Day Three

TIME THERE: 32 min.
TIME BACK: 31 min.
WEATHER: 32C, sunny, 24km/h wind
WHAT I WORE: Yoga pants, t-shirt (had dress clothes packed away in panniers)
WHAT I ATE:
Breakfast - banana (eaten at home), protein bar (eaten at the office), coffee (mid-morning)
Lunch - Shaved chicken and cheddar cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread, apple, bag of veggies, light Babybel cheese snack
Afternoon snack: a pack of All Bran Bites
Dinner - Whole wheat pasta with homemade primavera sauce, salad
Evening Snack - blueberries and chicory coffee subsitute with flavoured liquid Coffee Mate
NOTES:
On the way to school this morning, I noticed it seemed to take a lot of effort to pedal, and I ended up having to down-shift to keep up a decent speed without killing my thighs. Yesterday I had the excuse of having been exhausted, but I got a good night's sleep last night, so I had no excuse today! I berated myself a little for going easy on myself and being "lazy", but immediately countered back with my motto: "the point is to get there", which reminds me that it's not about speed or what gear I'm in or how hard my thigh muscles are working. It's just about getting there, and trying not to kill myself in the meantime. On top of the lower gear, about halfway through the ride I started hearing noises of complaint from the bike. It was squeaking like the rusty springs of a bed on which two large people are doin' it. It made me smile, but also was a bit embarrassing because my poor bike sounded like it was having a rough day and I was carelessly riding it anyway.

When I got to school, I lamented my bike troubles to my supervisor, who's a cyclist himself. He questioned whether the tires were fully inflated, and the moment he mentioned that I remembered they weren't when I checked them before leaving for work, but I didn't feel like I had time to fill them. Silly me! He said that when the tires aren't fully inflated, you have to work twice as hard, and it sure felt like that to me! So I'm glad that I down-shifted for a good reason - it was genuinely much harder to pedal because my tires weren't fully inflated - and not just because I was being "lazy".

Going home, I was afraid for my poor bike. Would it still be creaking? What about the tires - will I damage the rims by riding on them with partially-inflated tubes? Was the creaking a sign of the stem (which is loose, and I can't seem to fix it) getting worse and becoming a safety issue? I made sure to go easy on myself and rode in 13th gear instead of my usual 14th most of the way, downshifting 12th or even 11th on some of the inclines, and even though I'm already careful not to curb-jump on this bike given the reviews I'd read about it, I was especially careful to avoid potholes and other bumps today. And there was a silver lining, at least. The nice thing about partially inflated tires is that the tires seemed to absorb more shock, ensuring that every little bump in the road didn't feel like I was being punched in the sensitive bits (which, sadly, is the norm with these hard, thin tires).

I actually made decent time going home, and I got home safe and sound. Woot woot!! The whole way, I debated in my mind whether I should stop at Revolution Cycle to get the bike tuned up and get someone who knows what they're doing to fix my stem. If I dropped it off, it wouldn't get fixed until Friday afternoon, so I would miss a day of commuting. If I waited, I could get it fixed on Saturday and not miss any commuting days, but then risk riding it with a loose stem and whatever else was wrong with it for another day.

I ultimately decided to wait until Saturday, since I only started commuting on Tuesday and wanted to get at least four days' worth of riding in this week. Besides, if I just inflated the tires a bit, it would make it a whole lot easier to ride, right? Right! The problem is, when I got home I immediately set to work trying to make adjustments to it - I inflated the tires, and checked on those pesky back brakes that keep rubbing against the tire. But, Jeebus almighty, I have no luck with those damn brakes! They were rubbing, then I loosened them and it stopped the rubbing but then the brakes were so loose as to be useless, so when I tightened them again they were rubbing again! I have no idea what to do with these bastards. I'll definitely have to take it in on Saturday to get tuned up. In the meantime, I'll try not to use the back brakes so they don't get stuck against the tire (obviously, if I have to make an emergency stop I'll use the damn brakes because they definitely work - it's just that they also contribute a huge amount of drag to the back wheel).

So hopefully tomorrow, with fully inflated tires and if I can manage to keep the back brake from rubbing against the wheel, then the ride will be easier than it's been these past couple days. That would be a most welcome change, because by the time I got home this evening my thighs were pretty sore.