Advancement

Yesterday I cycled again (re-cycled, ha ha) the same route as a week ago. This time, however, I brought proper nutrition along. I had 0.75 l of sports drink, 0.5 l of water, a muesli bar and two bags of energy gel. The improvement was slight, but noticeable. Although the total time and average speed didn't improve much, I wasn't quite as spaghettied out as a week ago. This time there was a strong headwind on the way back, as opposed to the light one a week ago, which affected the speed somewhat.

Now I really realized the importance of eating enough during a long exercise. I guess the racks full of sports nutrition in the sports department of your local hypermarket aren't just for weight gain purposes of bodybuilders. Maybe I should join a cycling club or something so I could get information on these things.

Even though I felt quite good yesterday, my bike didn't. The rim of the rear wheel is crooked and wobbles quite a bit. And furthermore, I filled up the tires at a gas station, not too much pressure, in my opinion, but at a traffic light I noticed that the tire on the front wheel bulged out at one place. Why? Are the rims too narrow for 23 mm tires? Will I have to buy new rims? Will modern rims even fit my vintage bike? Questions that could easily be solved by throwing money at them. If only I had the money.

By the way, on Saturday I fetched my weekday bike (a Kona Dew Plus, which I also love) from the bike shop, where it was being serviced for the first time. I must say that I was satisfied with the work. Everything worked fine and the earlier slight crunchy sound from the transmission when riding on a high gear had vanished (loose crank hub bearings?). I rode a 30 km test run, which was bliss, so on the weekend I did about a 100 km of bicycling exercise.

Distance: 62.7 km
Time: 2:22
Avg: 26.3 km/h