so long grannie

the Captain asked me the other day, "how's life after the big ride?"

it was a funny question because even though it's more or less the same, it really is "after the big ride". that was a big, looming event for the last 2 months of my life, and now i don't really have any goal in the future to work toward. i'm not getting up early, i'm not riding early or far, and i'm not on a plan training for an event. it's definitely different.

last wednesday i rode with a visiting friend of the Captain. he was a much stronger rider than me and kindly waited for me to catch up. he had to, only i knew the way home :D

it was the first time either of us had really ridden with another rider. one thing i realized quickly was how much i relied on my granny gear. this guy's bike didn't have a granny gear, and i bet if i hadn't been training on my granny this last year, i'd be a stronger rider today. sure, the granny lets me get up KMR, and it lets me maintain a good cadence in the meantime, but it seems that maybe it's been reinforcing some poor habits. like going slowly.

my bike computer was nice while it lasted, but the button wore out to the point where it was unusable. i attempted to repair it myself but it had anti-opening features and i couldn't figure out how to open it up. so back it went to REI, where they graciously accepted the return and refunded my money.

so now i ride without a computer. i'm done with them for a while. how fast am i going? fast as i can at the moment. what's my heart rate? somewhere below maximum. what's the grade? could be steep. i don't care.

i haven't used my granny gear since last wednesday's ride. yeah, i haven't gone up a steep grade, either, but i've gone up some decent ones, and some decently long ones. i'm learning how to ride out of the saddle more effectively (read: without spiking my HR) and i'm ending up with sore-ish knees. hopefully in a couple of weeks/months i'll be ready to take some real climbs in a respectable gear.

when i was riding with the dude last week we went up old la honda road. he left me behind after the first half mile or so. a while after that, some other dude blasted up past me. that's where i want to be -- blasting up OLHR instead of turtling up it.

so maybe i've got some goals after all.

just no sciency plan to get there.