Musings on my fourth MS 150

Two of my teammates and I on the ride (Kim Morris Photography)

I spent June 11-12 riding my bike from Proctor to White Bear Lake. A good time was had.

The Seafoam Green Machine
This was a test of sorts for my bike, which I still consider to be new. I bought it last July, after declaring that, Lo! That would be the last MS 150 that I did on a hybrid. And indeed, it will be, for the SFGM has proven itself worthy of remaining a part of my household. It currently has a place of honor in the living/dining room. I was able to keep up with a group of my teammates this year and biked with people for the entire distance. In the previous years, I biked the whole thing alone. Sometimes I would go 15 minutes without seeing another cyclist, despite there being 3500 of them on the trails. The only modification to my bike is that I replaced the stock saddle with my Brooks at the last minute due to concerns about numbness. That worked out pretty well, I think. Butt soreness is at a [relative] minimum today.

Socialist Biking
The biggest benefit of the SFGM is that I was able to go about 2 mph faster than I was on my previous bike with no additional effort. This meant that I was able to keep up with a group of people and take advantage of the wonderful world of pacelines. There was a stupid, stupid headwind on Sunday, but thanks to being in a paceline, I only had to deal with it head-on for 2 out of every 10 miles. Saturday was pretty amazing. We were keeping about a 16.5 mph pace for some pretty good-sized chunks of time (keep in mind that my general average pace on my training rides was about 13.5 mph). Occasionally we would pick up some strays traveling about our pace, which I welcomed because that means more people to rotate into the leader position! I think the most we had going at any given time was 11 people. It's kind of exhilarating being the leader, responsible for all of those people. But it's also nice to give it up and float to the back so that all of those people can break the wind for you. :^) By the last two segments on Sunday, we were having to switch off every mile.

I need a bell
I'd never passed so many people in previous years. I went hoarse from yelling "on your left" for 5 hours on Saturday. I have a bell on my other bike that I should switch over to this one, now that it has proven itself worthy of the Compass Bell.

Number-y things
From the Garmin--
First day: 72.7 miles, with an average speed of 15.6 mph.
Second day: 74.7 miles, with an average speed of 14.3 mph. <--headwind :^(
Just shy of 10 hours total time on the saddle.
I guess I ate exactly the right amount of food, even though it felt like I was eating constantly. My weight Friday morning was the same, down to the fifth of a pound, as it was on Monday morning.

Leave no cyclist behind
A contributing factor in the lower average speed for the second day is that my group of four took a really slow cyclist with us on the final segment-- a coworker of mine who was riding for his first time (he actually just bought a bike 2 months before the ride). He had taken the SAG to the final rest stop, but we convinced him that he could ride the final segment because it was really short. The worst hill of the entire ride is a one block section just before the finish line, which he walked up. Another coworker and I waited at the top of the hill so that we could cross the finish line together.

The morning after
My neck is sore and my quads kind of feel like I've been biking for two days. My left knee hurts, which I think might be due to the sup-par bike posture that I developed after my butt started hurting (fortunately didn't really happen in earnest until after lunch on Sunday). Oh, yeah, my butt hurts. :^P My upper back and shoulders are kind of sore, along with my arms. I am going to schedule a massage for very soon.

ZZZZZZZZ
For the first time ever, I didn't camp out either night. It was kind of nice to not have to worry about setting up my tent, keeping warm at night, and trudging afar to the bathroom in the morning in order to wait in line to brush my teeth. A non-riding coworker of mine's wife has a brother-in-law with an extra house (was his parents), and they invited four of us to stay up there on Friday night. It was actually located in the town that is our first rest stop on Saturday. It was a little surreal to see the rest stop with no people. We ate dinner in Duluth with the people whose house we were staying in-- that was really nice. The brother-in-law used to be a ship captain on Lake Superior. We went to the house and played Boggle and had some drinks before going to bed at a semi-reasonable hour. It was nice and relaxing.

Strange Addiction
I registered for my 5th ride at the finish line. Can't wait for next year. :^)

A fool and what?

It's amazing how quickly one can part with a lot of money. If this were a movie and I were electronically stealing money, it would take at least half an hour as I watched the money transfer over to my offshore account one penny at a time, just barely finishing in time for me to make it out with my floppy disc before the bad guys catch up to me (I'm the lead character, so I am obviously good). But in the real world, the computers work like computers and it takes about 5 seconds from swiping the card to signing away the money. And the only thing that's going to catch up to you is your guilt and remorse over making such an impulsive decision even though you've actually been considering it for a year.

So, I bought a new bike. It's the pictured bike, which you may or may not know because I've been trotting out that photo for several months, except that's not mine [the photo is now of my actual bike!]. Because mine is being built. Because delayed gratification builds character. It's a road bike, and will be the first time I've used drop handlebars in 17 years. They're kind of wobbly. [Turns out that having a properly sized frame does wonders to reduce wobbliness.] I'm a little scared to combine that with clipless pedals (which is a stupid name because everybody uses the phrase "clip in/out" anyway). I may actually have a very delayed first pedal-induced fall. There will probably be witnesses involved. There always are.

One of the first things I noticed was how light it is. It turns out that those people I see effortlessly lifting their bike up with two fingers don't actually have abnormal strength. Apparently there are many bikes that do not weigh 40 lbs (perhaps a bit of an exaggeration there, but not much). I look forward to not getting an upper body workout when I have to take my bike up and downstairs.

I'm vacillating between being completely in love with my beautiful shiny new toy and wondering what on earth I've done. It's pretty, though, isn't? ::nods and thinks you should nod too::