Saturday I decided to have an easy bike ride (once again did not want to test the Achilles). Road a moderate 40 miles with no discomfort at all. Stopped and talked with some friends - no need to push the pace. The twenty miles out took 1:12 and the return (no talking or stops) took just over an hour - 1:02. This was a bonk ride - I ate nothing prior to leaving and did not have any calories while riding. In theory this should (over time - meaning years) allow your body to more efficiently process fat for energy. Almost all of my early morning exercise is with out calories. I've been doing this for a while. I can easily go for about 2 hours at a moderate pace, however, when the pace is elevated, an hour is about the maxmium.
On Sunday, after the success of the previous ride I hit the trail again. Since I was planning on riding a bit faster I ate my cup of oatmeal with a little brown sugar. I started out harder but still stopped and talked with Jodie for a few (she was doing a 10 mile run) and took my time at the Bassfield turnaround (4 minutes - bathroom, fill water bottles, etc). A few miles out from Bassfield on the way back I started to lose my steam. Fearing a bonk - I pulled over and added some powdered Gatorade (with electrolytes) to the water bottle and took a big hit. I think this was just enough to fight the wall off. I completed the 50 miler at 2:34 - just under 20 MPH average - of course, if you take out the talking and stops then just over 20 MPH - but, you don't do that of course.
On a side note, I really do not believe in many spontaneous purchases - I prefer to research and 'get the best deal.' This can be a gift and a curse - it can really cripple some of my purchasing decisions. Anyway, I bought another bike on Friday. This will make 3 bikes (6 total if you include Jodie's bikes - yes 6 bikes for 2 people). I bought my road bike - a Scott Speedster 60, an entry level road bike with entry level components (SORA) - (my first real bike) in February of 2006.
![](http://www.comparestoreprices.co.uk/images/sc/scott-speedster-s60-triple-2006-road-bike.jpg)
I only put about a thousand miles on it the first year - I did not have any really good routes in Terre Haute and Jodie and I only road on weekends in Bloomington. After moving to Hattiesburg with the Long Leaf Trace the miles started to add up. This bike became my everything - commuter, weekend rider, triathlon racer, etc).
I also had a pretty significant crash on the Scott. I was in a group ride and three of us went our own way. I was at the tail end of the group and I hit a very small bump in the rode. For what ever reason, the chain sucked down between the frame and the crank and locked up. The bike stopped immediately (at a little more that 20 MPH - I had my polar heart rate watch on and it recorded the 20+ to zero speed drop in about 1 second) - I did not stop and did a classic high side crash. I landed on my right side - elbow, knee, thigh, etc and rolled across my back to the other side all the while obtaining road rash. Luckily, nothing was really hurt - I landed flat and except for the bruising and rash everything was okay. By the way - road rash on top of sun burn is extremely uncomfortable.
It took about 20 minutes to dislodge the chain and limp home the 20+ miles. This chain suck action would happen several more times, generally when I was starting to stand up on the bike and really crank. No further accidents but the fear factor was high. I have become hesitant to ride the Scott hard.
I ended up getting a dedicated triathlon bike this spring (2007 - Giant Trinity A1). I purchased the bike new off of eBay for a little less than 50% off of MSRP. This triathlon bike immediately cut time off and added MPH's to all rides. It was many pounds lighter (about 8 lbs less than the Scott with area bars).
I do not have a cyclometer on my triathlon race bike - I do not care how fast I am going but only that I am going as fast as I can. However, if I look back on my training logs I am sure that I could get a pretty good idea - my guess would be about 1500 since spring. A dedicated triathlon bike doing commuter and distance and everything riding is not the best choice.
![](http://www.slowtwitch.com/mainheadings/product2007/tribikes/giant/trinity_a1_whole.jpg)
This bike retails for $2400+. To seal the deal the seller was offering free shipping and a reasonable 'buy it now' price - these attribute of the sale were important. Microsoft, with their live.com search engine, offers a cash back incentive for many retailers. eBay is one such retailer at this moment. Not to go into too much detail but with this transaction I was able to get $200 cash back. This made the purchase enter my buying zone. I am excited about the planned spontaneous purchase of the new bike.
![](http://www.stanleyfearns.co.uk/2008bikes/trek/madone4-5c.jpg)
Although the bike is the lowest Madone that Trek offers it is still full carbon and an enormous step up from the entry level Scott.
1 comments:
Grats on the new bike. It looks great. Got to love those planned spontaneous moments huh?
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