8 days and counting or the Barton County Tour

Rhi and I went on a 50 mile ride.  Ellinwood to Great Bend to Hoisington to Claflin and back to Ellinwood.  It was actually a good ride.  We got coffee first thing. Yum!  Now, I had made a mistake the night before and adjusted my seat again...bad decision.  So at the coffee shop, I asked if they had a hammer.  A hammer you may wonder.  Well, my seat tilt gets stuck, like crazy.  Even when there isn't a screw keeping it all together, it's stuck on there.  So you need a hammer to loosen it to adjust it.  The coffee shop did not have a hammer.  So we checked at the Kwik Shop, they did have a hammer.  Ah Relief.  Now I'm going to sidetrack here because I'm weird.  Neither place asked why I needed a hammer.  Maybe this is a more common occurrence than I realized but if I were in their place I would wonder what the hammer was for...  Anyway, we had very little wind and averaged about 14 mph.  Not bad in my opinion.  And one of these years I will learn that sunscreen is necessary even before noon.  I'm not burnt, but pink in some spots.  I have no one to blame but myself.

And now the countdown...

Well, it took 3 seats but I think I've got it figured out.  I ended up finding the same seat I had but in a thinner model.  I hope this helps.  I have to recondition my butt and the seat but I don't think it's anything that will cause immense pain.  There are literally 10 days until Biking Across Kansas.  (breathe, 1, 2, 3)  Everyone is so very positive and supportive.  I wish I was as confident in myself as they seem to be in me.  But here's the thing about doing something you've never done before, it's kinda scary.  And anyone who tells you different is, well braver than me.  I wonder why my dog is so skittish and I've just come to the conclusion that he takes after me.  Outside my comfort zone, and my anxiety kicks in...and I'm an over thinker so that doesn't help.  So I'm trying not to think about it while also trying to get things prepared.  It's weird.  But I think it's like when I went trail riding for the first time.  Yes the hill is scary, but you're only going to get hurt if you freak out and bail half way down.  So, take a deep breath and hold on.  Then you're on the other side of the hill, wondering why you were so terrified.  Ahh inner monologues you have with yourself.  On the flip side, I can't die on BAK because How to train your dragon 2 comes out the day after we finish...so there's that.

All my coworkers say they will read the blog for BAK updates.  I think it's going to be a HUGE contrast from Rhi's blog.  One she's an english teacher, so she articulate.  I tend to babble. Two this is her sixth year doing it, and thus she's not scared.  But we do have a timeline for BAK's now.  I met a woman a while back who said she'd get a bike tattoo when she gets 10 BAKs under her belt.  Not a bad goal in my mind and Rhi agrees.  So here is the schedule: 5 BAKs = new bike (Rhi just bought her new bike so she's on schedule), 10 BAKs = tattoo.  We will have to see if Rhi stays on schedule :)  If I get that far, I should make a new schedule, wonder what I should do for 15 BAKs...

Any way, I will leave you will my excitement over a cartoon that is coming out, because in reality I'm a 10 year old masquerading as an adult ;)

Sand Plum Classic

Well, bike fit makes a difference.  I am faster, however my bike is completely different now causing a whole new set of issues.  The problem that sent me to the bike shop to begin with has not been solved.  My legs still went numb after 35 miles.  So the search is on for a new saddle.  We did the Sand Plum Classic last Sunday.  It was a really nice ride with great SAGs.  Unfortunately, Kansas can't decide what time of year it is, so it was 102 degrees during the hottest part of the day.  Luckily, we were done before it got that hot, but it was toasty.  Jason thinks I could have kept up with him had my legs not started falling asleep and loosing power.  My brother Jon did this ride with us.  He finished but I think it was harder on him than he will admit.  For my part, it was rough simply because of the leg discomfort.  I had thought of stopping but decided that if I just kept my legs moving I would be okay.  And I finished, without any breakdowns, no doubt and that was wonderful.

So back to the saddle issues.  I think that my endurance will improve if I could my seat figured out, I could go for a lot longer.  So I went to the local bike shop.  I love Big Poppi's but it's two hours from my house.  So to Golden Belt Bicycle Company in Great Bend I went.  They told me that the seat I had was poor quality, to which I had mixed feeling being told, I loved that seat and it wasn't cheap.  But they gave me a nicer seat that they had in the back for a pretty good price.  It's a Serfas Carma seat.  The gentleman put it on for me and the told me he tilted it down just a bit. * I will state here that I sometimes think other people have no idea what they are doing and that I know better.  It's a character flaw and usually results in me doing it the hard way first before finding out that the person I thought was dumb knew what was going on the whole time. I thought the guy was crazy because my seat is usually level. *  So I rode it just the way he put it on and it's so very different from my other seat, very hard.  I was sore in new places, so I put the seat level and tried riding again.  HORRIBLE.  I am now hurting 3 to 4 miles into my ride.  So maybe tilting it down is the better idea.  Today, I will adjust the seat again and see if it helps.  I honestly don't know if the seat will work, but I am going to work with it for a while.  I can't tilt it down too much or I will slide down the seat, so it's a trial and error sort of thing.  My only hope is that I get it figured out before I ride 80 plus miles.  Anyway, if you are reading this and have had saddle issues, please let me know what you did.  I'm thinking that if I can't get this one to work, I will be spending a good portion of money to get a new one and hope it will work.

Riding in Kansas is beautiful.