A Sunday Two-a-Day… And Time To Make The Donuts. For Someone Else.

Well, I start my new job today. The new company is pulling out all of the stops to make me welcome, too. I was told the owner of the company is flying in today to welcome me to the team. I’m more than a little shocked, in a humble way, that they’re making the fuss. I’m also thankful beyond words that they are. I should have about four months of solid work before looking into the next part of the adventure after the comfort of having (mostly) the same job for the last 25-years. More on the next phase later.

Yesterday, with the last of my time off flashing before my eyes, the weather was unseasonably glorious. Sunshine, a decent breeze and fairly warm temperatures in the mid 40s (4 C) – and with my wife picking out dresses with our daughters for a wedding we’ll be attending in Florida next month, I had some free time to enjoy the outdoors on the Trek. I almost took the Venge but wanted to see if the Trek was still not creaking after most of a winter on the trainer. I also invited my sponsee along so we could talk some program things out. He’s midway into his ninth step and he’s getting to some of the tricky amends. He’s new into triathlons and he’s got a decent Felt alloy bike with Claris components on loan from a friend.

We had a wonderful afternoon jaunt around our Swartz Creek loop. The weather was nice enough that neck gaiters or balaclavas were entirely unnecessary.

Starting out, I could see he was in a terrible position on the bike. The handlebars were tilted up too much and the hoods were way too high. He was sitting too upright for his young age and flexibility. You’d expect that position out of someone in their late 70s or early 80s. We talked twelve step stuff till we’d gotten through everything he needed to, then we turned to cycling stuff. Not surprising, he was having some comfort issues after just ten miles or so. His feet were hurting – hot spots under the cleats, and his back was tightening up. No doubt, the back issue was from loading too much on his backside and feet because his hands were so high up… he wasn’t sitting in a neutral position at all.

We completed the 19-ish mile loop at a winter pace that was throroughly enjoyable and talked about a bunch.

On arriving back at my house, we took his bike in and set to checking a few things out. We took the dork disk off from behind the cassette and check the derailleur positioning to make sure it wouldn’t shift into the spokes. Then I went to work on the handlebars. I rotated them down, considerably, into a more normal position. I checked that the hoods were the proper 10-ish° rise, then put a couple of the spacers above the stem to lower the bar. We’ll give that a go and see how he feels the next time.

After that, it was a special dinner with my wife, daughter and her boyfriend before watching “the big game”. It turned out to be a fairly great night.\

As for today, here we go.

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