mashby

This morning my alarm went off at 5:00am and thankfully I had crashed early the night before, so I was able to stay awake. I was bound and determined to go riding this morning, but I knew that I had a lot of work to do to make it happen. I hobbled downstairs and into the garage. Tumini, our new outdoor cat, was sleeping next to the water heater. She took a peek at me, but quickly curled back up to go to sleep. It was way to early for her. In shorts and a sweater, I stood before Juliet, sans coffee, and got to work.

The first order of business was to remove the pieces of the derailleur. One chunk was still bolted to the frame and the other was tethered to the shifter cable. Next, I unhinged the chain and de-greased areas where I would be working. The bike was now prepped and ready to be repaired. I read the section in my Bicycle Repair Book about derailleurs and read the instructions included in the box with my new derailleur. I greased the threads and bolted it to the frame. That’s when it became obvious that the rear wheel needed some work.

Pulling off the rear tire, I mounted it in my cheap Avocet wheel stand. For an hour I spun and tweaked the spokes on the wheel until it was near perfect. Well, as perfect as I could get it with the tools available to me. :). With the wheel trued, I installed it on the bicycle. Next I installed the chain again and set about trying to adjust the derailleur so that everything would shift correctly.

I made some progress, but ultimately all I could do is get it do shift to 5 of the 6 rear cogs. It appeared that the chain was twisted and the combination of that and the fact that the derailleur wouldn’t align properly, I was only about 75% there. Unfortunately, that’s as far as I could take it. It was a little after 7am now and I really wanted to go for a ride. I rode around the cul-de-sac a few times to see if Juliet was rideable. She wasn’t perfect, but I felt I could go for a short ride safely.

The only other tweak I did was to replace the pedals with my original Deore XT pedals with toe clips. Although the SPD cleat pedals that I’ve been using are nice, I simply haven’t been all that happy with the feeling of riding any distance with them. There’s simply not enough play. Besides, I was still in pain from last night and I needed a little more flexibility in the pedal. Pain from last night you ask?

<begin wayback machine>
Last night I went out to the garage to grab my Rivendell catalog and on the way back inside I noticed that there was dirt on the steps. Not wanting to track in dirt, I decided to hop the first step. The steps are double steep and very shallow, but I’ve been going in and out of the garage for close to 3 years now, so no problem right? Wrong!

I misjudged the height and proceeded to slam both of my big toes into the solid concrete second step in rapid succession. With my feet finding no purchase and my forward momentum hurling me onward, my shin raked down the metal edge of the top step sending my face to the floor next to the clothes dryer. It’s bad enough when you stub your toe, but when you slam both toes with a running start you’re really in for a treat.

Laid out on the floor with my legs hanging out into the garage, I screamed, hollered and cussed at full volume. As anyone who’s met me can attest, I can be loud when I need to. In this case I didn’t need to, but there was no way I couldn’t. I think they heard me in the next county. 😛

Both big toes quickly produced blood blisters under the nail and swelled nicely as the night wore on. Nothing appears to be broken, other than my pride, but they still hurt like hell.
<end wayback machine>

With a broken derailleur and busted toes, I was more determined than ever to get my ride in for the day. I put on my handlebar bag, since I wanted to bring a phone with me, (lesson learned) and I put my Dana in a small shoulder bag and headed down the hill. I knew I didn’t have time to ride my usual 10 mile loop. I also felt like I needed a little treat, so I decided to ride to the nearby Waffle House. 😉

With all my focus and attention on derailleurs, I did a lot of shifting on this ride. I haven’t been using my granny gear, so I took the opportunity to use it on some of the big hills I had on the way. I had forgotten how helpful those low gears could be! In no time I was at Waffle House and enjoying a breakfast of pork chops and eggs. Yum.

