Need to get my groove back

It has been 22 days since I broke my thumb.   What a pain, in many ways.  An opposable thumb on the dominant hand is, pardon the pun, a handy thing.   Using scissors, clippers, knives, pens, pencils, and such has been a chore at best for these three weeks.  I get new x-rays and an assessment on Thursday, and I am ready to get rid of this stinking (literally at times) splint and go back to some version of normality.

One thing that has suffered the past three weeks has been hard, disciplined riding.  I have tried to keep up with my normal commute riding, but I have not done some of the harder, longer commute rides that I did regularly before the break.  The first weekend after the incident I got out to test the waters, so to speak, and felt good.  But the following week was brief, interrupted, and ended with the three days of playing the role of support spouse at Madera.  The only ride that weekend was an easy pre-ride of the TT course.  The past weekend I got out for a hard, tempo ride from San Jose to Gilroy and back, and wanted more on Sunday but the ‘honey-do’ task of cleaning and planting the side yard got priority.  Tomorrow I need to get back into regular rides that mimic some sort of training schedule.

And my racing plan for the year went into the toilet with the minor tipover that resulted in a broken thumb.  I have already missed Madera, the one opportunity for a stage race this year.  This weekend it is almost certain I will miss the Wente Road Race, one of the races best suited to my abilities.  To compensate I have signed up for the EBC crit in mid-May and the ICC Dash for Cash crit later in the month, followed by the Pescadero Road Race in mid-June.  I had not intended to do Pescadero this year; I think I could use some more off-season leg strength work before tackling that brutal course.  But it is what it is.  That gives me about 7 weeks or so to get ready, so expect to see me around some of the local hills doing repeats over the next few weeks.

Glue vs. tape update

The twin sidewall punctures at Madera has given me an opportunity to revisit the glue vs. tape for attaching tubular issue.  Just before Madera I had re-glued the front tire, and taped the rear.  Both tires were firmly attached, not likely there would have been a roll-off.  The front tire came off cleanly; on the rear there was a couple of layers of the tape matrix left that was easy enough to remove.  But, and this will be what pushes me to the glue camp, there was a very tacky, squishy, thick layer of glue material left on the rim after removing the tire and the leftover tape.   I spent last night doing the dirty work of stripping all that nasty leftover glue off the rim.  I will go back to glue for the most part, but will leave some Tufa tape in the toolkit just in case I need to attach a tire in a hurry.