Ego Boost

[MrSteve]

I was on my home turf this morning, a very familiar road.
It's a favourite with the local lycra crowd (D.F. cyclists)
who actually drive their bikes here to ride!
-I'm so lucky.

So anyway, I'm all warmed up after six miles, when a pair of
young women, fit young women, pass me going the other way.
They wave.
I wave, smiling: my turnaround is where they had just come from.

I notice that they are not pushing too hard:
-they'd just started their ride;
-they are not in the drops, but riding with their hands resting on their brake hoods,
and they are both wearing rather large Kamelback (sp?) backpack style
hydration systems.
My guess is that they were pacing themselves for a long ride.

Good!
:twisted:

I passed them both while pedaling downhill, at a pretty good clip.

The ego boost?
One of the pretty lycra-clad women called, to my rapidly receding back,
"looking good!"

Can you say, "recumbent grin?"




-Steve

 

[MrSteve]

Ego Busted

So here it is, almost a year later...
the local riding season is -intermittently- here.

After a four month layoff and at least ten pounds heavier than I was last Fall, I took the Sofrider
off of the trainer and went for an actual ride.

As is my nature, I pedaled as fast as I could, intending to turn around when I
felt tired.
That only took three miles.

(That was a shock!)

The turn-around point I chose was at the peak of a hill:
coincidentally, right in front of an approaching D.F. rider!
What good luck.

I dug deeper and turned on the gas.
With the slight tail wind, I cruised at 27MPH for a few miles, my chaser looking quite
small in the rear view mirror.

Then, with the slight uphill grade of the last mile, my speed dropped to 22MPH
-and my pursuer (who was in his drops) passed me handily.

It was only a little bit longer than six miles, but my first ride of the season was a good one.

 

[JonB]

Re: Ego Busted

yakmurph wrote: So here it is, almost a year later...
the local riding season is -intermittently- here.

After a four month layoff and at least ten pounds heavier than I was last Fall, I took the Sofrider
off of the trainer and went for an actual ride.

As is my nature, I pedaled as fast as I could, intending to turn around when I
felt tired.
That only took three miles.

You are not the only one :-(

Here is a related comic http://www.yehudamoon.com/index.php?date=2011-03-11

 

[MrSteve]

Re:You Are Not the Only One.

Yes, I'd read that comic before.
The character in the comic left his legs behind, while I'd left my conditioning behind!
After all, if I remember correctly, my average speed for that six mile sprint was
around 20mph.
Very quick, for me!

It's coming back though.
Yesterday's ride was 10 miles at a more manageable pace
and my average speed was 17.5mph.

Where do you write about your Mango velo. experiences, Jon?
I'm interested.

 

[JonB]

Re: Re:You Are Not the Only One.

yakmurph wrote: Where do you write about your Mango velo. experiences, Jon?
I'm interested.

I do not write about my Mango experiences, and right now it is not even in my hands any more. It is in for repair (I scratched it), lower gearing and new brakes (that hopefully work). I MISS it, and the waiting time has been bad, bad. + 5 kilo :-(

I have too much stuff to write about already so I do not see me making a blog any time soon. I bought a GoPro Hero HD that I used while driving home from the Netherlands in my Mango, but it is still unedited here 6 months later.

I write a computer magazine (in Danish) and the little time I have for other writtings go towards the local Danish recumbent club magazine. Once I have the stories, usually reviews, posted in the Danish recumbent magazine I translate it to english and sent it to Velo Vision.