The weather cooperated nicely this weekend and although a bit windy yesterday I'm not going to complain a bit. Today was cooler but less windy and that helped increase my average speed 2mph over yesterday's ride. Going 10 mph in to a headwind for 75 minutes sure does knock down the average. I took out the Pinarello yesterday because the roads were so wet and covered with salt, gravel, etc., that I didn't want to have to clean the good bike, plus the Pinarello has some nice cross tires on it that made me more confident that I wouldn't puncture or wipe out on any ice or snow. Well, that wasn't what I had to worry about, as about 2 hours in to my ride I felt my left leg moving around and looked down and my crankarm was about to fall off. I couldn't believe it, I had done maintenance on this bike in the Spring and rode it sometime in the fall and I'm not sure how the bolt got loose, but that definitely put a damper on the ride. I only had a 6mm Allen wrench with me and it needed a 7mm, so I tilted the wrench the best I could to grab the side of the bolt and got it tight enough to ride again. I had to stop every mile to tighten it, but eventually made it back home without it falling off. Of course I can't find my 7mm Allen wrench at the moment so the Pinarello got hung up in the basement until I do find it and then I'll take care of it.
Today's ride was not affected by any equipment malfunction and went off without a hitch, well, except for my lack of fitness which caused a malfunction in my legs but I'm definitely back in the groove and gaining fitness back quickly. I've lost about 5 pounds in the last week and a half just from the increase in riding and healthy eating. I should be down to 190 by the end of February which would be a 16 pound weight loss in a month, by the end of March I'd like to be down to 185 and then by the end of April I should be 180 which is pretty much my goal weight. Anyway, today's ride was a nice 3 hour jaunt through New Berlin, Waukesha, and Mukwonago and the sun and 38 degree temps were just fine by me. My cabin fever has been abated for another week at least and I'm hoping the trend will continue to where I can get outside again next weekend.
Tonight I will be relaxing by watching a few movies and having a pint of beer from the Riverside Brewery from one of my 3 growlers. Tomorrow is a vacation day from work so I'll probably do a little spin on the rollers amid getting things done around the house and heading out to get my oil changed on the Xterra. It's supposed to get cloudy and possibly rain during the afternoon and I have to be at the car dealer at 10:00 for the oil change so the chance of riding outside is pretty slim, I'll be fine with riding indoors after getting the 6 hours outside this weekend.
Well, that's it for now, time to run to Blockbuster and then back to help my wife cook some chicken wraps for dinner, until next time............
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