on a less scientific basis. There are still a good number of jersey-pros and people wearing brand new one size too large because they ordered it online Brooklyn jersey, or the strange (Bozo the clown for example). But really there are more and more just plain jerseys.
I generally wear 'sponsored' kit all the time. Be it planet bike, cyclocrossracing.com, the current club design with the name on it Providence Velo Club, or the old PVC team kit with Refunds on it. But then I do race and am not the 'normal' cyclists it would seem.
A reality check for many. There are racers and there are a hell of a lot of people who don't race, they just ride. Or race the PMC or TFCE or some other 'hallmark' event.
Some parts of the country have actually done a good job of recruiting spectators at their races from this crowd of non-racers. Meaning they actually have spectators who aren't racers or related to racers, they are there as fans.
Tapping into that is key. Rather than bitching about the interpretation of a wicked fast master's musing about the future and maybe a way to make a very crowded race schedule solve a few problems at once. But hey really it is only about pre-riding. Afterall, if they were able to pre-ride they might win more frequently. Oh. Wait. I did try and explain this latest conflagration, at least the part I was involved in before, I guess, I tossed a can of gasoline into a room full of people madly sparking, closed the door and walked away. I haven't looked back, but it sounds like it was pretty heated. Anyway, trying to explain this to someone actually made me realize the humor in it all. The sheer ridiculousness of it. I'm damn quick at
labeling (translation: name calling) and missed what I think was a bit of satirical humor from iworedettos. Anyway. The break from the twits has been good, but I'm still not ready to go back. There's a hell of a lot of noise. Give it a few more days. Maybe the egos will settle a bit and go back to normal bullshitting by then.
okay - that covers it... oh, right, tapping into that mass of cyclists out there. Figure out how to get them to provide some spectator mass at the races this fall. Figure that out and we will see some more growth. Afterall NASCAR fans all drive cars, or can't wait until they are old enough to drive cars. And I'll bet at least half of them think they could drive as well as all but their favorite driver. Cycling could be the same. Sure there are not as many cyclists as drivers but we're building ranks.
think about that...
heddwch
g
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Friday, July 29, 2011
What's in a name?
My favorite journal/magazine next Cyclocross Magazine is Gastronomica.
They like the term foodie about as much as I do, aka not much.
So they had a contest. none of the possible names they suggested are mine (I couldn't think of a good one) but they are all pretty good and one of them totally makes me chuckle.
feel like voting? gotta be a better term than foodie... right?
See the choices
They like the term foodie about as much as I do, aka not much.
So they had a contest. none of the possible names they suggested are mine (I couldn't think of a good one) but they are all pretty good and one of them totally makes me chuckle.
feel like voting? gotta be a better term than foodie... right?
See the choices
18:55 over 8.1 and then 33:45 over 7
Last nights TT and this morning's commute in.
yeah I busted through the 19 minute ceiling last night. Felt good. The Bell lid that solobreak brought for me to try probably helped a bit. Aero helmets just feel faster on the head, even with the noise I actually felt like it was easier going through the air. I certainly hit a higher speed sooner with less effort after the hill on Peck with it on.
I'd broken into the 18s once before, but that was a night with a 20mph tailwind down the whole length of tremont. EVERYONE was 30s faster that night.
I passed all three of the guys who started in front of me and distanced the person behind me by at least 30 seconds (who wound up in 2nd place). And yes. 18:55 was a winning time last night. Last week winning time was 19 something. I didn't suck.
But was was weird is the legs felt horrible on the way over. Dead. There was an initial effort on Brown as we turn off 152. The pavement is newish and smooth asphalt. And it hurt, felt like crap, and I had a side stitch/cramp.
How was I going to turn a good time? That and I realized I didn't even check to see if I had any cash for the entry fee before leaving.
Got there - had money, relaxed, drank a bunch of water stomach seemed to relax. Squeezed my oversized noggin into the Meteor II and got lined up. 4th out of 9. That first week on the CX bike at 20:something has killed my running average. At least I wasn't first this time.
And off I went. Details are pointless. I passed all three of the guys who started in front of me. One said "it didn't even look like you were breathing hard when you went by." I was. Reynolds still worked me over, beat me up with a stick and kicked me onto Peck worse for the wear but...
