fun in the sun: extra weight

i took my camelbak today, plus a water bottle, for a grand total of about 124 oz of fluids.

i planned for a big long ride, and i got it. well, i did a little less than i wanted for today, however, i made decent time and executed solid technique. 47 miles in 3:15, which i guess comes out to not so great a speed. 2875 feet of climb. what's more important than all that, though, is that today's ride brings my weekly mileage to 88. yay me!

the route:

crystal springs up to 35 to bunker hill to that first road at the top of bunker hill, out to polhemus, down ralston trail, over Horsecrap Bridge, on to canada, chat with Bowdler and his family for a bit (he's lookin trim! it's because he's drinking beer again), canada to woodside to whiskey hill, up sand hill, around all the way to alpine, down alpine to junipero serra, out that road about 3 miles (shoulda done 4.5, doh), u-turn, santa cruz to alameda, alameda to ralston (i finally managed to make the proper turn when alameda becomes discontinuous, another yay me) up ralston for a final challenge (hey, it's got 6-8% grade! just what I want at the end of my ride!) and then down thru the obstacle course.

my new dingus has, in addition to its altimeter (actually, in concert with, i'm sure), a thermometer. so i can tell you that it was 92F as i clumb ralston, it was 85+ for most of the rest of the route. i suspected as much which is why i took my camelbak. it didn't matter much at the end of the ride, but i suspect that the extra 10lbs (plus the 2lbs from last night's beer excursion) dragged me down on the early hills. maybe it was just my imagination, but it felt like i was working harder for the Same Old Same Old.

i dont think anybody honked at me today. weird.

i kept up with some dudes on canada and paced them for whiskey hill, passed them on portola. they seemed to be in good shape, with good technique and all. i dont quite understand how i manage to pass some people. usually i pass people and then they pass me on the next hill, but that did not happen this time. that's the closest i came today to camaraderie.

my left upshifter is stuck-ish again. last time some lube on the derailler seemed to fix it, i hope this time it's the same deal. the upshot of this is that i forwent shifting to my granny in several places where i would have, because shifting out of it might actually topple my bike, with the amount of force it currently takes to upshift the big wheel. i got a better workout, i reckon.

man, this "pc sport" program that came with it is buggy as hell. portions of it are unlocalized from the german, it crashes all over the place, and random things (like "copy chart to clipboard") plain don't work. but at least i can rest easy in my knowledge that no scientologist's code has gone into it. whew!