Memorial Day Practice

Everything has gone more or less according to plan so far this weekend, meaning that Chuck and Jen's things have been packed up and either driven back to Boston by Jim and Cheryl or taken to the monster yard sale at Natalie and Bryce's house. And my mom came yesterday with our bikes!

Last night we took a short ride around town that allowed us to test the waters. The GPS worked great, tracking us for 9 miles and roughly 90 minutes. Our average speed was only 6+ mph, but we pretty much walked our bikes all the way up the hill to Cornell, which was a workout in itself. And we took our time exploring the little footpaths that crisscross through the campus.

The bikes ran well, although I think both our shifters need to be adjusted because the chains tended to skip up and down occasionally, or simply not shift on command, especially at the high end. I'm not much of a bike geek so I'm probably describing the problem all wrong but, that's my amateur opinion. We also adjusted Jen's seat, and we discovered that bike gloves might not be a bad idea. But since we don't have bike gloves, we're going to try using these palm pads that we bought a few years ago for weight-lifting. They're basically palm-sized pads of neoprene that strap to your hands. It's hard to find exercise gloves for any sport that aren't made with leather.

And now we're about to head out for a ten mile loop. Our plan is to bike ten miles, then walk ten miles, then see how we feel. We may end up biking or walking a little further.