I kept digging and hit the line with a solid time. The previous two weeks my legs have been horse poop on the way home. No ability to push hard, things didn't feel good. Tonight i finished, was blown, really spent. But 10 minutes into pedaling home they started to feel pretty good again. I managed to unload a handful of pretty solid efforts even. Derdowski just slotted into my ample draft and got sucked home pretty quickly. got the fueling right too. wasn't bonkish on the ride home.
Hell i fucking won something. Scotty D is right, you race those who show up. And I beat em all. By a less than trivial margin. We'll see how it stacks up next week if everything lines up and I can get out there.
This morning was late. Frustrations abounded getting out of the house. Melt downs. Things just took forever.
And yes, the morning started off great. Aka when I woke up and had some coffee... and went all pear shaped pretty quickly.
Drop off with the bike path road train was fine. Headed in on the Croll. Got passed just after jumping on the path by a mt bike commuter. And i let him ride away. Hit seat post was out too far anyway. When you stand up to pedal and your ass is below the saddle, take that as a cue that when you are sitting on it and your hips are rocking back and your toes are pointed down and knees are straight that your seat post needs to go into the frame a bit. WTF is up with all the too long seatposts.
Oh and backwards helmets. Only saw one today, previous two days there were four of them. half of those had the retention stuff up front. Really? I guess if you can't figure out how to put the helmet on correctly you don't really need to worry about protecting the frontal lobe.
So anyway. I followed this guy rocking back and forth (he would gain ground with the tailwind on the flat sections but i pulled him right back in on the hill) with my hr sitting at about 50% or so of my TT pace. Slow ride. Take it easy.
Time for some tunes. Gotta find something that will drive the funk out from between my ears. Writing certainly hasn't helped at all.
neither has food...
or coffee...
maybe i'll try more food and more coffee
heddwch
G
yeah I busted through the 19 minute ceiling last night. Felt good. The Bell lid that solobreak brought for me to try probably helped a bit. Aero helmets just feel faster on the head, even with the noise I actually felt like it was easier going through the air. I certainly hit a higher speed sooner with less effort after the hill on Peck with it on.
I'd broken into the 18s once before, but that was a night with a 20mph tailwind down the whole length of tremont. EVERYONE was 30s faster that night.
I passed all three of the guys who started in front of me and distanced the person behind me by at least 30 seconds (who wound up in 2nd place). And yes. 18:55 was a winning time last night. Last week winning time was 19 something. I didn't suck.
But was was weird is the legs felt horrible on the way over. Dead. There was an initial effort on Brown as we turn off 152. The pavement is newish and smooth asphalt. And it hurt, felt like crap, and I had a side stitch/cramp.
How was I going to turn a good time? That and I realized I didn't even check to see if I had any cash for the entry fee before leaving.
Got there - had money, relaxed, drank a bunch of water stomach seemed to relax. Squeezed my oversized noggin into the Meteor II and got lined up. 4th out of 9. That first week on the CX bike at 20:something has killed my running average. At least I wasn't first this time.
And off I went. Details are pointless. I passed all three of the guys who started in front of me. One said "it didn't even look like you were breathing hard when you went by." I was. Reynolds still worked me over, beat me up with a stick and kicked me onto Peck worse for the wear but...
I kept digging and hit the line with a solid time. The previous two weeks my legs have been horse poop on the way home. No ability to push hard, things didn't feel good. Tonight i finished, was blown, really spent. But 10 minutes into pedaling home they started to feel pretty good again. I managed to unload a handful of pretty solid efforts even. Derdowski just slotted into my ample draft and got sucked home pretty quickly. got the fueling right too. wasn't bonkish on the ride home.
Hell i fucking won something. Scotty D is right, you race those who show up. And I beat em all. By a less than trivial margin. We'll see how it stacks up next week if everything lines up and I can get out there.
This morning was late. Frustrations abounded getting out of the house. Melt downs. Things just took forever.
And yes, the morning started off great. Aka when I woke up and had some coffee... and went all pear shaped pretty quickly.
Drop off with the bike path road train was fine. Headed in on the Croll. Got passed just after jumping on the path by a mt bike commuter. And i let him ride away. Hit seat post was out too far anyway. When you stand up to pedal and your ass is below the saddle, take that as a cue that when you are sitting on it and your hips are rocking back and your toes are pointed down and knees are straight that your seat post needs to go into the frame a bit. WTF is up with all the too long seatposts.