The ride back was solid, but since I was playing with granny gears, it was hard to tell if my legs were any better, or just the same. I still felt pain and fire on the hills, but I just kept on pedaling in the saddle, not standing in the pedals, and slowly made it to the top of every hill. I think some of the confidence on the hills came from the fact that I had my old pedals back and they’re much easier to get out of should I need to bail on a hill.

As I approached my personal Moby Dick (the hill leading up to my house), I decided to give it a shot. I thought to myself, “What the heck, I can bail if I have to, so let’s see how far I can get.” In the lowest gear I could reach, I began making my ascent. 1/4 of the way up, I was heaving and sucking in big gulps of air, but I kept my cadence and kept on spinning. 1/2 of the way up I was bearing my teeth like a vampire in a bad horror movie and I fought the burn and tried in inhale more air. 3/4 of the way up I was in shock that I had made it this far and my mind was set to make it the whole way. Spinning and spinning I kept making headway up the hill as my entire body was on fire. I needed air, I needed muscle, I needed relief, but the next thing I knew I was at the top of the hill! I could barely kept the bike on the road from all my swerving. I couldn’t advance to a harder gear because my legs were shot, but I couldn’t stop or I would just keel over.

As I heaved and panted like a dirty old man, I slowly ambled my way to the house. I dismounted in the driveway and my legs felt like wet noodles. I had to lean against my truck to keep my balance. I walked around a little bit gulping water from my water bottle until I had regained my composure. I felt like dancing with my hands over my head like Rocky – I climbed the hill! Even with busted toes, derailleur problems and carrying a little weight on the bicycle (handlebar bag, Kyptonite lock, and backpack) I had made a hill I have been unable to make since I took up riding again. I might pay for it tonight or tomorrow, but this morning I was a conqueror. 😀

Distance: 7.18 Miles
Ride Time: 0:42
Average Speed 10.36 MPH
Maximum Speed 36.9 mph

Yesterday, when my alarm went off at 5:30am, I attempted to reset the alarm for 6:00am, but in my daze it appears that I didn’t get it set. So 6:00am came and went and a little after 7:00am my eyes opened and I had that moment of confusion and panic where you’re not sure what’s going on, then you realize that you’ve been asleep and that you’ve woken up on your own, which is odd because normally it takes an alarm… crap! My alarm didn’t go off, what time is it! Once fully awake, I had to decide what I was going to do. Do I bail on today’s ride because I’ve missed my window of opportunity, or do I adjust my clients so that I can ride? Ten minutes later I was coasting down the hill. 🙂

I went the same route that I went the day before. 10 miles would be a good ride and it would give me something to compare from. Would I climb better on the same hills? My bootie was definitely more tender from the day before and it took a few miles for me to settle into the saddle. My climbing wasn’t much better, but I did notice that I was more aware of what my problems were rather than just focusing on the pain and difficulty. My form is way off and my cadence is erratic at best. I need to do some work on the stationary bicycle to help repair my form.

When I made it to the halfway point, which is at the intersection of Petus and Nolesville, I was feeling pretty good. I was still having difficulty, but my spirits were up and I could tell that there was an ever so slight improvement from yesterday. My biggest climb was just ahead on Petus and I was ready to attack it. My plan was to ride further up the hill than I did the day before. I didn’t have any expectations of making it to the top, but I was definitely going further.

As I started to make the climb, I could tell that it was going to be a challenge, so I dropped down to my lowest mid-range gear. My cadence picked up and I started spinning my way up the hill when all of a sudden – B A M – there was a loud sound followed by an immediate halt of the bike as a loud grinding sound continued until I was at a complete stop. I was lucky enough to get my foot out of the cleat in time and I dismounted the bike. Looking towards the rear wheel, I was shocked to see that the rear derailleur had snapped from its mount, crumpled into a ball and wedged itself into the rear spokes. This is the equivalent of seeing your engine explode in your car.

