My longest ride ever

Yesterday, Alex and I went for a 58 mi bike ride (this is the approximate map).  It was too cold, and I had a lot of neck pain, but the ride was great overall.  I think the cause of my neck pain is a combination of not being used to the new riding geometry and neck muscle weakness.

We went on three other rides last week.  They were all quite uncomfortable from my bike being poorly fitted to me.  I got it adjusted on Saturday, and the re-fitted bike is quite a different and welcome ride.  Of the 4 rides (~106 miles), I've fallen off the bike twice--not a great track record with the new pedals.  I've got some wicked bruises on both elbows, both legs (from the handlebars), and the back of my head (well a bump anyway).  They're kind of awesome!  As is the dent in my helmet (left middle--I obviously landed on a pebble, though it felt like a hammer):

And these are from the ride yesterday:

County road 73 where we turned to go to Riverhead.  This road was the fastest section of the whole ride averaging ~20mph.

Me on Sound Avenue waiting for my feet to regain feeling.

Sound Avenue, it looks completely flat.  It was not.

All of this riding will be better when I no longer have a caffeine withdrawal headache on top of everything; every time we were riding over rough road and potholes, I stood up to try to avoid jarring my head.

Alex wrote up a much more thorough version of the ride over here.

Awesome Pictures (with a side of emo whining, sorry)

So ever since they increased the tough mudder distance to 10 miles, it seems impossible.  Coupled with the fact that since I ran the 5k at the Toxicology conference (my fastest 5km ever at 28 minutes), my knee has been problematic.  It hurt quite a lot during the race then for the rest of the day.  It's been popping a lot when I walk since then.  I feel like i won't be able to run any of the Tough Mudder at all if I want to be able to walk afterwards, but I feel really bad about the idea of not participating.  So in summary: I've lost all motivation to run and I'm not feeling particularly excited about anything at the moment.  I'll stop with the depressing emo bulshit and update when I'm feeling a little more happy and healthy.

I do have some pictures though.  The DC convention center had some weird art.

Then these are the two sides of the sign I made for the Planned Parenthood Rally for Women's Health that we went to in the City (also the rally for Wisconsin solidarity earlier the same day--I was chanting to support unions).

A Week of Firsts

I did my first ride of the season on Monday.  It was just right around Stony Brook, but it was lovely.  Cold, and I fell off my bike, and my bike seat seriously needs to be adjusted, but lovely.  This was the first time I used my new clipless pedals (worst name ever as my being clipped in precipitated my falling over).  We stopped on the side of Old Field Road on the way to Old Field Light House.  My right foot was unclipped and touching the ground but my left foot was still clipped in.  I somehow overballanced to the left and the next thing I know I'm on the road.  I just barely skinned my left knee and I have an awesome bruise on my left elbow.  My arm is still sore two days later.

The bike seat is rock-like in hardness, but the main problem was that is was oriented so my weight wasn't distributed properly.  There was way to much pressure on my pubic bone--so much that even putting my hands on the drops briefly was pretty uncomfortable.

We planned to do another lunch ride today, but I'm exceedingly sore from ballet last night (we did all this weird new stuff working on turn-out).  And I'm going off caffeine starting today.  I imagine by lunch I'll have a headache.  But maybe that won't start until after.

 I also used my new cast iron skillet/griddle for the first time last night.  The results were AWESOME.

A Kind of vegan cheese steak sandwich thingy.  So awesome.


I feel like there was some other first as well, but I forget now.