Swim & Bike Parts

Two unrelated topics combined in one post.

Swim

Last weekend was the annual Reuter-Hess swim race. The Reuter-Hess lake (reservoir) is a local one — in fact, very local to our new home. We can see it from our backyard.

It was a cold & damp morning with some sprinkles. In the mid to upper 50s for temp, I think. Thankfully, the water was 72 so it felt really great going in to start the swim.

The swim itself was pretty uneventful. I signed up for 1.2 miles (half Ironman distance) but it came in short. Probably closer to .8 miles, at a guess? I felt like I started slow in the first half so tried to speed up a little in the second half. Amusingly, my first half speed was better than my second half speed. There’s a moral to that story… and food for thought for future me.

I’m not super fast in the water, but I got 3rd in my age group [out of 5, lol!] and 37 out of 87 overall. I’m happy. Swimming remains “a journey” for me. But I’ll get it dialed in one of these days.

Bike Parts

I mentioned at the end of my Foco Fondo post from last week that I had some new bike parts for that event. Those parts were the Shockstop Suspension System by Redshift. What’s that system? Well, basically a fancy seat post and handlebar stem. Both highly adjustable and both designed to make the ride more comfortable.

That link will tell you all you want to know about the parts, I won’t attempt to recreate it. But I can tell you what I thought about it.

I love it!

It takes some getting used to, and I have both the seatpost and the stem dialed in to be pretty tight (not a lot of movement). Even so, the first few test rides I was feeling awfully “bouncy…” and a little concerned. But, you adapt and get used to it pretty quickly. And when you hit those dreaded gravel washboard sections? OMG, Priceless! After the first washboard I was convinced I had made the right choice.

And after a tough 59 miles I still felt good. My wrists and back weren’t nearly as sore as they normally would be after a long ride.

I’m pretty tempted to put the stem on my road bike. First thing I noticed on my road bike this past weekend was feeling all the road bumps!

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I am sure these are heavier than their normal counterparts but at my level, that’s really not an issue when weighed against the comfort factor.

I’m definitely onboard.