My Bike-Affair!

Event: Bike
Total mileage: 18.8 miles
Ave speed: 13.2 mph
Max speed: 19.5 mph

Today I biked to work for the first time since the triathlon (which I still have to blog about). I need to/want to take my mountain bike in for a tune-up, and the road bike...well, we were having difficulties in our relationship. The problem? Well, first we were having derailer tension problems, then I was thinking it was too small for me, then the toe cage straps were on upside down... But I woke up early today. I started putting away laundry, and thought, this is stupid, do this later and bike to work! It's a beautiful day! So I rethreaded my cage straps and hit the road.

Yes, this bike isn't fitting me right, I concluded. How so? Like my center of gravity was too high, like I felt cramped behind the bars but uncomfortably thrust over them, like the angle in my knees wasn't quite right. And then a miracle happened--it is father's day!--and only my first 3 appointments were booked so I got out of work early--on a beautiful Sunday day when I had my bike--what joy! So I road down to Turin in Evanston and inquired for assistance with sizing my bicycle.

Mark helped me. I love Mark. He was patient and knowledgeable, and he smiled at my not-so-funny-Mary-style-jokes. He spent an hour and a half with me and his conclusion was that I didn't need another bike, but that I should ride this one, at least for this season. Incredible! I was so ready to be talked into buying a new bike, and said as much, so... Mark at Turin in Evanston is great.

Mark used a bunch of tools to measure my body. My inseam is shorter than the tool so we had to improvise that one. :) My arms are the same length. My torso is abnormally long for my legs, but this of course I already knew. Which means that I'm NOT a good candidate for a Women Specific Design bicycle because those are tailored to women with longer legs and shorter torsos. So it's a good thing I didn't win that Trek contest (I didn't, by the way. I finally found out).

He locked my bike into some contraption that allowed me to pedal. He adjusted that seat height, I had it set on the high end of acceptable. He measured my knee angle, and used a plumb line to figure out if my patella as over the pedal. He adjusted the angle and front-to-back of my seat. But the biggest adjustment was his suggestion of the removal of the handlebar extension that Deb, the women from whom I bought the bike, had had installed.

The problem with the handlebar extension was that it raised the handlebars above the level of the seat AND brought the handlebars back as the bar is on an angle. NOT GOOD. Because I needed them further away, and having them higher up was doing funky things to my mechanics. So for $10 the guys in the shop took them out. So much better! Then he watched me pedal and gave me advice on mechanics:

-Flatten the low back, as if I'm almost sticking my butt out.
-Support with the low back and core, not the shoulders and arms

Okay, so this bike fits me okay. It's on the small side, I'd probably perfer to stretch out a bit more, but it shouldn't cause me any injury. The main reason I want a different bike is that I'd like one with bigger wheels (so I can go faster, because fast is fun). The problem with my body is that I need 28" tube clearance or 48"/71-72cm frame, but I need 60cm in the horizontal direction and typically frames are made with the same measurements up-down and front-back. So I have a bike now with smaller wheels (which allows for the crotch clearance) and with the 10cm handlebar neck it's roughly 60cm horizontal. But...

Specialized makes bikes that have an angled horizontal bar, allowing for short leg-gers like me to straddle it, AND frames long enough to fit my long torso. After discussing with Mark my recent Triathlon, my biking history, and where I was thinking about going with this, his recommendation was to ride this bike this season (with the adjustments we made), then maybe next season consider getting a Tri or Multisport bike--with the bigger wheels! A "Multisport" bike is by Specialized that is basically a road bike with aero bars, which makes it more comfortable for long rides AND more maneuverable and easier to handle than a Tri bike. Tri bikes have a different geometry that put the rider more forward over the frame, supposedly putting more of the load on the hamstrings and less on the quads.

Mark and I walked around the shop and he told me lots of stuff about the geometry of different frames and the trends from one brand to another. It was awesome! He wasn't selling me anything! And he was super nice! (Unlike those Johnny Sprocket snotfaced-assholes). For the record, the guy who worked on my bike was super nice too. They weren't scornful in the way that so many Chicago-hipster-bicycle-shop-workers are.

So...basically, I'm ready to buy some shoes with clips and to get riding!!

Beautiful Hill Run, to Wetsuit or not to Wetsuit

Days to Batavia Triathlon: 43

Time of departure: 9:30am
Return: after brunch
Sunrise: 5:52am
Sunset: 7:46pm
Phase of the moon: Waxing Gibbous, 89% of the Moon is Illuminated

Temperature: 70s
Lake Michigan Temp: 44F-51F Not warm enough for swimming yet.

