Re:Cycling

dumb \ ˈdəm 1 a : lacking intelligence : stupid     This past weekend my buddy somehow talked me into riding a gravel race of 71 miles with 7,000 feet of climbing on single speeds. Um, but the event did not have a single speed division. So we signed up for our age group. We normally ride a gear ratio of around 42x16 around Raleigh, so with that much climbing, we decided we would run a ratio of 42x19.   Now there's nothing smart about running single speeds. Regardless of how much time and energy and thinking you do with choosing a gear ratio for a ride, it's inevitable that the gear you pick is going to suck at some point along the ride. This ride was no different. At times, I wished I had a 42x15 and other times I wished I had a 42x42, especially on the Whetstone Mountain climb: a 1 mile ascent at an average ...

Today I am reminded of why I love cycling: being outdoors, enjoying the (finally) beautiful weather (it was around 70±5 degrees today) on the ~5 hour jaunt. I rode from near Crabtree Valley Mall through NC State campus, through Dorthea Dix, over to Walnut Creek Trail to Neuse River Trail and then down to near the Clayton parking lot. Total mileage 63 miles. That's enough for a 100k ride, or a Gran Fondo...at least as far as Strava is concerned...and that's part of the fun, too, right? To earn those badges. I wasn't going out for a fast ride. I was going out for a ride, regardless of speed; just ride what I feel while listening to Matthew McConaughey's Greenlights memoir audiobook. I am really enjoying listening to that. In fact, on this ride, Connie and I have decided that the hardcover version will be in our future library. It's been raining a lot here, so the trails were still a bit muddy in places. Surprisingly the tunnel under I40 on Walnut Creek was just simpl...

 The idea here is that I will add some thoughts and stuff when I'm out riding my bike. Be it an event or just out tooling around. We'll see how this works out...