Broken Cranks and Training Guides

As I was clipping in to get on the rollers first thing this week, I noticed that the left pedal was uselessly chunky feeling; apparently the pedal had stripped the crank. This could only have been my fault, since I'm the one that changed the pedals last, so that's pretty embarrassing. And no, I didn't try to screw it in clockwise, even I am not that green. I refuse to go to Papa Wheelies to get any mechanical work done that I can do myself; I just don't trust most of their mechanics, and I don't really care for their attitude. At any rate, I ordered the necessary tools and parts online, and I am still waiting on those to come in.

While unable to ride I've been keeping myself busy with my Amazon findings. Bicycle Maintenance & Repair looks pretty solid, it has details for trouble-shooting and overhauling pretty much everything I can imagine, however my toolbox is still limited. Also, I picked up The Cyclist's Training Bible. Based on what I've read so far, it is amazing, in my opinion. As someone who hasn't done much racing, I don't have much of a point of reference for my strengths and weaknesses, but I can tell that this book will be a great help for establishing a baseline, and for the future. I also picked up a few Chris Carmichael books, a cookbook and a training diary, which are okay as long as you just use them as what they are: a cookbook and a training diary. I don't care for Chris Carmichael, his books read like a brochure for this training system, and he uses ThisSymbol™ after like every word. It's distracting, and I also don't care.

I also had the privilege of going cross-country skiing at this little dairy farm up in Dayton, Maine, with the girl I have a category three crush on. While my crushes fall beyond the scope of this blog, I can say that the day was a solid workout, and I feel sore in muscles that I'd forgotten that I had. I would recommend cross-country skiing to anyone looking for a relatively safe, fun winter sport.