Long Ride Gone Wrong

Today was one of those rides where you wonder just how much benefit you will gain from it. "If I go to hard will I get hurt or just hurt worse than I do now and be stronger later?" I kept telling myself "just go easy" but somehow it seemed that I kept going slower and slower and slower and feeling weak. Blah! Ok, so it was just a bad day, but then again so was Thursday...mmm, pattern? Over-training??? Yes, probably a bit. Don't worry I am not going to complain for entire entry about my bike riding skills - nope. For the the first 65 miles of the ride today despite the fact that I felt bad I was very proud of the fact that I had adjusted my front and rear derailleurs last night and they WORKED! Yep, I have done it a few times now and I was starting to feel pretty confident in my bike mechanic ability...until...all of a sudden my bar end shifter started to fall apart in my hand. I still had a few gears, I tried to adjust on the side of the road, but it was not going to work. Ugh. I decide I will be a trooper and just ride all the hills in my 21. That lasted about 1 mile before my knee was complaining. I stop again and try to adjust, this time it just gets worse not to mention the fact that I have broken my own rule of NEVER mess with thy bike on the side of the road during a ride. This was an emergency though - I still had many miles to ride and a lot of hills. I take off again and then just slam the bar end shifter in frustration. It goes into the 27 in the rear but only if I hold it here. So I ride the next 20 miles holding the shifter and riding half aero up all hills. (This does not work well). When I get to Tryon I have to take my hand off the shifter to go over the railroad tracks and that is when the entire shifter falls off revealing sheered threads of cable. The bolt goes flying off and the chain snaps into my wheel. I wonder if I can ride like this for another 16 miles and the answer is "no way, stupid". I am done. My long, slow, sad ride has come to an end. I call my husband to come and get me. I think he was already out looking for me because he was very close to where I was anyway. I consider doing a brick run when I get home but I am done, toast mentally and physically worn out.

On the up side I did find Lake Cunningham which does not seem to have any water and Lake Robinson, which is beautiful. Picture above is me taking a break at Lake Robinson, which I rode many roads to find. It was my goal to find these two lakes today - so at least I did accomplish something!