6/20/97
Well, I learned something this last Thursday. You shouldn't go out on a longish solo training ride in the wind, or do sprint intervals (or a close approximation, at least) a day before a race. I went out on a 2.5 hour ride by myself on Wednesday, and I raced at the Seward Park Crit on Thursday. My legs felt bad even before I got to the race.
The only good part about Thursday was that I broke my pedal cleats. I broke the cleats that connected my bike shoes to my cheapo pedals. The pedals were really cheap, and they are a discontinued Performance model. I knew that it would be hard to get a replacement cleat for it, so I decided before that when I got around to it, I would buy another set. I had my eyes on Look PP136's, which are the cheapest ones they make, at $99.95. (Even by mailorder.)
I actually broke the cleat on the way to the race Thursday evening. I thought my left leg just clipped out when I was accelerating a bit from a turn. But when I put my foot back in and tried to pedal again, I clipped out again. After repeating this a few times (without falling, luckily) I discovered that the front tab on the cleat was broken off. Luckily, I was near a bike store when the cleat failed. It was Montlake Cycles, a store that I was meaning to look into.
So I stepped into the store, in all my lycra and helmet and expensive shades. I walked up to a slow looking guy that was working on a computer. After getting him to respond, I showed me to the back to a big box they had. He pulled out a set of pedals and said something like "we got these here, they are off of new bikes..." Lo and behold, Look PP136's! Without a scratch. Some dude bought a neat bike that came with those pedals, and opted for some 'easier to get into' mountain bike pedals. And the best part, he said, "... these used pedals, we sell them for $55..." Only $55!!! I jumped on them, and borrowed the tools to change the cleats on my shoes and put on the pedals on the bike. The only semi-bad thing was that they were out of the red ARC cleats that would let my legs pivot a little. I had to settle for the 'non-rotational' black cleats.
After a pretty crappy race (I burned myself out too fast and combined with the overzealous ride the day before, I barely finished, two laps down), I noticed that I really like the new pedals. They clip in and out much easier than my old pedals, so I think I can get better starts. And I don't mind the lack of float with the fixed angle cleats at all.
The ACC turnout on Thursday was pretty good. Don Perry and Mike Petty were there. They told me about the Snake River race they did in Idaho. I wish I knew that they were going, I would have liked to go. Carla was there too. Don didn't race, because he was still recovering from the race in Idaho.
After the race, Don, Carla, and I were talking for a few minutes. Carla was telling us that she was a bit disappointed with the team at the moment, and I don't blame her. Early in the season (before she joined) the team rides were pretty good, but now with all the races, not too many people are showing up to the training rides. And all the women riders we had at the beginning of the year seem to have disappeared, though they do show up at the meetings. I figure it's about time for another team meeting. Hopefully, we can make some changes so that everyone will be happy once again. It'll be nice if we get a better rep amongst the other riders for being a good team in more than a race results kind of manner... I hope Erik's soon-to-be-expected baby doesn't take too much time from our president's efforts into the club. I have the feeling that the lack of juniors recruited into the team is kind of depressing for the team founders. I got the numbers for the officers to Justin and his dad. Justin is a junior who shows up almost every Thursday. I think it'll be great if he'll join us. There's another guy I talked to, Phillip, but he's thinking of joining Seattle Express. They sure do have a lot of juniors.