I was 5 miles from home, with no cell phone, no chain tool in a rural section of town. I carried my bicycle up a ways to wide spot in the road, leaned it against a fence post and sat down on the ground. Sitting there I weighed my options, of which there were few. If I had a chain tool, I could possibly break the chain and shorten it, thus making my bike a fixed gear. I didn’t have a chain tool. If I had my cell phone I could call Holly to come pick me up. I didn’t have a cell phone. That left me with two options: 1) carry Juliet home on my shoulder, or 2) remove the derailleur and walk the bike home. Although I love Juilet, she’s heavy and I didn’t cherish the idea of having to carry her 5 miles, so I set on removing the derailleur.

With minimal tools, I was able to pry the chain out from the derailleur. That left a LOT of slack in the chain which made my bike a zero gear, not a fixed gear, but at least I could walk the bike. Once I started pushing it up the hill is when I realized that the rear wheel was way out of alignment and rubbing up against the frame. Luckily I had a spoke wrench, so I mangled the tension on the spokes so that it was more aligned. It wasn’t pretty, but it would get me home.

As I started walking down the hill, I had the idea of coasting downhill. It seemed silly to walk it downhill at 2.5 MPH when I could coast at 20mph. My rear brake was disabled and I had zero gears, but what the heck – what could go wrong? 😛 Screaming down the hill was both fun and scary. I couldn’t pedal for fear of the chain flying into the wheel, so I had to stay perfectly still. Once at the bottom, or in a flat section, I would hop off and walk it. It took about an hour, but I made it home eventually.

Given that I had started late, having the mechanical difficulty made me all the later. I showered and dressed as fast as I could and hauled butt to my clients. I didn’t get done until late that evening, so I ran by REI to see what they had in the way of a rear derailleur. I found an inexpensive Shimano for $20.00 and I bought it. However I was way too tired to try to install it, so I left it for the next day.

Distance: 10.01 Miles
Ride Time: 3:15
Average Speed 7.26 MPH
Maximum Speed 34.2 mph

I didn’t ride like I had intended yesterday morning. I chalked it up to the fact that it was Monday and Monday’s are always hectic. Yesterday was also another misty morning, so I was extra sorry that I didn’t get a chance to ride. 🙁 Determined more than ever to ride the next day, I set my alarm for 5:30am and went to bed early at 11:30pm.

When 5:30am came around my determination was clouded from the sugar plums dancing in my head, but I was lucky enough to have the presence of mind to realize that the sun hadn’t come up yet. So I reset the clock for 6:00am. When six came, I hit the snooze for those precious 5 minutes of extra sleep, but when I laid back down my mind started to sputter back to life. As I laid there about to drift back to sleep, that 7 year old voice inside me starting screaming that we had to go cycling. It was as if I had forgotten today was Christmas. Before the alarm went off again, I was up and putting on clothes.

Ten minutes later, I was on the bike and coasting down the hill. I was wearing a long sleeve t-shirt with another t-shirt on top of that, my rain jacket and a cyclist’s cap. As the sun peeked over the treetops, I could still see a faint mist over the hollows down below. That vision was cut short by the fact that my fingers, ears and face starting stinging from the cold. The sun had not burned off the mist yet and it was quite cold. According to the little thermometer on my jacket pull, it was about 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Brrrr Note to self: wear wool cap tomorrow and find some wool gloves.

When I reached the entrance of the subdivision, I wanted to stop and warm up just a bit, but there were some kids waiting for the bus, so I decided to keep pedaling up to the top of the first hill. Falling while trying to unclip from my cleats was not something I wanted to do in front of a bunch of school kids. As I made my climb three things became apparent. 1. I forgot to lube my chain after spraying off the mud on Sunday and it was squeaking like an old rusty bucket. 2. My legs were gone. They felt like two stumps. I didn’t stretch before or anything and they felt like dead weight. The small climb on the first hill actually hurt. 3. My ass was tender from Sunday’s ride. 🙂 As I stopped to warm my hands and have the sun warm my body a little, I realized that I was in for a little pain this morning. There was nothing I could do about it other than just ride on and hope for the best.

