featured on a blog and battling through a long ride

I have some friends who rail against the idea of facebook and twitter, calling them time wasters and not good for much. I have long disagreed, with the argument that they allow you to connect with new people, and just as importantly reconnect with people from your past. One of those people I've reconnected with is Patrick Davis.

Following my freshman year of college, I returned home and worked at OfficeMax while taking classes at the local community college. I worked for Pat in the electronics department and he was always very kind to me, teaching me about music, art, and even led me to live the vegetarian lifestyle for 3 years until the doctors told me my body was dealing properly with that diet choice. We lost touch when I moved to Columbus, and it's amazing to see us both pick up cycling and hockey in the years between then and now.

Pat was kind enough to ask me a few questions and posted them on his well-written and photographed blog. I'm honored to be the subject of anything, especially when it's not the butt of Rachelle's jokes for once. Take a read, and make sure to look around for Patricks photos on the site. He has a real eye for it.

Saturday was our last really long training ride, planned for 55 miles with several of our teammates turned out to be a real adventure. We started with a group of 11 and somehow lost one of our most experienced riders within just a few miles. Our ride leader went back to find him, so we carried on led by a rider who knew the route but maybe didn't remember that this was supposed to be a 15 MPH ride; we went out a bit hot, averaging around 17.

Then we started climbing...

I have to tell you I was really happy with my ability to stay with the team for first 1/3rd of the ride, including some faster sections and some decent climbing. Yes, I was off the back a couple times, but I managed to catch up on the descent. Everything was going pretty well until on the backside of concord I head a loud POP! followed by the light tinkling of metal against metal. An all too familiar sound of a broken spoke.

Thankfully, I've learned a lot since the last time I broke a spoke; I dug out my multi-tool and used the spoke wrench to tighten up the wheel the best I could, and Rach and I headed to Wheelworks. A 6 mile ride back to the shop and $10 and 10 minutes later, and we were back on the road good as new. Days like that really make me love Wheelworks even more.

Pulling out of Wheelworks we were 30 miles in and needed at least 20 miles more. We decided to head up our normal route on the Minuteman to get in some relatively flat time in the saddle. As we made our way to the base of the trail there's a street crossing by a gas station. The past couple of times we've taken this route, I've tried to turn a gas station too soon and this time it cost me. As Rach called out to me that I was turning too soon, I managed to lock up my front wheel and down I went.

Lying on the pavement is something I've managed to avoid for the most part and thankfully this crash wasn't too bad. I wound up with scratches on my knee, ankle and wrist and a pretty decent scrape on my right thigh, but I was able to finish riding. Plus my new saddle worked out really well, which is a good sign for Patriot, now just 2 weeks away.

Notes: 

- The weather was beautiful this weekend, which gave us the opportunity to swim Friday. A little over a half mile on Friday, and I'm getting more comfortable with my wetsuit.

- I didn't run on Friday because my knees hurt from Thursday, so running every day got broken pretty quickly. But I did run on Sunday.