drop out jammed into cassette...

I assumed it was going to be a trainer day because of the weather yesterday. I was happily surprised to see blue skies when I took Kona out for her morning ritual. The temp was in the low 40s at the start of the ride.

It was supposed to warm-up to mid 50s. I wore ear, arm, and knee warmers. The workout was 4 rounds of 70 minutes of pacing from Olympic to Ironman. I felt okay on the first round.

I felt much better on the second and third round. My power numbers were so much higher than any of the other long rides. It was a dramatic shift. My ironman efforts were producing the same watts as my half-ironman efforts from last week. It felt so easy. It worked out well to use the Johnson Creek Loop for the second and third interval, minimal traffic and long enough to complete the interval.

After the third round, I ran over a rock while switching out bottles. I flatted in seconds. The good - it happened after the interval. The bad - the gas station was only 0.5 miles away. After fixing the flat, I started back toward Fort Lewis for the last round.

Everything was going as planned until the bridge. As I came to a stop, my back wheel locked up. I got off to fix it and noticed the drop out was jammed into the cassette. I guess I didn't tighten down the skewer very well. Elizabeth and I could not figure out how to get the wheel out because the chain was stretched to the max. Either I was going to break the chain or have to call for a ride. I pulled just hard enough to get the cassette free then pushed the wheel to the side and it came off. The 15&16 cog were useless. I was actually very fortunate because I was averaging 30+mph coming down the hill. That would have been a nasty crash.

I finished up the last interval. I didn't realize how much I like the 15&16 gear. My choices were high cadence or low cadence. I opted for 90+rpm instead of less than 60. I finished the ride averaging over 20.7mph for 5.5 hours.

I switched clothes, grabbed the dogs, and went out for a short run. I felt strong. I had to let Fina off leash because she didn't like the pace. I finished with 4.00 miles in 30 minutes.

This was my best long workout ever. I felt strong all day and the effort was low.