8/29/97
I rested this week, biking into work only on Monday and Thursday. I bought a messenger bag, a TimBuk2 Bolo, on sale at Performance. I rode my non-pannier equipped bike with a backpack and strained my back. I think the weight of the backpack is too high. I rode in on Thursday with the bag on my road bike, and it was an improvement. The weight is much lower on my back, and the bag didn't swing around like the other shoulder bag I tried.
This week was the next to last Thursday race at Seward Park. The weather was wet in the morning, but it stopped raining by the afternoon, and only sprinkled briefly before the race. The turnout was less than usual, but not as small as you'd expect.
I felt better than the last few times I raced. There was no feeling of fatigue in my legs before the race, unlike the last race I did. I think not commuting so much helped. I felt good enough during the beginning of the race so that I was in the front of the pack. I took the lead for a lap, but then the pack blasted by me like it always does when I take the lead for a lap. I have to stop doing that.
I worked with this one guy who was also dropped, but as it turned out he was sufficiently slower than me that it didn't make much sense. So I solo'd the last few laps, being lapped on lap 10 or so out of 15. I was only lapped once, and so near the end of the race. I think if I stay in the pack intelligently, I will be able to finish on the lead lap... Unless it's not the fact that I take the lead for a lap that does me in, but the first prime lap that kills me...
I bought a $1 bike at a auction last weekend, and I'm trying to piece it together. I got most of it rust-free and working now, but the pedals are annoying me. One is totally busted. When I bought the bike, I thought I'd just replace the pedal. It turns out that the pedals are in a old French threading, so that standard bike pedals don't work... I'm either going to have to find a set of old French pedals, or have the crank tapped out.