What? No! F@c$!!!

OK, so last night I get home from work, exhausted and after making some stops on the way home. One at REI to get my new bike pump and about her at Home Depot so Cicely could get a metal pipe to use as a bending template for a cool design she is doing.

I look outside and not only is it getting dark, and quickly, but it is also windy and surprisingly cold for June, nearly July! Should I go for a bike ride as planned or chalk it up to an evening inside and avoid the bad weather? Yea that is the big question / dilemma I was faced with - plus I was getting hungry also ha ha.

The Decision

So here it was, just after 8:00 and just starting to get a little dark outside. Do I go, or do I wait until tomorrow and go right when I get home from work? Hmm, that was the same thought I had on Tuesday when I got home, but the difference was that I was exhausted big time on Tuesday compared to not as much yesterday.

I asked Cicely for her advice, admittedly hoping she would say "yea, better hold off until tomorrow and go when its light out and not so windy and cold". Well that was not the case, she did as she always does and positively encouraged me to get off my ass and get out there before it was truly too late to go. Ye she is / was right, and that was exactly what I did. I got off the couch, put on my gear and went out to the garage to put a little air in my tires, put on my shoes, helmet and gloves and get on my way.

The Ride

So this ride is one that I have been putting off and actually kind of dreading to do. It was more of a "goal" of mine to be able to accomplish it at some point down the road after many days of practicing and working on my techniques and strength. I made a route for it called "An Uphill Battle" on Strava and it basically starts out with a 1/4 mile or less of flat to get my body warmed up, then I make a right hand turn and immediately start the climb. Now let me back up for a second, in reality for a seasoned mountain biker this would be more like a long, but totally manageable hill. For me, it has always look like a wall when I look up at it driving towards home daily in the car.

Anyway, I am on my way - warming up on the straight and come to the right hand turn, make the turn and off I go - focused and determined to make it to the top, or at the very least as far as I possibly can, walk the rest and try again next time. Focused, pedaling, changing gears, working on my breathing and exertion as to not over-do any one thing I see the top approaching slowly but surely, all the while knowing that the pay-off is another right hand turn and a nice rewarding downhill run for nearly a mile if not a little more.

I look at my GPS, focusing on the route and my "arrow" position on the GPS displaying how close I am to the reward. I can now see the street sign not too far off, as I approach I gain more and more confidence knowing that there is no way that I will not make it. I am only feet away from the street and look down at my GPS wondering why it has not given me instructions to turn yet and realize, I still have a little further to go, what? Noo! But I have made it this far, and first things first I don't want to turn on the wrong street after being so close and secondly there is no way in hell that I am giving up at this point I don't care what happens - I WILL make it, and I did!

All I could think about for those first few seconds was that I finally, and ACTUALLY made it to the top of the hill that has been haunting me for a month or so. I was (and still am) so friggin' stoked and proud of myself for making it to the top. All I could think was that I have worked toward this, even if only for a short time, and have made it to the top on my very first try out of pure determination. Even after a long day at work, a full workout and cardio session at the gym and 5 hours sleep the night before I still made it to the top. My next step will be getting home after my windy, but awesome downhill reward and reviewing my GPS data on the web. Analyzing my cadence and how I did overall on the route.

I was not looking to set any records, nor was I hoping to be in the running with those that have rode the same route and challenged the segment on Strava. My goal was, and still is, to first make the hill climb successfully and continue to ride it often to work on my climbing skills and strength.

I did add a second segment to the end of the route that goes around this popular loop fairly close to home. I figured this would be a fun way to end the ride and that there was no way I was going to be in the top especially after being spent from the earlier climb and several mile ride to get back to this segment / part of my route. Also the fact that it was going into a strong headwind 3/4 of the way which does not help at all - hate the friggin' wind!

I come down the hill and through the neighborhoods to the loop that I want to do, and have to do 1 1/2 times to get back to my starting point. So from the get-go I know that I will have to ride in the nasty headwind at least two more times. I pedal as hard as I can, which by now was not that hard, and completed the 1 1/2 loops, and started heading back to my start point. Once I hit it, my GPS gave me the ever-so familiar chime that I was done - it's a great sound / celebration to hear at the end of a ride even though it's so simple and basically a midi tone.

