Thursday, March 6, 2008

A bit of a commute

While many of you commute everyday to work I live about three blocks from work so I just walk. But, now that the weather is turning a bit nicer (nicer = warmer than 10 degrees! %^) I have decided to commute into Ames when I am making a quick trip. Tonight I needed to take some money to the bank so I rode there, then stopped at Skunk River Cycles to warm up the toes, and then headed home. One hour and 20 minutes for the 15 mile commute with the stops. I rode the Ibex, which is geared, so I spun a lot since my achilles has been bothering me a bit. It was starting to get a bit tender near the end, but is feeling fine now. The pain actually has moved a bit off of the achilles and is now closer to the bone that bulges outon the inside of my ankle. I am going to continue with the Aleve and the rest to see how it goes. If I am feeling fine tomorrow I will likely be riding back into Ames. We will see about the weekend. For right now I am going to take a bit of a break from the single speed.

I received my Small Block 8 cross tires a couple of days ago. I haven't gotten a chance to ride them yet, but I am amazed at how awesome they are! They are very light (340 grams) and the tread is much less agressive than any pictures I have seen. The tread literally isn't any higher than an 1/8 of an inch, if that. It should prove to be a fast rolling tire.

I need to heal up so I can be able to ride for a very long time at TI. Things aren't looking too go from the GRAID right now, but we will see. I will be making a decision on that soon. There are only a couple of other people interested in riding it and they are flexible so that is good.... I guess.


Happy training.

3 comments:

mr. f. g. superman said...

The GRAID would be great, but I'm glad your keeping your perspective. Heal up real good buddy. And I hope the weather continues to improve so you can get out and about.

Paul said...

I love Ed Grimly!

Right now I am feeling great. I definitely want to heal up that is for sure. I will say, the GRAID is probably a bigger priority to me that TI, but the GRAID can be done anytime! I will probably wait another week and see how I feel.

If possible, I would love to at least ride a bit of TI with you.

I don't know if you are going to be running mountain bike tires or not on the 29er, but if you are considering cross tires you have to check out the Small Block 8's. They look pretty fast.

gpickle said...

I was just dusting my framed picture of Pat Sajak the other day...

Glad to hear of your bike commuting Paul! Don't matter if its work or errands, its part of the solution. My girlfriend now works just 5 blocks away from home and has been walking but missing her usual rides, I advise taking the scenic route. Good luck with that tendon, I used to have some achilles issues when I lived in Ames, maybe its a geographical thing. You should move to Iowa City?