Pride goeth before low-back pain

Over my long Christmas break, I brought the Specialized home for a thorough cleaning. This saddle hadn't been soaped since... well, I'm guessing it had been about two years. You know, I put the seat saver on it and suddenly it was a lot harder to just take it apart on a whim.

Anyway, I cleaned it. But during this process, I foolishly forgot to notice and/or mark what stirrup hole I had been using.

So this Saturday at Madame Dorion, I noticed that I had put them back a little bit long. Just a little. Maybe one hole. It wasn't a big deal to ride that way—or so I thought.

Yesterday, on the road, I remembered that my stirrups were too long pretty quickly as I struggled to maintain something akin to a balanced position. As I flopped around in the saddle—my heels up, my thighs gripping, my posture forward—I considered stopping to fix the problem. But we were making such good time, and nothing bad had happened, and it wasn't like... you know... a big deal.

Except that today, we have this:

So let this be a lesson to you, dear reader. Next time some part of your equipment isn't quite right, take a moment to get down and fix it. If my back hurts this much today, I'm betting Blue's hurts a heck of a lot more.