146th ride - 10/31/2015

This morning's ride was fair, but also frustrating. I had wanted to do a record five consecutive round trips to Marsh Park, which would have taken me a bit over 4 hours and set a new distance record for me, at 41.5 miles. I had wanted to do this in honor of my daughter's Halloween birthday, and also to prove to myself I'm up to the 40-mile Five Boro Tour in New York City next May 1 that I'm planning to go out and ride with my friends Eric and Mari Veenstra. But, bedeviled by a technical problem that I need to solve before I take on a long ride like that, I had to cut it back and settle for three round trips, completing the 25.5 miles in 2 hours and 35 minutes.

The problem is that my right foot keeps slipping off the pedal. This usually happens several times each ride (unless I pedal exceptionally slowly and cautiously), and is inconvenient and frustrating and best, and painful at worst. My leg frequently gets thrown back so that its lower portion (just above the ankle) scrapes against the tie rod (the thin metal bar that connects the two front wheels) and the 'outrigger' - the metal cross arm that supports the wheel. When I was riding in shorts this summer, in fact, it wore an open, raw patch that remained for several weeks.

Anyway, it seems to me there must be some sort of solution to this (either some sort of modification of the pedal, perhaps, or of my footwear?), and I shall call on technically minded friends, as well as Jack's Bicycle in Dearborn next time I have to go there, to see if I can work out the solution.