Took a friend's excellent advice to ride SR 73 - from Saratoga Springs west toward the Utah desert.
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| SR 73 follows a section of the Pony Express Trail |
My first couple of intervals were painful and I was a little frustrated that I couldn't make my heart rate (HR) go any higher. Normally I can judge my effort based on wattage from my power meter but that is in the shop. I felt like I was working pretty hard - the HR didn't reflect that yet I saw some fast mph on the flats - a
little disappointing.
The third interval, was going well when my Di2 battery holder broke (see it right above the "S" under the front water bottle) - the battery
went flying and I had to stop riding to address my issue. The battery is responsible for powering the shifters, no battery, no shifting, I quickly become "Single Speed Steve." Some of you may remember that I have some experience at being SSS - 85 miles of a New Mexico 100 mile ride. That experience convinced me to figure out a way to rehang the battery, the good news was
there was a ton of debris of the side of the road. Found a plastic
Gatorade bottle, cut it in half using a mile marker as a knife, found a
cloth belt that once cut on same mile marker was the perfect length to
wrap the battery and
put it in the shortened bottle which became a "cup holder." That got me
headed uphill back into town. My fourth interval saw the same lower HR and I was really trying but I was pleased to see that I was pedaling uphill, into a
strong wind at 24 mph.
Overall,
for the intervals, I think I will be better the second time - I'll know
I can sell out a little harder, I'll have my power meter to better
judge my effort and hopefully Holly will be near to render assistance if
needed.
BUT
the ride was not over. Around Camp Floyd I suffered a weird flat - the
air seemed to be pouring out of the side of the tire. I changed the
tube but could not find a source of punctured and figured that the stem
area may have been the culprit. Five minutes later I had a repeat flat
and realized I had a cut sidewall. I fixed the flat and
the sidewall BUT I was now out by Camp Floyd with no more CO2
cartridges, limited cell coverage amongst drivers who had shown no
empathy for a cyclist dealing with flats - no a great place to be. After nearly an hour of relaxed pedaling (that's what my coach had directed) I
happily arrived at my car, loaded up and headed to my bike shop where they replaced the battery support.
Came
home, put the bike on the trainer - to finish the four hours - and figured out why it just didn't
feel right - I had another flat! Dang it. I grabbed another tire and
tube set up that I had used indoors all week - put that on - AND that
was flat. Had four flats today! And used some words I had
forgotten were in my vocabulary.
In
the future I think I will be better served to make sure Holly will be
available for the trips out on SR-73 -and I will also be able to dose my effort a
little better, and a little harder than I did today. I was disappointed
with the HR but I was pleased with the faster speeds on the flats.
There you go - another crazy ride in the life of Steve Kelly.
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