Tuesday, March 31, 2009

New Toy

Well, it's a used new toy, not really new.

It's a 2004 Felt F45 road bike.

A co-worker was looking to sell this bike because it doesn't fit him quite right. I was looking for a high quality bike, but didn't want to spend the money for a new bike.

Many years ago, my primary racing focus was triathlons. In 1991 or so, I decided that I really loved running and I hated swimming, so I changed my focus to road running. A few years later, I found ultras and I've been doing them ever since. But, I really enjoy road riding and I've missed it. And, a decade ago, I lent my road/tri bike to someone and never got it back. So, I have been riding my mountain bike at times for cross-training purposes, but I have never really enjoyed mountain biking as much as road riding.

In 2002, when I tore my ACL, I borrowed a bike from a co-worker and rode a lot as part of my rehab. I even did a triathlon that year. I thought about buying that bike from my co-worker, but it never worked out. But, last fall, when my current co-worker mentioned that he was going to sell his road bike, we started talking. And, during ski season, I saved my paychecks to I could buy the bike from him.

On Sunday, I have an appointment with a bike shop called FitWerx. They specialize in bike fitting and people come to their shop from all over New England to make sure that their current bike is set up as perfectly as possible, or to get measured so that their next bike fits them perfectly. It's kind of expensive to get the fitting done, but I think it will be worth it to have a nice bike that is perfectly adjusted to my body.

Of course, in the next 13 weeks, my focus really needs to be runnning and that's not going to change. I'm likely to use the bike mostly on days that would have been rest days or days where I might ride rather than do a short, easy run.

Speaking of running, I'm planning a 10.5 miler home from work today. I lifted last night. My plan for the week is to lift 3x, run 3x (10.5, 12, and 24 or so on trails), and perhaps ski easily for half a day on Sunday. Over the next few weeks, I want to build my weekly mileage so that I'm consistently over 50 miles. Then, in May, I'll do some 70-80 mile weeks.

My first ultra of the season is a 50K in just under 3 weeks.

2 comments:

David Ray said...

Any plans to bike to work? I would love that.

And still going to Umstead this weekend?

Damon said...

I may end up doing some biking to work. I have to wait for Vermont's "mud season" to end before I can even consider it though. From my house, it's just about 2 miles of dirt road until you hit pavement, and that dirt is all mud right now - not the right place for a skinny-tired racing bike.

I'm not going to Umstead. The runner I was going to pace dropped out and the runner I was going to travel with also dropped out. Plus, the other runner (Joe Novicky) that I was thinking of helping already has plenty of help.