Big Ride, Little Me?!?

 So I've been busy at work, in last 2 weeks or so I've commuted into work 8 times in last call it 16 days where thats 2 or 3 extra over normal (usually 2x a week).  

Then I went on a decent ride after work.  The custis is REAL!   950 feet of climbing versus the 350 of my normal commute.   

 So this morning I got out my scale and weight in, post some water, post a cup of coffee, post some yogurt.

 

197.2.  Down almos 12 pounds since my last weight in when the work ship show kicked off 2 weeks ago.  Yes I'm down some skelly bone mass and some muscle mass, but thats a bit and my body water weight percentage?  Up near near 2.5% over my typical 55.  So I'm not super dehydrated.   Holy weight loss batman.

 

Fun ride other than the 3 big climbs.  Last 2 miles of WOD is a shit show of people walking and riding badly.   Then 4 mile run is a mess with the construction/etc.  Then MT vern from airport upto the bridge by FDT KCenter, especially near the airplane watching space is a mega shit show of stupid people, stopping, standing and crazy ivan turns (hunt for red october reference).

But also may explain general tiredness last few weeks besides the stress.  Maybe lightest since maybe early 10's.   I've been at 200 or just a hair below a few times in past few years.

Wow.  

I'm off to eat some Bob's Oatmeal. 

It's all about the Bibs

 So first, I don't heavily identify as a Mamil.   But underneath?  Sigh.

 

So in riding once you make that jump to longer/regular rides eventually most sane people make the conversion from say Sport Underwear to some sort of padded bottoms.  In the 00's?  I had shorts with a washable padded liner.  For my short commute to work, it wasn't necessary (2.5 miles) but longer rides in the generally warm bay area?  Yah, especially on the MTB trails.

Later in the DMV region in the late 00's as I upped my riding especially in the early 10's I finally went from shorts to bibs and my posterior was rarely exposed (Yes I come from a LONG and illustrious line of folks who should be plumbers or cable repair/install based on how well pants cover the crack...sigh).   

So over the say 2010 to 2016 era as I was riding more and riding as part of a team for CX I bought bibs and some full kits for race days.  But after years, this year I decided to finally ditch 3 of my oldest bib sets.  They were doing more for friction than preventing friction/padding.  So i got recommendations on FB.  Lots of good ones.

 So I bought:

The Black Bibs w/Pockets - Good Pad, Nice to have pockets.  Wonky seams on the back especially for those pockets, a tad small in the legs for my spuds.   But overall nice material, and a pad I could see fine for up to 4 hours, no problems.

Primal Bibs with Omni Pad - I think a potentially better pad than the Black Bibs (and others).  Nice material.  Leg grippers that aren't too tight for me in the XL size.  No pockets.  Boo.  I think these will be my 6 hour set of bibs or so for longer days.

NeoPro - A decent pad.  But not a fan of the suspender material.  And in these ones I really might need an XXL if I ever ordered another set unless my legs magically shrink. Tight leg grippers but the one thing i do like is how the leg grips are setup/work versus the gel/silicon bands being exposed in all the others.  I probably need a longer ride in them to really get a feel for it, maybe today after work.

I'm probably going to order 1 more pair of the black bibs next month and I've already ordered another pair of Primal but with the next level of pad (helix).  But of course they sent that set Fedex and they hate my building as no doorbells and no one to sign.  

Final Gripes

• Powermeter battery seems....loose and so every few days - no more power meter on Fred.  Pull it, adjust....Back in Action.  Maybe a piece of tape to help hold battery in?
• Bars - I over rotated when I fixed them last week, they need a few degrees rotation down to a more flat position rather than the 2-4 gentle up level of current.  
• Saddle - Still need to get a better fitting saddle then eventual do a full bike fit.   
• Fendoors - I still need to figure out Fenders for Fred also.  With later April now being forecast for more rainy I need to get serious.   
• Chain Tracking System - Methodology to track the use of my Waxed Chains on Fred and Betty.   

 

Waxing 

Oy, on the subject of waxing....your chains.... I'm now on all 3 bikes having waxed chains.  Fred now has 2 chains in full hot wax dip rotation and Betty is on her 1st waxed and maybe willl have a 2nd chain in rotation.   It's SO much cleaner that not getting chain gunk on legs/pants/etc is still amazing.   But I'm really curious on how it will impact life of chains.  As a big guy I'm hard on them.  On MTB my last chain went for about 600 miles before being too stretched to not start causing wear.   And not sure on Fred either, I need to put the current chain on check soon actually.  It's got about 300-350, though only 100-120 are waxed.   

 Off to grab some Pizza for lunch then crank some writing for the remainder of the afternoon.

 

 

 

2 5 Stupid.

Instead of 6-7 like the tweens have been stuck on this past school year, lets stick to 2 5 and hopefully soon.  

 

Anyways someone asked me the other day how long had I been putting data into Original Recipe KFC (Blue) and New Recipe KFC (Orange)

Blue - Fall of 2010, though I was using there stuff maybe as far back as 2008?   No easy report.  BAH.  

Orange - May of 2013.  2400 logs in that since... 

 

For now I'm happy to get out and bike.  But lest ye forget, maintenace is a duty.  I again had another...fun....event with Fred at the end of last week.  I hit a bump in Gtown and the handlebars rotated down somewhere between 15 and Infinite Degrees.  Once again I was glad i was wearing pants.  I screamed like a kid.  I rode on a bit and took a break in Waterfront part to tighten the top 2 bolts on the stem face to about 2 uga-dughs.  That is a technical torque measurement when using a battery torque wrench, unfortunately all i had was a wimpy mini wrench.  I need to get it back a tad higher.

And I also noticed that the headset might be a weeeeee bit loose.  New bike blues?   Fred's at just under 500 miles and it's been since late December since he arrived and got ridden notably.    Makes some sense.

For future reference that's 5NM.  Sigh.  They were probably down in the 4's.  I'm also unsure if they are properly "pasted".  Would seem crazy.  I don't think I've been thru that much rain.   

 Due to work "FUN" with no emphasis on actual FUN I was in the office in DC all 5 days last week.  

 And I'm on track to be back in tomorrow. Sigh.  If it wasn't review season at work (doing my 5 pro staff) I'd be on the plan to take Friday off this week or next Tuesday.  But soon, it shall be at least 2 days off and away from tech (other the CP2077).   Oh well lots of bike.  Though hell I missed TNR last week due to work.  4 Commute days felt bonkers.  Maybe I'll half day tomorrow.