Quickies

Managed to sneak out for a couple of night rides, no word from johnnie so went on my own tuesday, I was dressed up for monsoon weather and it actually wasn't bad so I overheated plenty :-( Up winterhill where I noticed my brand new chaintug had fallen apart, the threaded bar had unthreaded and dropped off! Useless, wheel had shifted in dropouts. Turns out shimano QRs done up well bastard tight will hold the wheel in place OK. Down 2lads, wildes, pike, hole in't wall were my lack of fitness showed, I was broken, ended up pushing! Then back home slowly the way I came looking for the missing chaintug parts, no luck.
Tonight was a bit better, certainly faster and felt stronger, sun was doing it's best impression of a balmy summer evening despite the chill in the air and water on the ground, sneaky bugger! Up winterhill (bloke parked up getting some very close attention to his lap from his passenger) down san marino, was riding through belmont after only 60mins of riding, cool. Along WW and upto Darwen tower, along the backs to whitehall and home via roller coaster, turton tower and finally the chicken run along the railway. 28miles in 2.5hours, some road miles perked the average up but I'm happy with that, finally a quick(ish) ride - remember that getting quick plan? Well it's not going too well so far.
Oh and both rides were done without lowering the saddle (worried about delaminating my carbon seatpost possibly an unwise purchase that), how the hell do people manage to go quick like that? dunno how much slower I actually am on the downhills but it feels like lots. When I'm stood up and I want to bend my knees I can only drop a couple of inches before my arse hits the saddle how do you soak up drops/impacts with that much travel/movement? If only dropper seatposts weren't so expensive, heavy and shonky.