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Over the winter I had to replace my Blue and ended up without it for over a month and a half, broke my arm a month and a half ago and missed several targeted races, finally arm recovered and the body/rig is working good, Jake misses most important part of track season and...
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So yesterday the rain decided to recede so I hopped out in search of a 20min x 2 interval set during a 2hr ride. On the way north of town my Garmin died a horrible death so my HR was not available. Not too big of a deal as I knew the Gman was near the end as duct tape was the only thing keeping it alive for the past couple months. I have been really hard on the ForeRunner 305 over the past four years and it has served me well. Back to the ride... with no HR I was going to stick with perceived efforts as my gauge, but two minutes before the first effort my right Sram Force shifter lever (one behind the brake lever) came off in my hand (literally) while I shifted. You hear all the time the ole 'I was just riding along and...', but no joke that is exactly what I was doing; no hard shift under pressure or climbing, it was a simple shift. ***What is missing from the first picture? Check out pic #2 and you'll see***
There I am 5 or so miles north of Bolivar and figured I would limp in, but to my surprise the 'single speed' I was left with (rear cog 15 or 14, not sure) was just about right to let knock out my efforts; all I needed to do was find a relatively flattish loop. Ran thought my memorised catalog of roads in the area and before I knew it I was lung deep in my first effort (2 x 20min). After the first one I headed south of town to a better loop and knocked out my second effort. Used my frustration and focused toward the efforts and came away totally cooked, but rewarded for my suffering. Was able to salvage a bad situation and still squeeze some lemonade (figuratively).
So, to add a kick to the crotch, on the ride back home a massive rain and lightening storm came out of nowhere and I had to take cover at a local car dealership (the place was closed so I huddled against the building shielded from the driving rain, but still getting soaked. Stayed there for 15min until the deluge lightened and I did an unexpected interval back to the casa. *** Hard to tell the intensity of the storm (and the amount of rain it dumped) from the below picture, but trust me it was intense***
Some folks drown their frustrations with booze, but tonight's mind-numbing tool was whipped cream... Actually Ian had never done cheese whiz or WC straight from the can so I was passing on one of those dad/son moments; he did me proud.
Traded my scheduled ride time to hit my LBS (in SGF) and found Sram will warranty my shifter and a new one will be in next week; hopefully I can get back on the road a couple days before we leave on our cruise. Until then it's back to the mtb and tandem on the trainer.
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This has been a frustrating spring so far and every time I get ready to absolutely throw a fit I realize that these are smaller issues in the big picture and if this is as bad as it has gotten then it is really NOT THAT BIG OF A DEAL as I have way too many positive aspects of my life to whine.
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