It wasn't a fast ride, but we weren't trying to set any speed records and we were facing a headwind much of the way there. There were some initial errors in navigation. Syl's detour added a bit and got us off track to start with but was good to ride with him at the start. And we were still on familiar roads. I made a right turn and immediately picked up a shell that cut through the worn but dependable Durano Plus tires. Flat number 2 with them. I was alerted to the puncture by the rhythmic siss siss siss as the stans in the tube was being ejected. But i guess like with MTB tires you need to refresh the stans in them too. It sealed for 10-15 miles. Then started forming a plug then ejecting the plug and leaking some more, repetitively until flat. You can probably fact check my judgement on the distances by looking at the strava file. I haven't yet. Of course we didn't want to make the right turn but it gave DB and KOM Goldberg a chance to empty their bladders while the stans slowly plugged up the hole. Guess when you put it in a tube not only does it help the tube stay at pressure forever, well it keeps the liquid in there, although the active plugging stuff seems to get used up.
First flat for me on one of these long ride days so that's not so bad I guess.
KOM Goldberg was crushing it. He's been riding, running, working out and doing a good number of 100+ rides. He's fit and strong and has one kickass bike, every hill he walked away from DB and me. I like this faster stronger KOM Goldberg, not only is he an awesome guy we learned he also trained as a sommelier on top of everything else.
Once we got back on track, on the route their garmins picked up the colored line. We had one oops when DB had us go left on the return trace, but that was about it for issues with the navigation. Stopped at one place to get more water for KOM G and DB, i use the restroom, ate sandwich #2 of the day (mile 38 or so) and called Nixon to give him an update/estimate on arrival. We rolled in up into Myles Standish forest, and out on to Long Pond and over to 127 Camelot.
It was a bit of KOM G and me sitting in the wind, DB did a few pulls but i guess he forgot to charge the motor in his Willier or used it up in the first half as he would dangle a bit at the hills, but he stuck with it and never complained and always caught back on and generally is just one of the good guys to ride with, always funny, gracious and stuff. Can never say enough nice things about Goldberg though, that kind of goes without saying. It was an awesome day pedaling.
Nixon offered up a taster rack of his 8 beers on tap, and wow, they are amazing, each one distinctive and different and complex and delicious. Which is rare it seems, usually you wind up having beers from one brewery all kind of tasting the same, this is not the case over at Independent Fermentations. So part of the goal was born out of talking with Paul at Connamesset farm race this fall. Ride out and get some hop flowers and the rest to get some SEM images and create a NANOSCAPE collection of the ingredients in beer.
Before leaving yesterday morning I stuffed a handful of ziplocks into my pocket with the sandwiches, battery back up for the phone and that's about it. Not much. Traveling kind of light. Filled the bags with stuff. The yeast proved to be the most challenging though. Paul cracked the settling valve and we put a tiny bit of some super foul baby poop smelling stuff in a bad. Mostly dead yeast, but should be some live ones in there. It was pretty funky. I washed that bag off and then put it in the 4th bag to seal it up. But i didn't really wash my hand after, maybe bad omen? Or not. Not sure. I'll know more when I get into work and check it out. I was going to do that today but, well I'm getting ahead of myself.
We eventually rolled out, samples in hand headed off Long Pond earlier than we got on there and had a great ride entering the Forest and College Pond road is fun as hell. Headed out and headed home. I gave one of my sandwiches to DB at the brewery, KOM G had packed a big pile of slowly disintegrating almond butter sandwiches and was okay DB is new to my crazy and well I usually roll self sufficiently. It was all good though, rolled into Berkeley and stopped at the DD to get some iced coffee (and KOM G got some water). 79 kind of sucked, we should have taken the same route there and back, much nicer. i ate my last sandwich and we rolled out. Climbed up to the Dighton water tower, then down and up and down and into Warren and then onto the bike path. Some teenage boy was skateboarding, sucking on a ring pop and kind of riding around like a douche and there was a lot of traffic and he managed to take a women out on her bike. She had a brilliant standing dismount and her riding partner went absolutely apeshit bananas and we rolled on leaving the drama and DB behind. He caught up and we cruised home. 115 miles or so.
