Drafting and Chains

On Sunday when I hit my peak point of exhaustion and was just trying to plow through the last 20 of the 150 miles, I was riding solo on a stretch of bike path and came upon two big guys who were going about 1-2 mph slower than me. I got on their left and announced that I was passing, but they sped up and wouldn't let me pass them. Finally, I pushed past them and got in front of them, only to have them draft behind me for about 7-8 miles.

This angered me. Unnecessarily so.

All I could think of during this time, though, was this book we had when we were kids - Boffo and the Great Motorcycle Race. Unfortunately, I was identifying with the antagonist, Rudy, rather than Boffo.

Rudy has the moustache

Rudy, that jerk, threw nails in Boffo's path

I am somewhat ashamed to say that, in my exhaustion, I seriously thought to myself, "I wish I had some nails like that bad guy with the moustache in Boffo and the Great Motorcycle Race." I wouldn't have thought such evil things if the guy behind me had just said, "Hey, we're drafting, in a few miles we'll take a turn so you can draft behind us." That totally would have been fine.

Two stray thoughts:

1. This book was one of many my parents let us order from the Parenting Magazine book club. The books we got from that service were my favorites - - Socks for Supper, the Fat Cat, the Little Old Man Who Could Not Read, etc. I don't think they sell books anymore - at least they don't self-publish them anymore, which is too bad.

2. My bike chain and rear gear cassette were a total mess after riding on the shoulder of a road in the rain for many dozens of miles. I didn't know that Dan got a chain cleaning kit for Christmas, so I went to the bike shop and bought one. It works great. I highly recommend it. I guess now we have a matching his-and-hers set! 

On the agenda:

1. Return to the bike to resume training for the MS TRAM and to call the MS Society people to get the low-down on the TRAM logistics (where do we camp, if we want to camp? they carry our luggage, right? if they don't serve breakfast and dinner, are those things hard to find? do they have shower trucks?).

2. Start rowing for the summer.

3. There was a third thing, but I can't remember what it is. Get some sleep, I guess.