Had a bit of a 'meh' weekend here... Had hoped to continue my gradual weekly increase in mileage trend of the last couple but failed miserably... Spent more time removing pedals (more on that shortly...) than riding last week!
Weather was forecast good all weekend and with the other half working saturday morning I intended to get out with the group ride (34 miles). Change of plans on friday night meant we went out and I lost the evening to sort my bike out before saturday morning... Rear pads rubbing from the filth, rusty chain (road salt & rain) and stretched gear cables (that a quick reindex wouldn't sort). I wasn't facing a fast saturday ride in that state! Even woke up saturday feeling rough like a badgers arse without drinking much friday...
Saturday afternoon I sorted everything out (cleaned & changed chain) then attempted to swap my SPD pedals for the SPD-SL's I got for Christmas. Couldn't get the damn things off! Broke/bent one pedal spanner (an old Halfords one) and an allen key. Thankfully had a second more substantial pedal wrench but my arms/wrists were done in after nearly 3 hours of it. Sacked off any outside riding,
did a stint on the turbo and just took the dog for a long walk. Sulked. Went to the cinema (The Revenant), sulked more. I spent a good hour reading different forums online on what to do next.
Sunday armed with treated pedal spindles (I'd sprayed a load of WD40 on the night before) I had a mission to accomplish! Tried everything (apart from heating them) until eventually fitting the bike into turbo trainer allowed me to jump/bounce all my weight on the
pedal spanner 'in line' with the crank arm. First one came off with so much force I caught my inner leg on my top tube/saddle, along with some choice language I now have a nasty sore wheal/mark (seems to be where the seam is between pad and shorts in all of my cycling shorts!
) Used the anger to do the same on the second pedal and got that one off without hurting myself further. 2 hours spent but finally done! Fitted cleats to new shoes (Giro Treble II's) and went out for a ride. Needless to say new pedals fitted with plenty of grease and only 'finger' tightened!
With my sore leg (and as things were windy) on sunday I opted out of the
segment I'd set a goal on for the end of the month. I'm not gonna get time to complete that now!
Did my local loop (I used for training previously) that I hadn't ridden for a while. Cleats not perfect, sore leg but still felt good to beast up some of those climbs. Good average speed for me over that distance/climbing. Quite interesting that the two rides for me (Zwift & loop) are similar distance/climbing with almost the same average speed. Hope this means I really have got my Turbo set up well?!
Shoe porn (Sidi Kaos):
They're so damn comfortable! Half regretting buying the Giro Treble II's now, but they will be for commuting... The Kaos' fit and feel like a slipper - more comfortable than my fave trainer (Nike Airmax '95), which are really comfortable and supportive (for my bad arches)!
In all of my maintenance this weekend I discovered the LBS changed the FSA press-fit BB (
looked like this) BB89 that my Giant came with (cups flush with frame so had a wavy washer/spring) for a
Shimano BB71 (external cups to frame, no wavy washer). I couldn't get my HTII spindle out of it, even tapping with a hammer. Hopefully I won't need to now, but in the longer term what's the correct procedure? The fit of the covers seems very tight over the spindle, which should mean less grit gets in there.
