Got up and walked, for a change, over to the WWC for my swim. The pool was crowded again at the start but not as much as the previous day. I focused on lengthening my stroke for the most part, did some work with the swim pads to increase its power, but that is going to take some time. I just don't have a lot of upper body strength, and it shows here. I can start out well in the first 25 yds, but by the end of the 100 I am struggling to keep any power going. Did about 1500 yds of swimming, and I put down 32 minutes as my swimming time, although I took a number of breaks and was generally slow at the turns. Walked home and had breakfast, then I got ready for a bike ride. I avoided the construction in the neighborhood by heading north across the freeway to BVP. Up to Mary Ln, and then the climbing started. The Mary Ln climb is about 1.7 miles long and has some steeper sections. I got up to the top and then turned left onto Summit Dr, taking a nice, winding descent to San Pasqual Valley Rd. I turned right there and rode up to Old San Pasqual Valley Rd, which indicated it was a dead end. Signs were correct. I rode down to its end and then climbed back up, then a little further up by turning right on Cool Ridge Heights Rd and taking it until it dead-ended as well. Back down to San Pasqual Valley Rd, turning right and riding to Highgrove Dr, which turned out to be another dead end. Back down and right again to get to Summit Dr, where I turned right and found a road that went somewhere. It was a gentle climb up to a high point, and I turned left onto Idaho Ave to ride down to Citrus Ave. This is a fun descent, straight and the road is in decent shape. I turned right at the bottom and rode over to Mountain View Dr, where on an impulse I turned right again, just to see where it ended up. This climb had a little steepness to it, but I got up okay. I think this is the road that indeed goes through to Cloverdale Rd, but it goes through private property and thus isn't passable. I turned around and started riding back to Citrus Ave. Saw a turkey along the side of the road, my picture of it wasn't so great. I stayed on Mountain View Dr back down to Glenridge Rd, by the high school, to get back to BVP. Headed south to Boyle Ave and took it to Rose St and then over to Oak Hill Dr, where I turned left and followed the old route to yoga practice. Back to San Pasqual Valley Rd, turning right and then taking a left onto Grand Ave. I rode through town and got onto Centre City Pkwy heading south. From there, it was home the normal way across the freeway (I took the freeway on the way over as well), then up the last two little climbs. I had my second-fastest time, 7 seconds slower than my PR, on the climb up to the park. Wanted to get to 25 miles and 2000' of climbing, so I rode up W Bernardo Dr to Nevoso Way and then looped back to Aguamiel Rd. It was just starting to get warm at the end of the ride, but the temperature during the ride was actually pretty nice. This was a steady climbing day, no general hard pushes or much tempo riding.
Avg speed = 14.9 mph. Total mileage = 25.3 mi
Avg power = 134 W. Weighted avg power = 172 W
Total elevation gain = 2010'
Avg heartrate = 122 bpm (Coospo), 129 bpm (Fitbit)
The others were gone when I got home, so I watched some TV, had a fairly light lunch, then cleaned up some of my mess in the garage.
After work, Blair came over to take a look at my bike. I didn't have a lot of hope for success. I took the old chain off, and we compared it to the new one. A little more lateral flex in the old one, but other than that they were similar. He measured the stretch of the old chain and saw it was a little more than 0.5, which gave me hope, since that is the level of stretch where changing the chain is recommended before it damages the rest of the drivetrain. We then took off the cassette and looked at it. Everything looked fine after he explained what we should be looking for, including beveled edges of some teeth and sharp teeth in other areas, both to improve the speed and smoothness of switching between gears. I had thought some of the teeth were worn to sharp points, but he showed me the pattern of the gear teeth, and it made more sense. Then he put the new chain back on the bike, taking care to ensure the curved part of the links were next to the gears, for both the chain and the master link. This is probably where I screwed up. It was smooth on the stand when we spun it (he also used the chain breaker tool to lock the master link). So I rode it and it worked! I only figured out the reason later as described above. Importantly, he then noticed that my front fork was loose, and he offered to help figure out how to tighten it back up. We both worked to determine how to loosen the fork and access the bearings. It involves loosening the screw on the collar, then gradually spreading out the fork tube from the stem. There are two spacers that are two pieces each, so that they can be removed without taking the fork off. Very clever. Once those were off, he was able to get at the tip and bottom bearings, cleaning and lubricating them with his ceramic bearing grease (I can use regular grease instead). Everything was cleaned and lubricated, but he couldn't remove the play in the front fork when he put it back together. He figured out (!!!) what the hole in the top of the stem was for, and that was key to the solution. There is a special tool that comes with the bike that can be turned to push the bearings together and tighten the fork up. It was in the shipping box, along with some of the other tools that came with the bike (including special bits for some of the components). Once we found the tool, he used it to snug down the fork, ensuring that it wasn't over-tight, which would cause the steering to bind up. Then he torqued the headset locking screw back up, and voila! The creaking that I thought was coming from the drivetrain was gone. Wow! The bike now shifts well and doesn't creak. I was ecstatic. We went to Ponce's for dinner. Minor note there, I had gotten a Groupon for the restaurant, but I didn't notice it was for the Kensington location. Minor issue after the major bike repair success. He blew off a lot of steam about the turmoil at work, and I listened and offered some advice and guidance. All in all, a very successful evening, thanks to his bike mechanic intuition.
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