That’s what I kept telling myself on my ride today. Monday’s are typically slow and very few times is it close to 70 degrees in November so I decided to go for a long ride while Laura suffered in the shop (sorry sweetie). I took out the Kestrel after all the modifications that I had made to it and hoped for the best.

WWWWWHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! Man that thing is fast. I was comfy, tunes were jamming, life was good. *Sidenote: I wear an MP3 player sometimes on rides. Yes it is dangerous. Some fellow officers may even argue that it is illegal. BUT, most of the time I wear an earbud in my right ear (away from traffic) and keep the other one free, so that I can hear what is coming behind me.

18mph. 19mph. 20….21….23!! Woo Hoo! I finally fixed the cadence meter on the bike too and I’m very happy to be holding a 90 rpm average. That was my goal two years ago in New Orleans and I had one of the best rides of my life. That’s the goal again this year. I’m feeling good. I’m smiling the whole time and then BAM, I hit a rut on the side of the road near the pincushion. I’m still up and feeling ok, but I’m shaken. I need to get my speed back, but this would never happen.

I finish up the 1.5 to 2 mile stretch up to the Target turnaround and start back. WOW! Is there a strong wind or something that is holding me back? I switch down to the little ring on the bike and still can only turn an 85 rpm average, with a speed of only about 15mph. 8 miles and hour difference? And I don’t really feel that crazy of a headwind. What’s going on?!? I keep on limping along, changing between my aero position and a more upright position, looking at the bike in total disbelief. Of course I know that the problem probably is, my brake is probably rubbing from that hole I hit, but this is where “Suck it up, Buttercup” comes in to play. “Your weak. You’ve been out of it too long. THIS is your new speed. Deal with it.” All the internal voices drown out the music in my ear. But that one statement, “Suck it up, Buttercup” overrides them all. I WILL suck it up and deal with it. I WILL accept that, for now, this may be my speed and cadence that I can handle. But it WILL change, and only with hard work on windy days like this. I push through and ride all the way back to the shop.

Once there, there are clients who have been waiting for me to return. They have a brake pad that is stuck on their wheel and their wheel won’t turn. Hm… let me check something. Sure enough, I try to spin my rear wheel and the wheel moves about 6 inches and STOPS. Not slows down, not drags, it STOPS. Aha! Found my problem. I take care of the clients. I can get to mine after. After all, I’ve got many more miles to put on the bike before it is all over with.

Ride Distance  16.90 miles    Avg Speed    16.1 mph (stupid brake)      Total Time 1hr 2 min 47 sec