Double duty

As planned, did an easy fifteen miles this morning.  I wore my Assos leg warmers for the first time in a while, and confirmed that, not only are they not worth the price premium over my PI Elite (no, not even the PRO version) warmers, but they aren't even better.  They're thinner, I think, and as warm, but not as comfortable.  Today, they were bunching a bit at the back of the knees, and they still have that seam running down the center of the front.  They aren't terrible, but definitely not worth getting.

It was a few degrees above feezing, and I decided to go in a different direction from what I normally do for easy rides.  I wore a heavy base layer, a hincapie jersey (long sleeve) that I just got at huge discount, and a thin windbreaker.  I was pleasantly surprised to be very comfortable, although the mittens looked pretty goofy on top, I'm sure.

The ride itself was uneventful, going the same path that I've done a number of times lately.  That is, down to Shirlington on George Mason, then right on the W&OD to Wilson, Wilson to Roosevelt (in Falls Church), cut behind the Metro back to the W&OD, on to Grove St, to Haycock, to Orland, to Powhatan, and back home.  As I said, about fifteen miles total, with 850' of elevation change.

I did have a fair bit of trouble keeping my heart rate down again, although the fact that I needed to get home a little bit early didn't help that.  Hopefully, it won't mess with things tomorrow.

Anyway, the double in the title refers to heading down to the bike shop to get the shifting looked at at lunch time.  It hasn't been quite right in a bit, and I have been wanting to get it looked at (or to figure out how to fix it myself) for a while.  The long ride for tomorrow decided me that today would be a good day to get it done.

Getting down there and back was a fairly easy six-mile ride (400'), although I didn't take my heart rate meter (plus, my power meter crapped out again just shy of the bike shop.  This time I'll go ahead and change the battery).  It had warmed up since this morning (to around 45F), so I wore the same togs as the morning ride, except that I ditched the leg warmers and base layer, and exchanged the mittens for lighter gloves.  That all worked out well, and lunch was excellent.  Win-win-win.

Time to see how tomorrow goes; it'll be a sixty-mile round trip, plus I'll add on some more miles (ideally, around forty), somehow.  I haven't figured out exactly how, or, more to the point, where.