My goal today was to find a 10 mile loop. Sunday’s ride was challenging, but a little short. I needed to extend the loop by about 5 miles. I started the same way as Sunday – down Blue Hole road to Petus. Right on Petus to old Hickory. Left on Old Hickory, but instead of continuing down Old Hickory, I veered right on Culbertson Road and rode along Mill Creek. It was a spectacular morning. With the sun rising slowly and igniting the fall foliage that is just beginning to come into full bloom, I forgot all about the cold – the colors alone were enough to warm me. Riding next to Mill Creek, there were patches of mist hovering over the water, putting the creek into soft focus. It’s times like these that I’m reminded why I ride.

Culbertson eventually led me to Nolensville Road where I took a left and climbed my way South to pickup Petus. I know this sounds confusing and without a map it can be. 🙂 Hanging a left of Petus I began a slow climb up to a big climb where I had to bail and walk. Without an inclinometer, I can’t give you the exact pitch, but it’s a steep climb up that hill. As I walked slowly up the incline pushing my bike, I was reminded of the fact that walking your bike isn’t that much easier than riding it up a hill. It’s still work and it’s still difficult. The only real difference is that you don’t usually fall down if you go too slow when you walk. Especially if you’re using cleats.

After walking about 3/5th of the way up the hill, I began riding again. The grade was much less and riding was easier than walking. As I slowly made my way to the summit, I looked to my right and saw a breathtaking view of the cumberland valley and hills below. Note to self: bring a camera for next ride.

All-in-all it was a great ride in spite of my performance. The only way I know how to improve is to keep riding, so I’ll be doing it all over again tomorrow. 🙂

Distance: 10.03 miles
Ride Time: 0:58:21
Average Speed 10.39 mph
Maximum Speed 36.0 mph

I don’t know what it is about a misty overcast day, but those days, more than any other, are the days that I really want to go riding. As luck would have it, that’s exactly what today was here in Nashville this morning. It’s been months since I’ve been riding and it’s become a “I’m getting around to it” thing. I keep meaning to go, but I never seem to find the time. The biggest hurdle has been getting up in the morning. I’m not much of a morning person and for some reason, I’ve been unable to get my butt out of bed and onto the bicycle. With Daylight Savings Time ending, I figured today would be a good day to get a jump on waking up early. I could wake up at 6am and it’d feel like 7am. So I set the time on my pa1mOne Tungsten C back one hour and set the alarm for 5am. What the heck, if I’m going to wake up early, let’s really wake up early. 🙂

The alarm went off at 5 and I reset it for 5:30, then for 6:00 and that’s when I dragged my butt out of bed. The only problem was that the Tungsten C took it upon itself to update the time. So in effect my alarm was set back two hours and not one, thus it was 7am, not 6am. Normally my perfectionism will kick it at this point and I’ll decide to scrap the ride, but when I saw that it was misty and overcast, I threw “reason” aside and went out for a ride anyway.

It took me a little longer than I would have liked to get ready. I couldn’t find my shorts, or my jacket, or my tool kit, or my pump – well you get the idea. Even with the delays, at 8:00am I was out the door and coasting down the hill Ahh, the joy of a quiet ride on a misty morning. I love it!

My hope is that I’ll begin riding every morning for an hour, so my plan was to find a loop that would take about an hour to ride. Although we live in the city, we’re very lucky to have plenty of country roads just behind our subdivision. It’s starting to become more developed, but so far the roads are still low traffic and a lot of fun to ride. As I made my way down Petus and then on the Old Hickory, I noticed that my chain was not engaging the freewheel like it should. It make the few small climbs I had a bit of a bitch because the chain was bouncing around all over the place.

