Coleman valley road was a fun climb but it really wasn't that hard. Compared to some of the south bay climbs it was fairly insignificant.
After I got back I stripped down my bike - its really light with no components on it, who needs carbon - and installed the SRAM rival set. Things I learned along the way:
- Read the instructions first. Ooops, installed the bottom bracket incorrectly and had to redo.
- Its really hard to tension gear cables without a cable stretcher. And don't install those ends until you need to.
- Its important to install the little piece of metal around the cable where it goes into the shifter because otherwise the tension will cause it to tear through the surround. Another ooops.
- Adjusting the gears really isn't that hard with the correct cable tension.
- Its easier to install some pieces when the bike is on the ground instead of in the stand because you can't put enough torque on it.
The rival doubletap is easy to used to. Yes, I did brake instead of changing gear a couple times. Its much nicer only having the double up front though.
I've done a couple of rides with the new setup - my lowest gear is higher now - up Old La Honda, Moody Road, Redwood Gulch, etc. I haven't set any PBs yet other than up Redwood Gulch, where I came in a hair over 15 mins, which is about 2 minutes faster than my best (computed retroactively from the GPS track from the sequoia 200k).
I now have about 110 miles on the new setup so I'm going to tighten it all up this weekend. So far the bottom bracket has a bit of a squeak so I can tighten that, the rear brake squeels (is this a bad thing given that I use it too much anyway?), and the shifting has stopped being quite so smooth.
I also started tearing apart my unsprung steel mountain bike. I'm debating what to do with this. I think I'll install my old triple on it, but probably keep the disc brakes. It needs a bit of work to get it back to working order.
Finally, got a new edge 705 - mine was dropping a lot of data. Garmin wanted a month to RMA it but REI was willing to exchange. So far when I look at the data it looks much much clear, which is great.
Today: Smoke from the lockheed fire has infiltrated the south bay, so I'm not going to go bike because I don't want to breath the stuff in the air. Maybe tomorrow will be better. My quads are sore anyway from working out at the gym, so an extra day off isn't so bad.
Running? Once this week. Going to start gradually building up mileage again. No knee pain. Doubt I'll make the half marathon target this year though, I didn't start early enough.
