Getting Stronger, Faster

Rode with the Trek group tonight and actually drew comments that I was riding faster and stronger.

Which I kinda knew, I was occasionally (on downhills) able to keep pace with the alpha dog. And while I huffed and puffed on the uphills, as usual, I didn't see spots and even had enough gas to stand up and crank some. But I didn't think the improvement was apparent to anyone else, it was too subtle.

Thanks to the encouraging words of my fellow riders (and don't get it wrong, I'm still the slow kid and Roj/Elvis still out-climbs me on his itty bitty BMX), I kept riding a bit after. I wanted to see if I could do one more hill, and I climbed Belinder and connecting roads until I ran out of uphill to turn to, then came back to the store.

Total 13.8 miles. Numbness in my fingers is at least no worse. I'm still suffering the effects of Friday's 40 mile with the seat tipped forward in an effort to quit numbing my brain. Trek store sold me some padded riding gloves, fingerless like Madonna's, and a taller neck. The taller neck was after the ride, but anything to get me more upright since I can't afford a recumbent at this stage in life.

Recumbents still make so much sense. If not for the fascist conspiracy to control the UCI by the Diamond Frame Industrial Complex, the occasional oddball would be coming into the Trek store complaining, 'What, no upright bikes?'

With a little luck, I can find a way to ride without numbing my pecker or my fingers in the meantime. But only until the day I can pop for a properly designed bicycle that puts your feet first and your ass on something a well adjusted individual would want to sit on.