Rain, Spokes, and Cold
If you've been reading for the last month or so, you'll notice a recurring theme... I've been avoiding riding on the weekend because its been cold and wet. Yesterday (Sunday) I decided I couldn't go another weekend without getting some miles in on the bike, and I need to be training in the rain also.
My plan was to do 2 or 3 'laps' around Lake Sammamish just to get some miles under my belt and should I get too miserable I could always call home and have someone pick me up.
I left my house just before 11am (actually 10:47... the chart below is handy for information like that) and as soon as I got around the corner it started to drizzle. By 3 miles into the ride it was a solid rain. The tempature was 47 (f) and I was badly regretting my decision not to wear pants. (Silly me thought I'd warm up plenty and it wouldn't matter.....LESSON #1 for this day)
The wind chill factor when doing 15 to 20 mph, when wearing wet shorts and with a below 50 tempature is bad. My legs looked lobster-red. There wasn't necessarily any pain, so I kept going.
About 15mins into the ride I heard a 'snap'. Since I broke two spokes already on this bike I'm much more tuned into the various noises it makes. I was on a hill climbing to the end of W. Lake Sammamish and didn't want to stop on the side of the road as there was a lot of traffic, so I pushed on to the top. Once clear and on a side road I inspected the rear-wheel and found a broken spoke. Here I am 20 mins into the ride...its raining hard....and I've got a broken spoke making the wheel rub hard against the brake pads. I thought about calling home, but decided I should be able to handle something like this....I then thought about heading home, but W. Lake Sammamish has no northbound shoulder for bikes and I *really* didn't want to ride against traffic. So in the end I decided to adjust the spokes around the broken one to bring the wheel back to true and continue on around the lake. (Never leave home without a Spoke Wrench....Lesson 2 for the day)
The rest of the ride was awesome. You reach a point where you are so wet that there's nothing more to get saturated. So even if it rains harder or the road puddles up, you're so soaked it doesn't matter and you just enjoy being out on the ride. I'm really happy I went out in the morning and experienced riding in the cold-rain.
A couple of notes on the chart below. I was finally able to integrate the bike sensors into the heart-rate monitor....now I can see my speed, elevation changes and heart-rate altogether in one spot. The Blue line represents speed. The Yellow filled in areas represent my Heart-Rate. The Black line is altitude.
Where you see speed and heart-rate drop, it's most likely because of a stop-light.
One big accomplishment: you'll see a long steady climb at the end of the ride. This is where W. Lake Sammamish turns into Bell-Red road behind the Microsoft Campus. Last time I rode up this hill I had to stop three times to catch my breath. This time I was able to climb the whole thing, seated, and without stopping once. I kept my heart-rate steady the whole time, right at my Zone-4 to Zone-5 transition thus avoiding too much lactate build-up. For me getting up this hill as I did was a huge validation of the Indoor Cycling efforts I've been putting in.
When I got home and got off the bike I noticed the rear wheel was severely rubbing the brake pads again. Checking the spokes I found another broken one. I'm not sure how much energy I lost going up that damn hill with a rubbing wheel, but I do know that I'm going to get a new wheel soon that will support my hefty body better.
My plan was to do 2 or 3 'laps' around Lake Sammamish just to get some miles under my belt and should I get too miserable I could always call home and have someone pick me up.
I left my house just before 11am (actually 10:47... the chart below is handy for information like that) and as soon as I got around the corner it started to drizzle. By 3 miles into the ride it was a solid rain. The tempature was 47 (f) and I was badly regretting my decision not to wear pants. (Silly me thought I'd warm up plenty and it wouldn't matter.....LESSON #1 for this day)
The wind chill factor when doing 15 to 20 mph, when wearing wet shorts and with a below 50 tempature is bad. My legs looked lobster-red. There wasn't necessarily any pain, so I kept going.
About 15mins into the ride I heard a 'snap'. Since I broke two spokes already on this bike I'm much more tuned into the various noises it makes. I was on a hill climbing to the end of W. Lake Sammamish and didn't want to stop on the side of the road as there was a lot of traffic, so I pushed on to the top. Once clear and on a side road I inspected the rear-wheel and found a broken spoke. Here I am 20 mins into the ride...its raining hard....and I've got a broken spoke making the wheel rub hard against the brake pads. I thought about calling home, but decided I should be able to handle something like this....I then thought about heading home, but W. Lake Sammamish has no northbound shoulder for bikes and I *really* didn't want to ride against traffic. So in the end I decided to adjust the spokes around the broken one to bring the wheel back to true and continue on around the lake. (Never leave home without a Spoke Wrench....Lesson 2 for the day)
The rest of the ride was awesome. You reach a point where you are so wet that there's nothing more to get saturated. So even if it rains harder or the road puddles up, you're so soaked it doesn't matter and you just enjoy being out on the ride. I'm really happy I went out in the morning and experienced riding in the cold-rain.
A couple of notes on the chart below. I was finally able to integrate the bike sensors into the heart-rate monitor....now I can see my speed, elevation changes and heart-rate altogether in one spot. The Blue line represents speed. The Yellow filled in areas represent my Heart-Rate. The Black line is altitude.
Where you see speed and heart-rate drop, it's most likely because of a stop-light.
One big accomplishment: you'll see a long steady climb at the end of the ride. This is where W. Lake Sammamish turns into Bell-Red road behind the Microsoft Campus. Last time I rode up this hill I had to stop three times to catch my breath. This time I was able to climb the whole thing, seated, and without stopping once. I kept my heart-rate steady the whole time, right at my Zone-4 to Zone-5 transition thus avoiding too much lactate build-up. For me getting up this hill as I did was a huge validation of the Indoor Cycling efforts I've been putting in.
When I got home and got off the bike I noticed the rear wheel was severely rubbing the brake pads again. Checking the spokes I found another broken one. I'm not sure how much energy I lost going up that damn hill with a rubbing wheel, but I do know that I'm going to get a new wheel soon that will support my hefty body better.
posted by daryl @ 10:06 AM
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