Mayday! Mayday!

[ornoth_cycling]

Well, things didn’t get much better after my last rant. The rain continued until yesterday, which was only the third day of sun all month. It has been, in fact, one of the four coldest Mays in recorded history.

Last week the Garage de Velo, a messenger-oriented bike shop near South Station, went out of business, and I swung by to see what I could scavenge. It actually wound up being pretty profitable, as I picked up a “compact, ultra-light” CarbOne mini pump to replace my hated Blackburn frame pump (saving 140g), as well as some minimalist SPD pedals to replace my bulky SPD-and-resin-platform ones (saving another 115g). I haven’t had occasion to try the pump yet, but the pedals seem to be solidly functional, despite being beat up and one-sided. Well worth the twenty bucks.

A few weeks ago I also broke the frame on my very pricey Rudy Project sunglasses. Not having the spare cash to replace them, I followed a pointer in a MassBike posting to http://www.safetyglassesusa.com/, which sells, as you might expect, industrial safety glasses. Now, safety glasses have come a long way in recent years, and I wound up buying a pair of polarized Radians Revelations ($10), a pair of Revelations with clear lenses for nighttime riding ($5), and a pair of stylish Crews Tremor with a blue frame and mirrored blue lenses ($6). Three pairs of glasses for about one-sixth of the purchase price of my old Rudy’s, and these, too, seem to do the job pretty adequately.

While I was at my writers’ summit I also had the bike in the shop, which included replacing the headset.

Of course, none of these purchases have helped my riding any. Friday I went out and did 40 miles, which was probably my first decent ride in a month. I was checking out a potential new commute, and I was really impressed by our Massachusetts roads. Having lived here for sixteen years, I understand the road system, but I swear I got lost a half dozen times by trying to follow a road (the Mystic Valley Parkway) which occurs in at least four distinct, non-contiguous segments in different areas! That’s gonna take a bit more scouting.

Then, yesterday being the only nice day of the month, I went and joined the Quad Cycles group ride, which went well enough until my legs simply gave out approaching Carlisle. From there on, I was the slowest rider in the group (and there are some real slow people on that ride). It was pure lack of muscle power and excess lactic acid buildup, undoubtedly because I haven’t been able to start my training yet. Very discouraging, but at least I don’t have to peak until August.