Oh and backwards helmets. Only saw one today, previous two days there were four of them. half of those had the retention stuff up front. Really? I guess if you can't figure out how to put the helmet on correctly you don't really need to worry about protecting the frontal lobe.
So anyway. I followed this guy rocking back and forth (he would gain ground with the tailwind on the flat sections but i pulled him right back in on the hill) with my hr sitting at about 50% or so of my TT pace. Slow ride. Take it easy.
Time for some tunes. Gotta find something that will drive the funk out from between my ears. Writing certainly hasn't helped at all.
neither has food...
or coffee...
maybe i'll try more food and more coffee
heddwch
G
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Course Pre-Riding
Maybe I should show better judgement and stay completely out of it but... well reading Paul's comment over on Jonny Bold's blog popped something in my head.
And dod gammit i'm going to get it out.
Twitter ain't the place, neither is +
Course pre-riding. Before the race? Value? There is great value in it. And if you get to the big races early enough you'll catch a glimpse of some of the fastest (non-elite) guys riding and re-riding sections. Namely really the fastest of the fast. Looking to eek seconds out in certain spots, or figure out the fastest way to take a corner, trying to find that easter egg left by the course designers.
Some courses are like a puzzle. Tom S does a good job of creating sections where the most obvious 'line' isn't the fastest or smoothest way through something. Riding a section over and over again trying combinations esp with a few team mates can be a huge advantage.
That said, in a group like the 35+ 1/2/3 race you have a pretty tight pack of people who've been doing this cyclocross thing for a while, newbies are usually far and few between. Even the slow ass bags in the back aren't that slow or that dumb. The transitions and best lines are usually discovered and copied and ingrained within two laps. Unless they are of those dubious hidden ones where it is okay to do it one way for most of the race, but you save that secret for when you are racing your nemesis and you're trying to gain an advantage.
Is the complaint of the lack of pre-riding valid? For the Master category I think not. How many times have they raced at _______? How different are the transitions on the course? The terrain, the grip? Now my perspective is obviously skewed. Holeshot? Me? Yeah right. But still, you can do a quick re-con between races no problem. even if you have to jump off the course and just follow it along watching the field go through.
how does it work? Get there with two race breaks before you race. So you race at noon and there is an 11 and 10 am race. Get there at 9:45, grab the bike and do a quick recon lap so you know the course, identify areas where you want to target at speed between the 10 and 11 race. Then spend that time inbetween getting your number, checking tire pressure, setting up the trainer, dealing with bathroom, tent set up, food, coffee... and of course all that takes 100x longer because you have to stop and compare notes with everyone, generally socialize. Takes time.
Then get on the course, do your hot lap in kit, repeat a few sections if needed. now here's the key, Don't get on the course right after the winner crosses. that's not smart unless you missed the first slow pre-ride recon lap. Wait a few minutes. Give the tailgunners some space. If you start getting close to that pack of assholes chatting and laughing riding 20 yards behind someone who is giving it everything and just wants to finish, loop back and do a few of the more challenging transitions/turns at speed until you give them space.
When your lap is finished you'd better be all set mentally with the course layout. Now it is time to jump on the trainer and finish the warm up/coffee infusion. Or go out and warm up on the road. What ever works best to get primed for the race.
it is an hour long race at most. no need to do much in the way of fuel if you are eating properly leading up to the race. if you are racing the next day the protein and carbs in most recovery drinks is a really good idea, as it spinning on the bike for a good 15-30 minutes.
There are of course situations where all this is thrown out the window. Incident on the course, other delays, races stacked closer together than on the hour.
Then what?
Then you jog the course. W/O a bike you can't get yelled at, won't be tempted to jump on and ride sections. And at running/walking pace you see stuff you might not other wise. Also if you do that during the race (staying off the course of course) you can see what is working or not. Many times you can learn how NOT to ride a corner or a section by watching the Cat 4s (they have value after all). Or watch the progression in skill from proficient at the business end of the field to the just having fun and have their tires at 65 because that's what the sidewall says and they don't want to flat. Seeing that, watching, learning is helpful.
All that said it will do you jack shit if you don't have 45 minutes of massive watts. And you don't get those without a massive amount of work (and a handful of natural talent).
