Monday, September 17, 2007

Nice Ride

I took a short ride tonight.  I have some stuff to do around the house plus I didn't realize that I would be racing daylight.  For the first time, I mixed up some homemade power gel.  I'm not a super-mega-racer.  I don't even know what GU is.  I just know that if I bike more than an hour, I need to eat, and I've tried Clif Shots and they worked for me.  Fast Guy said that he had a recipe for some homemade stuff.  He wasn't around when I wanted to make it so I looked on the internet, and found something that looked like it might work.  I wanted something liquid.  It's just easier to deal with.  I tried it for the first time tonight and it worked well.  Intsy asked, "How was it," and she said I made a face when I answered.  I really didn't think it tasted that bad.  It's palatable.  The consistency and color are better than a chocolate Clif Shot.
 
I decided to try to stay in one gear tonight.  Partly to see what it would be like to ride a singlespeed and partly because my derailleur needs to be adjusted.  That was a mistake.  I remembered why I don't do that. It wrenches my back.  Part of it was cool, though. It made me go faster some areas.  It wasn't more dangerous.  It was just singletrack where I usually lose speed and don't push hard enough to go faster.
 
On Friday I was fast but today I only had glimpses of the speed.  It was all in the way I handled the bike.  I was off the seat and sometimes my weight was forward or back.  I leaned the bike instead of leaning with the bike.  I'll have to work on that some more!  It was a blast!  I think a handled the bike better than usual on Friday because I was not fatigued.  I actually had some energy.

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