The pieces are starting to fall into place!

Finally, a successful ride outside on my new bike! I was beginning to feel like this bike was more than I could handle. It really sunk in Friday evening when Kelli asked me what my plans were for the weekend. Sunday was NFL playoffs, and she didn’t want to miss them. When I responded that I planned to ride my bike for 3 hours Sunday morning, and that it should impact her at all, she hit me with the dagger: your last two rides have involved me, why shouldn’t this one?

For those of you that care and are new to my blog (as if anyone is reading this besides me), I had a flat on my last ride and she had to come pick me up. The week before that I’d had a fall on my bike and ended up at the ER with a fractured wrist. Since I’d gotten my new bike 2/3 of the rides hadn’t ended well.

I was determined that this week wouldn’t involve her at all. I wasn’t going to call for help unless I was lying on the side of the road with two broken legs and hemorrhaging internally! That would really suck, so I hoped we could avoid that! As usual it takes a while to drive to Magnolia. I hate that I have to go way out there to ride, but they really do have the best road I’ve seen: wide shoulders and minimal traffic. I saw the wind during the drive, but it just didn’t register. Why would I even think about the flags blown straight, or the signs almost blown over, I was in my car and couldn’t feel it! That ended pretty quickly once I got on the road.

I love my bike, and it is very fast, and with that come some implications. For example, the wheels are much deeper than my road bike. They cut through the wind like a knife, but they also catch the cross wind like a sail. I kid you not, that darn wind was blowing me all over the road. It would gust and I would shift 6 inches to the right, and then stop and I would shift 6 inches to the left. Anyone watching me probably thought I was drunk! Even still, I am glad I was on my TT bike instead of a road bike. I was able to hunker down, make myself as small as possible, and just cut through the wind. I can’t imagine that ride on my road bike!

I’d started the day planning on a 3 hour, 3 loop ride. In the end my time was a little short and the miles were much shorter. It was 4.5 hours from when I left the house until I got home, and I’m sure Kelli was getting antsy. But, and here is the best part, I finished the ride without needing help from her or anyone else! It’s a good road to get out there and ride, now I just need to stay healthy and keep doing it.

The pieces are starting to fall into place!