

The new custom orthotics (previous post) feel just fine. I wore them for almost six hours today, but during most of that time I was riding my bike or sitting, watching the Tour de France. I don’t know if that counts toward “break-in” time or not.


Yesterday was a very good day for eating:

Breakfast:

Organic oatmeal, organic skim milk, mango, blueberries, organic strawberries, Brazil nuts. Estimated Weight Watcher points = 5. This is a normal breakfast during fruit & berry season.

Lunch:

No-hormone no-antibiotic pork loin roasted in peanut sauce (organic coconut milk, organic chunky peanut butter, ancho chili powder, organic lime, coriander), organic plum, kiwi, mango. Estimated Weight Watcher points = 7. Magnificent lunch by Sunshine; she exceeded herself. LOVE that peanut sauce, which was supposed to have creamy peanut butter according to the recipe, but is much better with chunky.

Dinner:

Roasted free-range local chicken with vidalia onion, corn/spud dish with Jim's potatoes and onion, organic plum, and "pie" of organic pumpkin, a little honey and molasses, and pecans. The pie is not so sweet as to be dessert; it's a vegetable. :-) Estimated Weight Watcher points = 9.