Weekend update

Blogger seems to have got something caught sideways this morning, so we'll just have to see how we make out with the "blog by e-mail" feature. Maybe I've even remembered the address correctly.

Onward...

Another great weekend in north Texas. First thing Saturday morning, we loaded our assorted human-powered conveyances and headed down to White Rock Lake. There, we met up with the group that Turtle had organized to undergo some performance testing that would help the participants to fine tune their cadence and riding styles.

The process began with each rider having some very scientific looking electronics strapped on to his/her handcycle. Some of it was for analysis of the rider's exhaust gasses (exhalations, Susie; not what you're thinking); some of it was telemetry for transmitting the readings to the laptop of the guy doing the testing. The rider then got to strap on a breather mask with a 1" diameter tube connecting it to the test equipment.

I kept making lame Darth Vader jokes (which the perfessor had obviously heard far too many times before), but with the masks and their sunglasses, the riders looked more like jet fighter pilots.

I may have some pictures to post, but it will require a certain alignment of the planets for that to happen. First, I'll have to see if anyone thought to snap a few shots of Turtle with my camera while I was running around, helping some of the other test subjects. Then, I'll have to make sure that Turtle doesn't mind being plastered on my blog. Finally, Blogger will have to get with the program.

Somewhere in the midst of all this, I sloped off for a quick lap of the lake on my Corsa. It took me a mile or two to get settled in, but by then I was cranking along between 18 and 21 mph. Maybe everyone else was feeling like a leisurely ride, or maybe it was an indication of what sort of performance I can expect from the bike, but I was passing pretty nearly every other cyclist I came upon.

At least, until my route took me off the street and on to the bike path, at which point things got more crowded and forced me to focus more on safety than speed. Still even after I'd finished dodging wobblies, cloud gazers, and stroller zombies, I arrived back at VO² testing central with an overall average speed of a little over 16 mph.

Sunday...

...was another beautiful day, so Turtle and I were out riding again. We tooled around the neighborhood together until Turtle got tired of me hanging around and told me to go climb some hills. Which I did. I picked a few spots where I'm accustomed to going for hill intervals and attacked them. For the first time while riding the Corsa, my heart rate went through the roof, which tells me where I'm going to have to concentrate on developing more strength and endurance.

In case you hadn't thought about the physics of it, hills are the recumbent rider's Waterloo because the only things you have to work with are your gears, leg speed (cadence), and leg strength. Standing up and throwing your weight into the pedals to mash your way up a climb is simply not one of the available options.

People doing yardwork smiled and waved. Colorful lycra-clad roadies smiled and waved. I returned their greetings with enthusiasm and was really feeling pretty darned good about the whole thing until the homicidal inbreeder in the black S-10 pickup pulled out of the main lane on to the shoulder where I was riding and tried to run me down.

I wasn't scared at the time, because I saw him coming in my helmet mirror and was able to safely roll off the shoulder and through a broad ditch. I was (and am) pissed off. But the more I think about it, the more it sinks in that I came close to being one of those people whose pictures I'm in charge of posting on the Ride of Silence web site.

You can never be too alert. Especially when you're the only guy who knows how to keep the web site updated.

Later...

...we cooked chicken on the grill and settled in to watch The 40-year-old Virgin. It was a funny movie, but I probably would have enjoyed it a bit more if Turtle hadn't gotten so much entertainment from how close it came to reading like my biography.