With the return of trade winds, the weather was perfect for Tantalus Thursday. Yesterday, the moist air brought in by the Northeasterlies turned to heavy rainsqualls because of ground heating. There was less humidity and stronger winds today, so some fluffy white clouds developed, but there was no rain. The wind was welcome to bring down the heat, but it unfortunately resulted in headwinds on the steepest parts of the climb. Ckucke had to babysit his niece, JT had come down with something (Influenza A H1N1?), and Kevyn was otherwise occupied. That left Root and me, but nothing ever goes smoothly. Root broke his chain last week and bought a new one at McBike that night. He neglected installing it in the intervening week, and didn’t have any tools to install the chain. I had my full kit as always, so I told him to drive over to the meeting place and put the chain on.
While I waited, I did some warm-up circuits on the road near the park. Having cold legs at the start of the ride makes for instant burn, but excessive warm-up threatens to deplete valuable muscle resources. I wondered if I had found the balance. The climb was still heinous with warm legs, but the burn was reduced. I managed to come in at 38-minutes on the climb. Since we got a late start, we didn’t linger long at the top before heading back down the Makiki side. I was trying to best my time down, but a couple of slow automobiles held me back.
D = 18.58 km (11.55-miles), Vavr = 18.6 km/h (11.6-mph), Vmax = 60.6 km/h (37.7-mph), T = 1-hour (11 warm-up, 38 up, 11 down)
Yeah, like an idiot I forgot to install the chain I bought after I snapped old one on my ride back to office from last weeks Tantalus Thursday. Luckily the new chain was still in my ride bag. Unluckily my tool bag was on the x-country bike. A nail, small vise, and hammer doesn’t work to drift out a Shimano chain pin, bent the nail trying.
Dave, u went hard at the start! Guess that’s the diff with warming up! Instead I was cold since I drove to meeting spot! Good ride!
We were running out of daylight, and I was trying to stay away from the camera.