I was tired. but still managed to get cleaned up, head to the store, grab stuff, bring dancer home and make everyone dinner. Fell asleep no problem but...
woke up with major reflux. I never get it, maybe once or twice in the past, enough that i know what's going on, but lying there tasting the salad working its way back up? Not good. Prop myself up with pillows, ahh better, fall asleep, slip down to normal positions and then repeat. 1:30am to 3:30 was spent like that. Woke up and has hot and cold sweats, too hot, then too cold, just not right, something was up something was weird. Body was not happy. Made coffee, had a few sips, and just got into bed, to sleep for a little bit before riding into work. Little bit turned into sleeping until puking at 11:45 when I got up to maybe contemplate getting in for the 1pm meeting. Got up, coughed and "hey that's not a normal cough... oh shit" An hour later the other end let loose. All cleaned out. But zero appetite and tired and achy. And back to bed. Couple sips of water mixed with a sip of coffee to hopefully medicate the addiction/headache (it worked actually although tomorrow is likely to suck sooner than normal).
I dunno what it was/is. Something I'd been carrying around and the ride kicked my ass enough that it took over? Something in the salad? Perhaps. Something picked up along the way? Poop flying off one of the guy's wheels? Could be not washing my hands after collecting the stinky stuff? Unlikely but i dunno, other than I haven't been this leveled in years. The dogs hung out with me and slept in bed with me to keep me company and make sure I was okay. only nudging my arm/hand for pets when i was awake.
Total mileage for the year is just under 2k. Not many miles really. That's the tale of the spring and not riding much. 510 of those miles are since the 1st of May. 115 yesterday. Kind of maybe over did it? But hey i'm leading the state for the National Bike Challenge, am ranked 150 in the nation, not so bad. I did get out and just pedal around just before 5pm tonight, only 2 miles or so, contact points felt fine, legs felt fine, just tired. Lacking energy from eating zero calories all day. Heck if i get back under 200# soon maybe I'll take a recess on the no beer in may challenge. But maybe not, the Indy Ferm tasting doesn't count so much, was only a sip or two of each to taste the flavors and get an appreciation of the beers, and did I say how amazing they were already? They are amazing.
I took one photo on the ride. When your camera is your mileage logger and battery life is barely long enough even with back up charger, using it and taking it out to grab photos is not really an option. We did have garmin issues and KOM G was bitching about them and saying you are much better off w/o them, perhaps.
The one photo was of Paul, with the rack of tasters:
Nanoscape will have to wait for a couple days, hopefully i can find time and energy to ride tomorrow and Sunday, I fear my early enthusiasm may be taking its toll. We'll see what each days brings. Perhaps I can turn it around as fast as I got destroyed.
Before Thursday I had an idea maybe to attempt another on on Thursday again, kid events are going to make that impossible unless I do one of those loop ones, actually maybe not bad idea! Just have to get myself feeling better. I'd though today i'd have ridden normal way to work and taken the long way home... alas not to be.
The ride was awesome, yesterday was great. Today? not so much but it is what it is. Hoping I can still sleep tonight even though I slept all day. Tomorrow and Sunday set to be just as crazy as every weekend.
Still not hungry, weird. But I know I need calories, but nothing is appetizing. Maybe i'll just go back to bed.
heddwch
G
3 comments:
You missed the best part coming an going. Next time ride the causeway (Long Point Road) across the pond. Worth the small detour. 105 south of there is a good road to ride and Highland Road is not terrible either. My old stompin' grounds. I never go far enough to get down there anymore... Sigh.
Yeah - Strava AI wasn't perfect with the route. It wasn't bad but could have been better.
Next time we ride out there I'll plan the route a bit before the night before we leave and get some feedback/suggestions from the locals.
Slept all night, which is weird. Downside to spending nearly 30 hours in bed, my back basically is totally locked up... my OMB does not like extended time horizontal.
Did you get a lot of grey whiskers in your beer? Nixon needs a hairnet for that thing! Gnarly.
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