This tone gave me a boost to haul ass back to my house and cool down for a moment out front of the house, drinking water slowly but fast to replace anything I lost during the ride. Sweat was getting into my eyes and burning and I really did not care. I made it, the hill climb, the downhill and the loop segment that everyone does and all within a very short amount of time and almost exactly enough daylight because it was completely dark by the time I put the bike in the garage and changed out of my road bike clothes.

Ahh what an awesome way to end the day I thought, I was on such a high and even Cicely was excited to hear the news that I made it all the way. We fist bumped and to me that was the icing on the cake. Now to settle down my tingling legs and cool down slowly.

A Walk

I guess I am a glutton for punishment because Oggy was whimpering a little and Cicely said now that I was back she wanted to take Oggy for a walk - only just under a mile, but I did not want her to go alone so I volunteered to go with her and that way we could take Zoey as well. Not the most exciting stroller ride for Zoey because it was dark and she had to be a little more bundled up than usual because of the weird cold front we have going through the area, but I think that she did still enjoy the ride and getting out of the house for a few.

I had a great time also, well other than the fact that I had to piss something fierce from chugging all of that water when I got back from my bike ride. I will admit though, I was still thinking about the success of the ride and looking forward to analyzing my ride data once back home.

Stopped to get the mail, headed up the street, up the driveway and to the front door. By now I was doing the "potty dance" more than ever - holy cow did I have to piss! In the house, off to the bathroom and aah relief! Helped get Oggy out of his collar and leash, Zoey out of her stroller carrier and the stroller folded up and put away.

Data Analyzing Time!

Awesome, the moment I have been waiting for - almost like opening that one gift you can't quite figure out what it could be on Christmas morning.

I plugged in my Garmin, let it mount and then auto-sync to Garmin Express as it always does even though IMHO Garmin Express sucks ass because of the lack of user base - oh and the fact that I can't put my friggin' password into the Edge 1000 because a character I used is not in the keyboard on the device, really? I mean what the fuck Garmin? I email them and 6 or 7 days later / still no reply. Hoping I don't regret spending the $600 for the device.

OK sorry back on topic. I let it do all of its auto crap and then swap over to the mounted Garmin drive, grab the .fit file from it and put it into my backup folder (just in case Strava ever goes down or I need my data for something else I back it all up to Dropbox as well). I then open Strava, go to my dashboard and head for the "upload" button.

Anticipation building I point it to the file and watch the progress bar churn. The name of the route pops in, then the time, next the duration - huh? 11 minutes?? Then the map with the drawn route that follows with my stats. WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!?, Noooooo!!!

My map shows up and has a line that goes up from my starting point, then back down to my finishing point, essentially as though I did a quick 11

Minute triangle ride of .9 of a mile. This can't be right? Something imported wrong I bet. So I go look at the data in the stupid Garmin website and wouldn't you know it, exactly the same.

There I sit, deflated, pissed off, confused, annoyed and all other related words. It didn't record my ride - it didn't record my ride - it didn't record one of the most difficult rides for me to date!

Sigh....

Now completely deflated and bummed I started thinking about why this may have happened and how much better I might feel if next time I drag the Garmin behind the bike on my next ride, followed by kissing it with a sledge hammer when I return home from said ride.

Better yet, tonight I will try and do the ride again and see how I do. I know that my times will not be much better or worse simply because I am still so new at the climbing portion of riding. I just need to get myself psyched up again when I get home and hit the road. It's windy again today and that will once again be to my disadvantage, but when I start going on really long rides I wont always have the option of the perfect day anyhow.

I wish I still had the map from last night, I would have posted it as today s photo of the day but I was pissed off and decided to throw it away and get it out of sight and out of mind. I brought the Garmin into work today and was planning to mess with it and see what I might be able to do so I don't have this issue again but I have not had the time. What I may start doing is running both my Garmin and one of my iPhone apps so that I have "something" should one or the other not record in the future.

Photo: Well Croatia I for one was rooting for you big time, credit card in hand to purchase a jersey and everything but I guess it was not in the cards for you to win the World Cup this go-round. Playing the teams you played (Brazil & Mexico) does not help either. Mexico is crazy good and Brazil flops all the time. No matter, give 'em hell next time!