I didn’t go as far as I was planning this weekend, but there’s a reason for that. My friend Tom got his new handcycle!

Tom has been riding with Achilles for a few months on the Philly Achilles hand cycle. He is hardcore and decided that he needed his own cycle. After some fundraising and a generous donation, his new cycle was ready for its maiden voyage. I was lucky enough to get to go with him.

I recognized some of what I felt when I got to ride the first time. I’m betting that he thought some of these same thoughts:

• Holy crow! This is amazing!
•  I’m going fast under my own power!
• This hill sucks!
• This could be addicting…what have I gotten myself into?

More people should get this opportunity.  They shouldn’t have to do it the hard way.  So this is one way to try to make it easier.  I’m blogging and riding and asking for sponsorship so that we can have the equipment for smiles like these.

Sponsor me!

 

This past weekend we had some challenging training weather. Although Joaquin didn’t shut us down, it certainly wasn’t what I would call a nice day to go riding. I did ride, though. I rode just over ten miles into a headwind. I believe that headwind should mean that it counts as more than just ten. But two things from this weekend bring up my topic for this post.

How does science justify the things that happen? There are two of them for this week.

Magic miles: I rode a route that I have ridden before. The last time I rode it, I clocked 11.3 miles on my GPS. Sunday when I rode, it only clocked 10 miles. I understand that there will be variation because of how tight you take a corner, switch lanes, etc. But how in the world can it make a 10% difference.

Up hill, both ways: Technically this should be “into the wind, both ways.” Is there some bizarre meteorological or geographical anomoly that makes the wind blow south on the east side of the river and north on the west. It makes no sense to me.

In other news, I went to a track meet last night. I did the 100m in my wheelchair for a PR (personal record)**. Even better? I got to hang out with two other wheelchair athlete who were super-cool, super-supportive and super-bad-asses. Don’t you love their smiling faces?

 

*And now Thomas Dolby is playing in your head.

**It absolutely counts as a PR because I’d never done it before.