Something. Always something.

I got out for a forty six mile garvel grinder on the turgid single speed with Bill Nye on Sunday.  It's a good thing I did... I think.

It's the first ride I'd done on this bike since the day my squishy/shifty bike was dropped off at my house while I was out beating my dick off in DuPont a couple weeks before my wreck.  Since then, the bike has hung on the wall with a brand new Rekon 2.8 mounted to the front for the Breck Epic.

Then I broke myself and have been living in a state of meh ever since.  I've gained weight.  I've lost fitness.  I'd been spending all my free time getting the squishy/shifty bike ready for Breck in case I wasn't up to the task of riding the Vertigo Meatplow V.7.  I figured if I couldn't complete all six stages, I could at least volunteer and ride sad garvel all alone.

I've thrown everything I can think at my physical issues.  Medications from the back of the cupboard, KT Tape, Thermacare heat wraps, Biofreeze... you name it.

If I wasn't healthy enough to go long on a garvel ride, it's time to consider hitting the easy button (AKA Epic EVO).

On the long climb up Pineola Rd, I was not feeling it.  Swapping from seated climbing to standing, it wasn't the pain getting at me.  I just felt kinda weak.  I walked a stretch that back at the end of June I had no issues with towards the end of a 42 mile/6,300 feet kinda day (with trails) when I was sooo hungry and sad (and on the heavier Vassago with the exact same gear).

Then I membered something...

"member when you did TSE and you thought your saddle was slipping despite using the art$y fart$y heavy duty Engin seat clamp so you raised your saddle but then went home and realized that this is one of those Rock Shox posts that comes with a Vent Valve tool FOR A REASON so you use it and find out your post wasn't going to full extension but then mebbe you just stuck it back in the bike back to where the O-ring was after you raised it weeks ago... and mebbe you'd been riding with your seat post too high for months but because you'd been riding other bikes more than this one you'd keep forgetting to fix it?" 

Stop, drop...

Oh.

Huge difference.  I'm where I need to be seated and the transition to standing feels better, so...

What's that clunking noise?  Every third or so rotation at the cranks.  Thirty two teeth on a chain ring, mebbe a hundred links on the chain... ?

Nasty quick link?  Figure that out later.

Also stop to adjust front tire pressure because I was supposed to be figuring that out over the past month*, what with the new tire of a known unknown size and different than I'm accustomed to TPI sidewall and unfamiliar rubber compound and...

So many things.

I got through the ride without any stabbing pains, so that was good.  Just old man sore, and I could tell when my shoulder was getting cold that also means unhappy... so need to take care of that.

Basically, got home Sunday evening and decided to get the turgid bike ready for Breck.

What's that ticking noise?

I membered that I'd just had the chain in the sonic cleaner and lubed it a day or two prior.  When I was putting the quick link back in, it installed a little too easily.  Break out the chain checker...

I don't know how long I'd been on this chain but, I didn't think it could be worn out, but it totally was, so...

New chain day is the best day.

Unless something hurts me between now and then, I'll be sticking this bike in the travel bag Wednesday night.  The temptation to ride the squishy/shifty bike is strong, but...

Dunno.  I'd just been envisioning this year's Breck on this bike, and I don't know how to break outta that mold.  I'll also be squishing and shifting a lot when I get back from Breck at the Shenandoah Mountain 100 and then an east coast road trip that will hopefully put us at Snowshoe for the World Cup race(s?).

Unless something happens, I'm checking out until I get back August twentieth something...

Not that I think something is gonna happen, but that's not how somethings work.

Is it possible to be excite and pensive at the same time?

* The answer was 11PSI... I think.  Doesn't matter because the heart wants what the heart wants.

The Minion DHR II+ 3.0, the BFT, The Darkness AKA My Old Friend.  We know each other well, and there's a level of trust here.  I don't want to drag it 40,000 feet up, but I don't mind being behind it going down... so there's that.  This is the last new one I own.  I don't know if they're even going to make this tire anymore, but I'm running low on YOLO, so... use it or put it in my will.