Recovery ride
The first ride of the year was a nice little 15-mile recovery ride. I set out with plans for at least 22 miles. I’ve simplified my mileage goal for 2007 to 4,000 miles, or 11 per day, so I thought I’d get a day ahead right off the bat.
Warm as it was, the winds knocked me down a bit. Before I’d gone a quarter-mile, I shortened the ride from a triangle with two upwind legs, to a simple out-and-back.
I was sore from yesterday’s 55 miler (and the following four mile ride to the grocery store and back). Recovery rides are to ease the pain, not add to it. So rather than battle the winds for the sake of a number, I shortened the ride.
The ride worked. About two-thirds of the way back, I suddenly felt like I could do a century. Instead, I added a victory lap to the end.
However, it’s been very weird to watch my standings fall all day at BikeJournal as more riders add their first miles of the year. I started in the top 100, and last I checked, was 516 540 544 552 554 572 588. This is especially troubling after slicing and dicing the stats all last night.
Counting outdoor mileage only, with 2,801.93 miles in 2006, I was
- 1,546 of all 6,536 riders who posted miles
- 422 of 1,481 male riders aged 40–49
- 33 of 156 all riders in New York State
- 25 of 112 male riders in New York State
- 7 of 35 male riders aged 40–49 in New York State
- 2 of 13 riders from Rochester, NY (does not include those who list their suburb as their location)
- 1 of 11 riders posting miles in the Rochester Bicycling Club
Not bad for a newbie.
I’m very glad I ran all those stats last night. Apparently, BikeJournal uses the same method to determine a rider’s age as USA Cycling does for racing age. It’s easy and consistent—This year − birth year = age. Still, it would have been nice to have a cake with this birthday.
Anyway, now comes the hard part.
After yesterday’s ride, I just didn’t have the energy to stand in front of the mirror and detangle my hair. My tail gets tangled something awful when I ride and wear a jacket. Something about the collar. It doesn’t seem to matter which jacket I wear, except my fleece is worse than the others.
Anyway, adding today’s tangles to yesterday’s and I may have to resort to scissors. I hope not.
On the other hand, it’s been nice to have a big, bushy ponytail for a day.
I’m thinking of maybe flipping my hair up under my skullcap to protect it from the jacket monster. Not sure how it will work. Maybe I’ll try it for TNUA tomorrow night.
Today I heard bike helmets referred to as “Styrofoam hats”. They’re mostly Styrofoam and you put it on your head, so I guess it’s an accurate description. For some reason it struck me funny and I’ve been laughing about it ever since.
Yesterday’s ride report is a work-in-progress. Check back for it. And for a hair report.
Hair report
It took a half-hour but I had to cut out only four small knots. The rest looks teased, but that should go away with a good conditioning in the morning.
