The Third “Century”
Man, where do I start. I did my third century (or what I set out to be a century) yesterday. I should have known that it wasn’t going to be my day when I starting having issues before I even pushed out the door. It started out with breakfast of cereal with just a teeny bit of milk because that’s all that was left – nothing like a bowl of pseudo dry cereal to start the morning! Then I couldn’t find my wallet. I searched all the usual places but just couldn’t find it anywhere. Carol had some cash (so I could stop for Gatorade on the ride), so it wasn’t a huge deal but I usually like to take my drivers license with me in case I end up in a ditch someplace unconscious.
Anyway, I pushed off around 7 AM and hit the park reserve that I normally ride through. It was quiet and steamy humid like it has been this whole summer. For the first hour and a half, I couldn’t even wear my sunglasses because they fog up too bad from all the humidity. But I stick them on my helmet and keep riding along on the trails and notice that one section of trail has been recently resurfaced. I’m thinking to myself, “How awesome!” I love riding on new, smooth blacktop. It was like buttah! Only one small stretch of road had been repaved though and I normally ride through this twice. Well, as it would happen, my second time through they were in the process of adding another layer of tar onto the road. It was still fresh and wet so what does that mean for me? THAT MY BIKE ENDS UP GOING THROUGH ALL THAT CRAP AND GETS COMPLETE TRASHED!?! I was sooooooo mad. I had just given it a thorough cleaning a couple days before and here it was getting a fresh coat of tar caked all over it.
I get off the path at my nearest exit and assess the damage. My bike and legs are now caked with tar. Not what I needed to start a long ride. Grrrrrrrr!!! I tried cleaning some of it with water, but it just wasn’t happening. So I angrily pedaled on… and on and on as the ride would go. I had issues with my HR monitor yesterday. For whatever reason, the whole stop and start your watch thing was too daunting for me yesterday, so I ended up cancelling out my ride data not just once, but three times. Setting out to do 100 miles and not having the full data of your ride in one complete graph is not good for the OCD. So I don’t have a pretty graph to show you all. I have three separate graphs which are missing some sixish miles because I forgot to start it a couple times. Oh well.
On my way back home, I rode back through that park (but not on the trails) that destroyed my bike and see that they’ve now put up signs saying that the trails are closed for resurfacing today. SOMETHING THAT COULD HAVE BEEN BROUGHT TO MY ATTENTION BEFORE THEY STARTED THEIR WORK!! So I missed doing my final loop through the park. I tried to improvise to compensate for the loop I missed, but I’m horrible at making up new routes on the fly. My best attempt got me at my house at around 92 miles and I was too annoyed by then just to do loops around the neighborhood for eight more miles so I just called it a day.
I spent the next four hours of my day getting all that damn tar off my bike. It was everywhere! I basically had to strip down the entire drive train and sit there and meticulously clean each and every component, all the way down to disassembling the rear derailleur so I could clean off the pulleys. So, so, SO annoying. Definitely not what I really wanted to do after five+ hours in the saddle. I should have taken before and after pictures to show you all. Imagine a mountain bike after some wet off-road trails, but with tar instead of mud. Maybe it’s better I don’t have a visual memory of it. My blood pressure is rising sitting there thinking about it.
But it’s all over and done and I’ve given myself the option to do that 1/2 now this weekend. I’m not sure what to do as there is another heat advisory this weekend basically telling people to stay inside in the AC. We’ll see. I need to get a long run this weekend anyway. Why not do it after a 3:30 warm up? :)
(Oh, and I didn’t lose my wallet. *phew!*)