A final Saturday ride before the big event

Yesterday's ride was a great shake-down test after getting my bike back from the cycle shop for a major tune-up. Basically, I replaced my entire drive train (chain, rear cassette - the nine rear gears), and installed my carbon-fibre aerobars, which I had taken off during winter group rides. Aerobars are tremendously helpful, not only in making it possible to assume a compact aerodynamic shape on the bike when facing a headwind, it also provides an additional position to rest comfortably during a long ride. The only trouble is, you have to be really careful using them. Aerobars are inherently less stable than riding with your hands widely spaced in the usual position with regular handlebars - a fact I learned, rather painfully, when I hit loose gravel at 30 kph in Colorado a few years ago (http://www.pbase.com/kmsvw/rtr2006). I destroyed my helmet that day, but my brain was saved - a good reason to make sure you should ALWAYS wear one!

This 'shake-down' ride was quite important, mainly to ensure that the ergonomics of the bike and various components are working well. Even the smallest thing can make a difference. For example, I noticed about three hours into the ride today that my left toe clip was slightly twisting my left foot inwards, towards the bike. On a shorter ride this is not a big deal. However, today it was quite apparent that this was causing torque in my leg that created too much strain on my knee. A minor adjustment on the toe clip relieved the subtle strain, which might otherwise have led to a chronically painful and possibly serious problem long-term.

At Steveston, half-way through the ride, I met up with two friends from my cycling group Le Peloton. We retraced my steps back along No 6 road, then up River Road for a second time before heading home. Riding with these guys, both strong riders, made for a very fast ride on the return leg. After a while you forget about the pain and just rely on testosterone and adrenaline to see you through!

Here's a map of my 95 km (59 mi) ride yesterday... thanks to a new Garmin cycling computer I've installed just in time for the BIG ride next week. This unit is amazing. It tracks and maps the route through satellite GPS (accurate, believe it or not, to within 33 feet of my position!) and records, real-time, cycling speed, and cadence. Cadence is the "pedal stroke rate"... an important parameter as it tells me if I'm straining too hard on high gears before I manage to injure myself. Often I find my pedal stroke slows down before I am consciously aware that I'm using a gear that is to high for a given hill. When that happens, it's time to switch to a lower gear so that my cadence is usually clicking along at a nice, steady 90-100 rpm in all but the most impossibly steep hills. The unit also records heart rate (through a wireless pickup on a chest strap, so that I don't push myself TOO hard), altitude and even the grade of the road. Perhaps I'd better turn off those last two features. The less I know about those monster hills coming up on the trip, the better!!

If you're interested, here's the complete profile of the route, I took on Saturday, uploaded to the 'net', thanks to my new gizmo:

Richmond Delta Training Ride

BTW, if you do click on the link, you'll notice everything is in US miles. For us Canadians, there's a little link in the upper right corner that lets you switch the display to metric so that results are shown in kilometers.

If you are experiencing problems with the link, copy and paste the following URL directly into your Internet browser:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/7137806

I'll be training steadily between now and the start of the big ride on Saturday. The main thing now is to take great care and not overdo it. Only a few more days to go!!!