Training Log Archive: Mr Wonderful

Beginner bike mechanic practice

One of the craziest drives out of Dearborn in my 20 years at Ford (the massive power outage might be about the top).

Caught a bit of rain on the track, so we called it for lunch and I went to update some stuff in Allen Park.

Rain wasn't too bad, so I chanced the shorter + faster way, Southfield to 96, instead of the longer way.

Mistake! Heavens opened, and 3" (75 mm) of rain in 30 minutes started to flood the underpasses. By luck rather than skill I decided to bail to some exit and it turned out no one was going through that puddle. But the surface streets had construction and their own minor flooding, and you couldn't easily get around on the neighborhood streets because cars were at least rocker deep most of the time.

I longed for a Bronco (either one - Sport can do 23" puddles, real Bronco can do 33" fording depth), but the Subie got through what I did try and I made it to 96 which was fine.

In hindsight, service drive to 96 may have been faster. Well, taking 94 on any chance of quality rain would have been the best idea.

By chance one of the parents at tonight's park with Harvey also works in Dearborn....she had to drive to Detroit and then backtrack to get around it.

Apologies on photo quality, I was trying to avoid being trapped.

Phone grabbed focus on litter instead of the underpass...that's a fair bit of water.



Even the relatively high ground of the service drive had quality puddles, curb deep in front of me.



Back behind the soaked passenger window, you can see a Gen 1 Ford Fusion bumper deep. Maybe the center of roads would have been passible but I was spooked!

Wagon may win the day. It was by far the fastest option tested, at 20 minutes, which included two minutes of vigorous disagreement about route choice. (Harvey, for unknown reasons, despises Blanche Street.)

It does give the excuse to get an upgraded bike trailer for rainy / cold days, especially if I prep a bad weather bike.

Still three minutes late, even trying the pedal car. Leave 45-60 minutes before the end of the window? Give up and be lame car driving person? I am at a loss. :|

Event: SMOC - Kensington Sprint-O & Radio-O
 

The first block took about 35 minutes, with more wailing and gnashing of teeth than seemed warranted.

I have concerns about making this work when there's an actual time target next week....

C • exciting! 1

Fun course from the toboggan top at Kensington. Igor was up by 2:30 or so, but mostly happy to run a chunk of it at 90 deg F.

Sad that some of the the radio gear wasn't cooperating, and the radio gear that did cooperating required more stopping than I was willing to do with that many mosquitoes. Another time!

Thanks Joe!!!

Adv Sprint - Splits

Harvey's space time does not line up with mine, and so 90 minutes is not enough time, may have to look at 105 minutes to...eat half a waffle, brush teeth, change clothes, walk 1 km. We would have made it, but b a r e l y.

Testing the get up and get to school before it truly starts. Good to do a trial, as I think I got him up slightly too late, and started the walk slightly too late (3 year old not quite equalling 3 mph).