I rode
65 miles Wednesday night, just to check the engine. Best I've felt in months. Most of this summer I felt like sludge, could barely get out of my own way, being passed by old ladies on walkers and kids on Big Wheels. Partly that's because I insisted on mostly midday rides in the heat, around 1-2 hours each riding according to heart rate and perceived effort. Gruesome but it makes the cooler morning and night rides feel easier.
I aimed for 16 mph average and tried to minimize my urge to surge on some Strava segments, but ended up with a few PRs anyway. Mostly because of a moderate tailwind. With 3,175 feet of elevation gain that's sustainable for me. (My phone with Wahoo Fitness claimed I averaged 17 mph, but... nah. I see lots of GPS tracking glitches, and it claimed I rode 67 miles when I know it was 65. So I'm sticking with the bike computer's data for 16.2 mph over 65 miles.)
That'll be my only workout ride this week. I'm saving it for Saturday or Sunday. I may do an easy 30 minutes on the errand bike tomorrow, or just walk.
I'll probably start late afternoon/early evening and ride until midnight:thirty. I'm not a morning person by any stretch, never was even in the Navy when my shift started at 0430z. Hated it then, and still associate morning rides with "work," the complete opposite of what I want from bicycling. My body doesn't even begin to wake up until afternoon, so a 6 pm start will feel like my "morning."
The hard part will be the usual neck and shoulder spasms after 50 miles. If I ride the same route I did yesterday, I'll stop home around the 50-75 mile mark, depending on how I feel, rest for a bit and use the industrial strength percussion massager on the neck and back. I should be able to finish after that.
I'll probably do the first half or two-thirds west of town, mostly rural. Then rest and massage at home, and finish heading east toward town for a change of scenery. There will be less traffic late at night so I'll have some wide, smoothly paved boulevards mostly to myself for the final lap.
I've been piddling with a few different components on the Ironman, mostly a Shimano 600 Tricolor RD (which I didn't realize until recently is an 8-speed early Ultegra), and Shimano L422 Light Action friction shifters, just for giggles. The L422 was designed for 6-speed, but easily pulls enough cable for 7 and might even do an 8 speed cassette. Nothing wrong with the original Suntour GPX components, but when I had to replace some frayed shifter cables I decided to swap some components around. The Suntour RD was really grungy and the Shimano 600 RD was clean and the two derailleurs are so similar they feel the same while riding.
Took awhile to dial in the L422 shifters, but it turned out the main problem was my chains were so badly worn. I forgot to track the mileage, which I used to do pretty methodically when I switched between identical pairs of KMC Z-72 waxed chains. But I misplaced my crock pot with paraffin a few months ago and switched to Rock 'n' Roll Absolute Dry and Gold. Both are very slick, but as some reviews (including Friction Facts) indicated, slicker lubes don't necessarily translate to longer life. My chains wore out much quicker using the Rock 'n' Roll lubes, despite feeling slicker from the PTFE.
So when I swapped from the cracked wheels with SunRace 7-speed 13-28 chromed freewheel to a borrowed wheelset with new 12-28 cassette, the chain kept skipping. It was just as bad when I tried an old but virtually unused Suntour Alpha 13-26 freewheel. Finally occurred to me that all three of my chains were worn out. After switching the Ironman back to the 13-28 SunRace freewheel and new chain, everything ran smoothly.
I'll probably keep the L422 friction shifters on for the weekend century ride, just because I'm determined to make them work just to prove a point. And they do tend to make me slow down a bit and choose my shifts more carefully. Downshifting to a larger cog is easy -- stop pedaling for a moment, shift until I feel resistance, then start pedaling again, trim if needed. But upshifting is a bit trickier -- it's not in muscle memory yet.
Then I'll switch back to the Suntour GPX group, now that I've cleaned them up. Although I'm tempted to leave the Shimano L422 left/front shifter in place -- it's smoother than the GPX.