Changing

Snuck in an extra 20 yesterday evening, arriving back at the house just before dark. The weather has been far too nice to be sitting on the couch watching Wheel of Fortune, and besides, I need to work off some of that lard that collected around my waist during the last few weeks (three lbs are gone, two to go). The bike has started making an occasional clunking noise that is clearly in the drivetrain somewhere, so late last night I dove into the bottom bracket. It was clear that there had been some water down there, since the left side bearing was showing some light rust here and there, but everything felt Campi-smooth nonetheless. I cleaned things up and forced some fresh grease into the damned cartridge bearings and put it all back together to try out this morning. It didn't seem to help, so perhaps it's in the hub or, more likely, cassette carrier. Oh well, at least the bike still goes forward when I push on the pedals!

This time of year it always seems like sunrise is getting noticibly later from day to day, and this morning I stepped out into near-darkness. The stars were still out as I turned on the flashing lights and made my way to the levee. As I rode up the access road I was practically blinded by Brady's helmet-mounted headlight when he turned and looked at me. Man, that thing is really bright, which is what you need if you have to train in the dark, especially on the unlit bike path. Anyway, we had a fairly typical group today except that a couple of the regular hammerheads were missing. Brady is planning on doing the Six-Gap Century this weekend, and Todd and VJ are supposed to be doing it as well, which may have explained their absence. The ride out to the turnaround was unremarkable. Nice brisk pace, but steady and smooth except for Howard's usual surges. After the turnaround, though, it was a little strange. After about a mile of soft-pedaling, I figured it was time we got rolling again, so, as gradually as I could, I lifted the pace to about 20 mph. Soon, the voices behind me grew more faint, and then they were gone altogether. Well, I figured the group would soon come screaming past me anyway, so I just kept rolling along. I may have gotten up to 22 or 23 mph, but certainly nothing more than that, and then finally, just after the 'Dip,' I heard wheels behind me. I looked back and was surprised to see only Jeff and Howard. So the three of us started working together and the pace went up maybe another mph or so, touching 25 now and then, but mostly staying around 24. I looked back but couldn't even see the group any more, although I knew they couldn't be too far behind. Jeff was starting to struggle, so when Howard pulled off around Williams Blvd. to go home we dropped the pace back down to around 23, and by the time we went under the bridge we had slowed down to 22 or so. Still, the group never caught us, not that they were actually chasing, although by then I could at least see them again. Anyway, I needed a good solid ride like that, so I was OK with it, although I hate to be so antisocial.

So things are definitely changing around here. Today there are guys up here on the roof removing the "Katrina Crane" that was installed right after the hurricane in order to get all of the destroyed stuff down and the new stuff and the new roof materials up. I take it as a good sign. I also got an email today for a meeting of the pilot test group for our change to Microsoft Exchange for email, calendaring, etc. I am kind of on the fence about changing my email software from Eudora, which I've been using practically since it was invented, to Outlook, especially since I use my email folders as a filing system and very often search for information in them. If they force me to go to IMAP, I'm going to be very unhappy. Aside from being slow to search and dependent on the status of the server, my experience has been that we have had a lot more problems with the people who use IMAP than with those who just use POP to download their mail. Anyway, "Change is Hard." The IT people seem to be deeply in love with IMAP for some reason, and I guess it is practically the only way for the Blackberry crowd to handle their mail, and I suppose I'm going to have to go there eventually, but I just have this deep-seated distrust of servers in general. That's the same kind of distrust that made the "Personal Computer" so successful in the first place (and practically brought IBM to its knees at one point). At any rate, my old PalmV is not going to cut it, since it doesn't have the native ability to sync with Outlook and I'm not about to mess with the third-party software that is supposed to make it possible, so I'll end up having to get a new PDA like the TX. I'm not really interested in dealing with a Blackberry kind of thing. I'd probably end up trying to read email while driving, which would likely end badly. More changes...

Nice to see some excellent results from U.S. riders at Worlds this week. First and third for the women and second for the men. Cancellara went 31+ mph for 50 km to win by a minute and a half over Zabriskie. Damn! I wonder if they'll be able to do anything in the Road Races.