Thursday, May 23, 2013

TGFF!


Wednesday morning at 4:30 am, an hour before I was supposed to get up, there was thunder and lightning and a pouring of rain.  Going back to sleep I dreamt of rainy conditions and wet roads, and I was Thanking God for Fenders!


It was lightly raining when I left the house but I was ready.  In the past I probably would have chickened out but there were and still are a few motivational factors at play.  For National Bike Week, I joined the New Milford River Trail team on Endomondo for the 2013 National Bike Challenge and this was the only team in the Danbury area so I thought I would pitch in.  Secondly, through Endomondo, again, someone challenged me to see who could ride the most miles on Wednesday.  Therefore I could let a few drops bother me.


My normal commute (20 mi rtp) wasn't going to cut it so I did a repeat on my Bike to Work Day route that I never did last Friday.  This took me on a Strava Segment that is a Class 4 hill called Susan Lane.  I really pushed my self up this hill and wound up in third place.


My 20 mile route takes me through Fairfield Hills.  I didn't have time to hit the trails but next time I will.  From there down to the High School and into Sandy Hook.  When I have more time, I have to either hit the Packy or the Coffee Shop before banging out the last 5 miles.  On the last two climbs is when I started having some issues with the bike.  It wouldn't shift into the lowest gear making it a struggle up Albert's Hill and there was two of them.  Once at home, what started out as deraileur adjustment turned into a complete redo of brake cables, different levers and a finely tuned rear deraileur.

No comments: