Good God Man!

I realize I haven't been too strict about updating this thing every time I ride, but I'm okay with that. I've been riding two to three times a week (weather permitting) and I've even started riding to work some days. When I do ride to work, I've been riding in with my boss, John. I meet him in Conshohocken, which isn't the most direct route for me, but it's only a few miles out of my way, and most of those miles are on the bike path. From Conshy to the shop is up hill, but it's only three or four hills with some flat thrown in, so I can keep up with him. Kind of.

The ride home I take the "direct" route home. The roads are a little busier and there are harder hills with one bitchin' descent. I'm getting more comfortable with traffic, and today I bought lights and a commuter bag to make life easier.

I also bought the Garmin 705 today. Finally. I opened it up and read every manual in there. I pulled out the heart-rate monitor, power cord, USB cable, cadence and speed meter, and then the computer itself. I was stoked. Then I realized that there wasn't anything to mount the unit to the bike and that the speed sensor magnet and cadence meter magnet weren't in there either. Fucking awesome. It was a special order item that was returned, and returned useless. Tomorrow I will be going back to work to return it and special order a new and complete one. So, in two weeks I should finally have the damn thing and I can start posting up maps and elevation of my rides so you can laugh at how challenged I am by simple rides.

Fit. I hate bike fit. Last year I started getting taint numbness (yeah, that's a technical term) on longer rides. So, like any uneducated jack-ass, I turned to the internet instead of going to my local bike shop with a guy qualified to fit me. Obviously, I made the situation worse, and this year, I've been getting the numbness much sooner. If I ride in the drops for five or so minutes, my manhood doesn't even feel like it's mine anymore.

Last year I also suffered from "hot spots" in my right foot. I still get them now, but at least I haven't made them worse. To cure all of my stupid discomfort, I'm going to get a "Pro Fit" from John. The only small hang up is that now that I work at my local bike shop, I'm not exactly a priority. I'm hoping he can fit me in within the next month or so. The hot spots don't usually show up on rides shorter than thirty miles (most of my rides) and I've been getting out of the saddle more, as well as readjusted my saddle to help quell my dingle tingle.

If any of you are Bicycling Magazine subscribers, take a look in the July 2009 issue at page 16 of the Woman's Summer Issue (which starts after page 48 in the mag, because that's not confusing or anything) to get fit tips from my boss John. He's taken out of context in just about every paragraph, but that's the nature of magazine interviews. Either way, it's pretty good advice.