A bloody ride

My training buddy from kickboxing, Mario and I hooked up for a bike ride on Old Plank Trail this morning, somewhere Mario has never been and a treat for me, as Nicks in England I could have easily blown off exercising this weekend and stayed in bed, especially seeing as its 55 degrees out and bitter cold. blarghhh

We met at the Grainery in Frankfort at 7am and it was the first ever outing for my new tri bike, its been sat on the trainer since I collected it from Performance Bike, so I was a little nervous. We headed east and thankfully the cold weather and early start meant the trail was empty (I didnt even see one of my running group members which is pretty strange).

I soon relaxed into my ride and had a great low cadence for the first 9 miles, we both really flew and didnt stop chatting. On the way back the wind kindly changed direction and it was a very cold struggle for me. My anaemia means I tire out around mile 14 which is a real problem as most of my planned cycle races are over triple that distance.

Mario's knee :(

Closer to home we stopped to cross a road and in our rush Mario couldn't unclip fast enough and crashed out onto his knee and into my bike. Thankfully he completed missed my left foot but his knee was pretty badly hurt. 

This was the first ride where I wore my new ACE wrist supports too. I have carpal tunnel in my left wrist so both wrists need a bit of extra added support and I really liked them, I didnt notice wearing them the whole ride. 

I filled my sports bottle with Cytomax kindly introduced to me by Kelly the Culinarian, but I would have rather have had hot steaming tea!!! brrrrr

Really? who stole the other half of my new can???

After the ride, we sat and enjoyed coffee outside of Always Open (which secretly isnt always open) and I started chatting with a few member of the Folks on Spokes club. Really nice people, I feel I have successfully infiltrated their group and hope to ride with them very soon. :)

Riding the Plank

Im training for a couple of significantly long bike rides due to the fact that I probably wont be able to seriously run again until 2015, thats right another 2 years. If I cant marathon on my feet then I can marathon on my butt right?

I recently purchased a new bike but I wont get it for another week, because Performance Bike are assembling it and fitting me to it but more on that later.

Nick and I signed up for the Tri Smart 101: Ride to Support Breast Cancer Research in September. With routes of 10, 38, 61, 77 and 101 miles along low-traffic roads, rest stops roughly every 20 miles with beverages and snacks, as well as SAG support, I intend to rock out the full 101 where Nick will bail at mile 38 #soproud.

 

Hes still refusing to wear a jersey!!

As, Nick only has a heavy duty mountain bike, yesterday I had the pleasure of accompanying him to Richards Bikes in Palos Heights for a fitting. My hubs is clearly out of the normal bike fitting realms at 6ft 7 and will probably need something made for him. But after some great customer service by assistants, who clearly know what they are talking about, we left with a brand new Trek for him. (whatever)

After last weeks training on his mountain bike, the tall one positively flew this morning. There was some feedback(bitching) about the "sharpness" of the seat but other than that he was a very happy bunny. 22 miles in 1hr 50, not fast but we did have to stop at every road to cross and the wind kindly changed direction and speed on our return leg.

He doesnt know it yet, but Im planning a midweek interval ride for him :)