Couple weekend rides

Although the weather wasn't the best, it was nice to get outside for a couple rides this weekend.  According to my training plan, yesterday was supposed to be a couple hours on the trainer, and today was supposed to be about an hour.  Because my Thursday and Friday rides got switched, I decided to switch my Saturday and Sunday rides, too.

We had kids sports most of the morning and early afternoon on Saturday, which meant I couldn't get in a morning ride.  But once the sports were over, I was able to squeeze in an hour ride before dinner.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to get out last night to see Gravity, like I had planned.  We were planning to attend Parents Night Out at Lifetime Fitness, but they required us to register in person, before the activity desk closed at 1pm.  We tried to do it over the phone between football and soccer games, but no dice.  And with everything going on, there was just no way to get up there to register, so we had to skip it this time.  Maybe next time.



Today, I went for a ride with my friend Dale.  We rode together back in the spring, but hadn't had a chance to ride again since.  So, it was nice to get out again.  But, just like the last time, we had pretty miserable weather to deal with.  About 40 degrees, a little breezy, and completely overcast.  At least we managed to get in our ride before the rain, which came later.  The route itself was really nice.  It was a modification of a ride I did with Lifetime earlier this year, along some of the nice roads in east Boulder.

A couple weeks ago, I had a complete overhaul done on my bike.  Basically, they took it all apart, cleaned and adjusted everything, and put it back together.  But ever since it was done, my chain was acting a little funny.  It kind of had a little skip to it, wobbling a little bit while pedaling.  It was annoying, but not worth the long drive back to the bike shop to get it looked at.  And it really looked like the chain, not the cassette or chainring.  But the bike was still working ok, so I kept on riding.  Well, today I was riding pretty well, with just a little creaking from what I think is just a crappy rear wheel (I'm hoping to replace the wheels soon).  When we were about 10 miles from Dale's house, about 40 miles into my ride, my chain skipped really bad while pedaling off a stop light.  And from that point on, it was a complete mess.  The chain was skipping back and forth between gear, and just making all kinds of racket.  I had no idea what was happening, but it wasn't good.  But since I could technically ride, I figured I'd just limp back home and take a look there.  But about 4 miles from Dale's house, I decided to pull over and see what was going on.  I hopped off the bike, spun the pedals a little but, and saw this:

That's not good.

After seeing that, I decided I wasn't going to be riding home.  We decided to just get back to Dale's house, and he offered to drive me home from there.  In the car, I made a call to the bike shop.  Fortunately, they were open all day today, so after getting home I grabbed some lunch and then drove my bike to the shop for them to take a look.  They quickly put on a new chain while I browsed around the shop for a bit.  This one seems to be spinning nicely, so I'm looking forward to getting out for another ride again soon.



Also, today I decided to try my sample pack of Generation UCAN.  The taste was ok, and the texture a little thick, kind of milky.  As for how it worked, I have no idea.  I guess I felt fine during my ride.  No idea if it was any better or worse than I would have felt if I had just done my normal nutrition routine.  I'd be interested in trying it again to try to get a better sense of how well it works.  I can't really judge a nutrition product from just one test.

Today's weigh-in:  181.8