Route: Down the lakefront to the Montrose Hill, over, over, over... then down to the Diner for brunch.
Approx Distance: Not sure, really. 9:30am-11am
Running buddy: Alan Watts. Then Eric at the hill. Bernie/Bernard laid out in the sun and read a book, can you believe it?
Clothing: Shorts and a T-shirt.
Lake Shore Drive Activity: Noisy.
People activity: There was a 5K walk/run going on on the path. It had something to do with brain tumors. There were lots of people out and about doing lots of outdoor things. OH! and there were cute little kids playing soccer. Darlings!

What did I eat pre-run? Some saltines with almond butter and cherry preserves. Weird? Yes, and not recommended. It's better to stick with the dried fruit.
How did I feel? Tired. Crappy. My legs felt tired from the moment I woke up, and they still do.
What do I like about running? Oh, god, don't ask me. Today was hard. I suppose I like that with the increased body awareness that regular exercise brings, you can better gage what things your body likes and what it doesn't like. Knowledge is power.
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It's a matter of constant contention, between Eric and I, of what time we're going to run on Saturdays, or any other day. I prefer to run first thing. I like to wake up, get my crap together, and head out the door. Am I a morning person? Perhaps. Increasingly so. Though certainly, I wasn't born a morning person (ask anyone in my family). However, over the years I've decided that the morning is the best time of day and if you sleep in, you miss it. But that's not why I like to run in the morning.

I like to run first thing because it gives me less of an opportunity to procrastinate getting out the door. I'm more likely to find reasons to NOT run when I have more time to think about it. But Eric always want to push it back... I'm not sure why other than to sleep more? But I wake up at approximately the same time everyday so it's no gain for me.

And waking up at 7am when you've been out til 2am does not a happy runner make. Especially when you spent many of those late hours in a smoky bar.

But so anyhow, enough griping...

It was indisputably a beautiful day. Blue cloudless sky, warm sun, gentle breeze; the whole paradise thing. There were lots of little kids groups playing soccer, and they were adorable. I am not one of those people who, when they see baby clothes, starts gooing and cooing about how cute they are. (Except maybe for those baby Teva sandals I saw at an REI store once). But generally that's not me. However, apparently a group of pre-school or kindergarten aged girls playing soccer on a field the size of my living room, being coached by their doting dads, is enough to tic my biological clock.

While I was running down the path, I noticed route markers and Gatorade stands. The people tending the Gatorade were very protective of their booty and came forward to warn me off; I think they were afraid I was going to snatch some from under their watchful eyes. The event was a 5K Run/Walk for some kind of brain tumor. At 10am, the race must have started because at 10:03am I saw the first runners heading north. They were followed by a pack of slower runners. I went under the bridge at Lawrence Ave, and when I came out on the other side I saw a mass of people walking and wearing white shirts, packed shoulder to shoulder across the road that runs through the lakefront park. The sea of white shirts flowed off into the distance as far as my eyes could see, a huge mass of people walking for, presumably, something they believed in and thought was important. That's a pretty powerful thing. Images of protest marches came to mind, but somehow this was different, having more of the mood of a vigil than a march.

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After picking up with Eric at the hill, he and I got to talking on the subject of WETSUITS: to get them or not to get them. Since we'll be swimming in the lake together, it makes sense to decide to do the same thing.

Pros to getting wetsuits:
-Increased bouyancy: makes for easier swimming and SAFER open water swimming
-You have a longer swim season in the lake (ie. can tolerate colder temperatures)
-It seems that unless you are an EXTREMELY proficient and experienced triathlon swimmer, it seems to be recommend and expected that you wear. The woman at Running Away Multisport looked at me like I was crazy when I talked about NOT having one (and they don't sell them there, so she wasn't trying to sell me one).
-The Batavia June 10th Triathlon will have water temps in the 60s. That doesn't sound inviting sans wetsuit.

Cons to getting wetsuits:
-They're expensive (this triathlon thing IS more expensive than just plain old running... Of course it is, you've got gear for 3 events!)
-It's one more piece of gear for one more hobby that I'll have acquired that I'll have to find room for.

To rent or to buy:
-Well, I need to figure out the exact cost of renting one, and for how long a rental period is, but it looks like we're both leaning towards just buying them. That way we can use them all the time until the lake gets warm enough to go without.