Reboot

Distance: 57.2 miles

Time: 3:08:55

Avg. speed: 18.16 mph

Weather: 56-76º, humidity 91-57%, wind N2-NNW6

Song stuck in head: Someone Keeps Moving My Chair - They Might Be Giants

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Finally back on the bike yesterday (Saturday) after an 11 day lay off. Even though I planned to take some time off, I should have done some indoor trainer spin sessions in the early evening this past week. The "guilt" from not doing any workouts last week was beginning to stress me out.

My weight rose by 5 lbs. over the hiatus which came as no surprise: I paid no attention whatsoever to what or how much I ate. There was much fried food, pancakes and even a lobster bake to contribute to the added bulk. It will be interesting to see how quickly I drop back down to around 165 or so.

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Della and I did the old Acton Lion's Club route that runs from Acton-Boxboro High School, clipping the NE corner of Maynard, into Sudbury, Wayland, Lincoln, Concord, Carlisle and back to Acton.

At just before 7 a.m., the weather was what I should come to expect for the next few weeks: cool enough to tempt me to put on the arm warmers and/or and extra layer under my jersey. But I anticipated that it would warm up enough that I wouldn't need any additional insulation so I left the arm warmers off.

We planned on keeping the pace moderate and pretty much did so the whole way, with only a couple of short stretches where we each pushed things up over 20 mph across the flats.

Many of the route markers had either faded significantly or had been paved over so we found ourselves doubling back on a few occasions to find the right way. It was nice to find the Lincoln side of Trapelo Road finally repaved – I hope they continue that project eastward into Waltham as that road is a favorite route into Belmont, Cambridge and beyond.

I felt pretty good for the whole ride, no aches or pains apart from a headache that started about halfway through and continued to the end. Plenty of creaks coming from the rear wheel and BB, though. After the ride, I discovered a few spokes had rotated out of line and so adjusted them with a little plastic tool I picked up at Landry's last week.

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Today, I finally replaced the stinky bar tape I've been suffering with since the rains of June.

I also double checked the setup on the Bianchi to see how far off it was from the Lemond. Turns out, the Bianchi has 170mm cranks while the newer bike sports 172.5's. That explains why even though the BB-to-saddle-top measurements were the same, the saddle on the Bianchi felt lower. So I lined up a crank with the seat tube on the Lemond and measured the distance from the top of the pedal to the top of the saddle which I then matched on the Bianchi – I think this would be a better way to get the two bikes close in fit.

Next, I dragged the Bianchi back down to the basement and set it back up on the trainer. Now I'll have no excuses when it comes time to ride indoors.