On the year's first Challenge completed despite ageing bodies

Well, I took Leonardo out on the first Vélo-Québec bike challenge of the year. It was also first time I have ridden Leonardo since London. Also, I am very much over my desired weight. I eat and drink too much and don't get enough exercise. That makes me an all too-typical middle-aged North American.

Consequently, I opted for the modest standard version of the Metropolitan Challenge, a mere 101 advertised kms. This was partly as the route was go East with the wind and come back West against it. The day started out with the threat of rain. (In fact it rained on the way out of Montreal to Ste-Anne-des-Plaines but it had stopped before we started.)  The Sun eventually came out in force, and I now have my first sunburn of the year.

Anyway, long story short, my stats are: a biking time of 4.58.16, a distance of 104.55, an average of 21.0 km/h and a max of 54.1 km/h. Not my best performance. As I was nearing the end coming down a hill in Ste-Anne-des-Plaines, a radar speed sign chastised me for doing 31 km/h in a 30 zone.

The Maternal Unit did the same distance as me but took a bit longer. The Paternal Unit only did 82 kms. Please note that the italics on "only" are to indicate a slight sarcasm intended to indicate that he didn't feel up to 101 kms (plus or minus) on account of his relative infirmity owing to accident and age. In other words, I think he and my Mother are doing bloody well especially when all things are considered.

This leads into the next part as afterwards both my Mother and my Father "moasted" (a portmanteau of "moaned" and "boasted") about various people in the Challenge (including at least one encadreur) being concerned as to their well being. And not entirely without reason, as both were somewhat pooped by the end of the day. (Hell, I was very glad to arrive at the end.) Combine that with the fact that they are easily in the 100th age percentile of participants of the Challenge, I don't see why a bit of concern wasn't justified. I know at work, more than once I have had to deal with very minor medical issues involving older patrons. One at least occasion, the patron commented that we (the staff) were overreacting. I remember saying or thinking something like: "We'd rather be guilty of caring too much than too little."

There is nothing wrong with getting old.

On an embarrassing bike reassembly

I realised today that I hadn't reassembled Leonardo since coming home last August. As the Metropolitan Challenge is next weekend, I felt the long weekend was the time to do it. It went fairly smoothly until I began to reinflate the front tire. I was just about finished when I saw with horror that the tire hadn't been properly aligned with the tube and rim. There was an ominous bulge. I desperately tried to remove the pump and release the valve, but a loud BANG! put an end to hopes of saving the day.

Thankfully, the blow-out didn't damage the tire. The tube, on the other hand, had a six inch long rent in it.  There are worse places to have a blow-out than one's home and I dug through my bike bits bin in search of a suitable replacement inner tube. I was surprised not to find one of the appropriate size. I then looked at the spare tube in my bike repair bag. It looked like it might fit. However, when I examined it more closely, the valve stem was a funny angle and then came off the tube as I handled it. My theory is that it had been battered from being too long in a bag at the bottom of my backpack.

I therefore walked a few blocks to the nearest bike shop for several replacement inner tubes of the larger calibre Leonardo uses. On my return, I put in the new inner tube, this time doing the "pinchy, pinchy" routine prior to full inflation on both the front and the rear tires. I also put a good spare tube into my bike repair bag.