Late to the Half-way Point

My cycling miles finally inched over 1,500 for the year this week. A good month to month and a half behind the curve, I'd say. This year's wetter Summer has a lot to do with it, but other factors play in as well. I can't say I'm enjoying riding any less though, despite getting fewer chances to do it. Today's weather shortened outing is a good example. Many of the usual locals are away today at the Hot 100 in Tuscaloosa. Max, new guy Jeff and I headed out on a route that we hoped would get us back before any real rains hit. We trimmed 64 original miles to 38 and only got rained on a little. Still managed to get some hills in. Overcast and very humid, it was not a pretty day to be riding, but it was still good to be out on 2 wheels.

Over the past few months, my cadence has been creeping up and today I focused on maintaining cadence during climbs. A couple of friends are very good about that and I try to emulate them. It worked well today. I was not fatigued even after a long 9 - 12% triple decker climb. Not fast uphill mind you, but not fatigued and spun the entire way. I'm faster when I mash a bigger gear, but then when I hit a wall, I'm done. No wall this way. Average for this ride was 81, just shy of my goal of 84.

A Port Clinton OH cyclist that I made the acquaintance of on Dailymile was struck from behind on his bike and killed this week. Dale Tusen was a friendly and dynamic 37 year old who started road riding in 2011. I'll definitely miss his posts and comments. The elderly driver said the usual, "I didn't see him." Why should that be an acceptable excuse? I managed NOT to hit 3 dogs that ran out in front of my car at various times this week. Paying attention to the roads helps a lot.

I joined Twitter this week. After seeing what people post, I've decided to only post when I have something to say. I am not witty enough for the stream of consciousness tweets that some can keep flinging into cyber-space. I tweeted one work out, but no more. No one really needs an update in 140 characters. I already have it on Facebook anyway.

Sold my 4th building this week (in 6 weeks of trying). Things are picking up steam it seems. Visited with that customer yesterday. He is replacing a structure that burned after a lightning strike. The building was insured, but the 2 fully restored Pontiac GTOs inside were not. Euuuw. He decided to take a break from restoring for a while and showed me a "project" he hopes someone else will want to take on. It looks to me about 50% ROUGHER than this one I snagged from the interwebs:

I suppose to a restorer, this is normal. The 330ci V8 car has only 80,000 actual miles on it and yes, it runs fine. The body and interior needs a lot of work however.

The rest of the sales swing this week went fine. Auburn/Opelika is still generally depressed, but Huntsville/Decatur is doing better. Had a good stop in Winfield (near Jasper). Later that night I was helping a local church do Pioneer Club, and 2 boys visiting grandparents in GA for the week said they were from Winfield. They were floored that I not only knew where it was but had just been there.

I'm getting close to needing to do some bike restoring. Two bikes could use new paint. Nothing fancy like the last one I had done at Airglow, but to stop further rusting. Maybe a powder coat will do.

I rode in Ga on Thursday and it was a great ride. I did NOT feel like it after work, but went anyway and was so glad i did. Beautiful quiet roads and a couple of big hills to go up. Followed it with a veggie pocket at Milano's Pizza. Good stuff.

I have no confidence that I'll make it to 3,000 miles this year, but there are years where 1,500 is all I got for the whole 12 months, so I am glad to have what I do.

Tailwinds!