Eventually Old Hickory met with with Petus again, so I started to make my way back home. As I begin climbing a pretty decent sized hill, my chain went nuts. I tried throwing it into a low gear to try and have it catch and the chain ended up wedging between the freewheel and the spokes. As Juliet quickly came to a grinding halt, I was about to rip my foot out of the cleat just at the last second and catch myself before I fell to the ground. After a few minutes, I had the chain back in place and Juliet and I were no worse for the wear. In fact, after the chain was back in place, it shifted perfectly from there on out.

As I turned on to Blue Hole Road and back towards my subdivision, I looked at my cycle computer and noticed that it had just been over 30 minutes. I wasn’t ready to quit riding yet. My legs had done surprisingly well and my butt was holding up just fine. I could have made the loop one more time, but that didn’t appeal to me too much. Just when I thought my ride was going to be short, I remembered a paved path about a mile or so away that I wanted to explore. Woo hoo – the exploring could continue!

I made my way across Bell Road and over the Interstate to Antioch Middle School. Across the street from the school is a path called Mill Creek Greenway. It’s part of the Nashville Greenways system and offers walkers, joggers and cyclists a nice safe area in which to exercise. There’s a great PDF brochure about the entire Nashville Greenway system at this link. I’m not so big on these kind of paths, but I’d really like to get Holly riding her bike with me and figured this might be a good place for her to begin riding again. Once she’s comfortable with her bike again, we can then venture out to more exciting destinations.

There was a big sign that displayed a map of where I was and where the path led. Mill Creek Path consists of a half-mile loop and about a half-mile straightaway that will one day connect with other sections of the Nashville Greenway. At least that was what the map said. “Maybe they’ve extended it further since the map was drawn?”, I thought. Since there was only one way to find out, I took off down the path.

The path itself is about six feet wide and paved with smooth as butter blacktop. Every so often the path will cross Mill Creek with a wide metal and wood planked bridge. It’s a fantastic path and the bend and small climbs make for a very pretty and scenic ride. The only negative is that the path parallels I-24 so you’re always within earshot of traffic. I don’t see that as a huge negative, but some might. The only thing I found disappointing was the fact that the map was correct – the trail ended after approximately half of a mile.

I did notice that there was a wide stone and dirt trail that continued. It was about the same width as the paved path, so I thought that perhaps they were working on carving out the trail further and decided to continue on. After some large stones, the trail became a hard pack, so I could continue riding. After a few hundred feet the trail began to climb and with the climb came mud. I have fenders and fairly wide tires for a road bike, but the mud was about two inches deep and quickly began clogging everywhere. I had mud caked in the fenders, the bottom bracket and all over my cantilever brakes. I hopped off the bike and walked on a little further only to see that the trail turned to the south, heading back towards the start of the path. Clearly this was a dirt trail loop that did not connect to other paths. 🙁

Slugging my way back to the path, I used a stick to scrape out all the mud I could. Without a hose there was no way I was doing to clean out all the mud. I was simply going to have a little drag as I rode home. Oh well, not like this hasn’t happened before, so I hopped back on my bike and followed the path back to the loop. I took the loop around back to the start of the path so that I could experience the entirety of the Mill Creek path. It’s short, but it’s a very nice path overall. Hopefully I can take Holly here next weekend.

I made my way back home and when I turned onto my street, I immediately bailed and dismounted. I don’t know what the incline is on my street, but it’s a steep hill for sure. Although my legs had done really well today, considering my lack of exercise, I knew there was no way I was going to make it with the mud all over me. I had plenty of drag on the wheels for one, but my cleats where packed with mud as well. This meant that I couldn’t really cleat in properly and my feet were barely on the pedals. My personal “Moby Dick” would have to wait until another time.

Overall, it was a great ride. I’m full of energy now and I can’t wait to ride again in the morning. If I didn’t have so much work to do today, I’d be out there right now. 😀

Distance: 12.66 miles
Time: 1 hour 13 minutes
Avg Speed: 11.6 mph
Max Speed: 34 mph