Bike racing is hard work. Cyclocross is no different, but those elements of the course, the fact that it is really a Time trial for most of us with a few obstacles thrown in and 75 of your best friends on the course at the same time, means even if you are some what lacking in the watt department there is a chance to make up a few spots with bike driving. And really? It is just fucking flat out awesome.
If I want to get jazzed up I think about that one lap, in the 35+ race in Bend. That grass U turn with the off camber there before the beer tent that goes along the finish straight. Some dude completely yardsaled in front of me, bike and body across the course. You hit it with speed and if you had the right line it was cake money simple (but I guess it wasn't that simple because everyone around me was having problems with it the whole race, maybe they ain't so good at reading courses out in the PacNW). I hit that hot with the guy crashed out and pulled the perfect evasive maneuver, totally owned that section of slick grass, and everyone packed around the outside reacted with cheering and shouting. Money in the bank.
I can't race for wins right now. Who'm I going to beat? Anyone? Not likely. I have to race for moments like that.
THAT was a winning moment. goosebumps thinking about it.
Riding through the tunnel of sound in the Clydesdale race that night was a very close second. Having Danny Summerhill go through a whole 30 pack of beer standing at the inside of the same corner spraying everyone down was pretty awesome but that beer tent and finish line, people two and three deep drunk off their asses SCREAMING and yelling and laughing as we raced through that in the dark.
Having a friend WIN a national title and be there to see it happen and see him at the end of the race? That is awesome too.
Yeah it is just bike racing. Jonny has me on an 8.1 mile TT course by over 3 minutes. THREE FUCKING MINUTES. that's a lot.
I sometimes get too focused on the racing "not to get lapped," the negative. I have to remember, I don't suck. I'm just not as fast as a handful of other old dudes in New England.
Ah fuck. Getting a bit too Stuart Smalley. Oh well.
What a load of garbage.
There's a TT to do. At least I remembered my 80mm valve tubes and valve extenders this week.
heddwch
G
And dod gammit i'm going to get it out.
Twitter ain't the place, neither is +
Course pre-riding. Before the race? Value? There is great value in it. And if you get to the big races early enough you'll catch a glimpse of some of the fastest (non-elite) guys riding and re-riding sections. Namely really the fastest of the fast. Looking to eek seconds out in certain spots, or figure out the fastest way to take a corner, trying to find that easter egg left by the course designers.
Some courses are like a puzzle. Tom S does a good job of creating sections where the most obvious 'line' isn't the fastest or smoothest way through something. Riding a section over and over again trying combinations esp with a few team mates can be a huge advantage.
That said, in a group like the 35+ 1/2/3 race you have a pretty tight pack of people who've been doing this cyclocross thing for a while, newbies are usually far and few between. Even the slow ass bags in the back aren't that slow or that dumb. The transitions and best lines are usually discovered and copied and ingrained within two laps. Unless they are of those dubious hidden ones where it is okay to do it one way for most of the race, but you save that secret for when you are racing your nemesis and you're trying to gain an advantage.
Is the complaint of the lack of pre-riding valid? For the Master category I think not. How many times have they raced at _______? How different are the transitions on the course? The terrain, the grip? Now my perspective is obviously skewed. Holeshot? Me? Yeah right. But still, you can do a quick re-con between races no problem. even if you have to jump off the course and just follow it along watching the field go through.
how does it work? Get there with two race breaks before you race. So you race at noon and there is an 11 and 10 am race. Get there at 9:45, grab the bike and do a quick recon lap so you know the course, identify areas where you want to target at speed between the 10 and 11 race. Then spend that time inbetween getting your number, checking tire pressure, setting up the trainer, dealing with bathroom, tent set up, food, coffee... and of course all that takes 100x longer because you have to stop and compare notes with everyone, generally socialize. Takes time.
Then get on the course, do your hot lap in kit, repeat a few sections if needed. now here's the key, Don't get on the course right after the winner crosses. that's not smart unless you missed the first slow pre-ride recon lap. Wait a few minutes. Give the tailgunners some space. If you start getting close to that pack of assholes chatting and laughing riding 20 yards behind someone who is giving it everything and just wants to finish, loop back and do a few of the more challenging transitions/turns at speed until you give them space.
When your lap is finished you'd better be all set mentally with the course layout. Now it is time to jump on the trainer and finish the warm up/coffee infusion. Or go out and warm up on the road. What ever works best to get primed for the race.
it is an hour long race at most. no need to do much in the way of fuel if you are eating properly leading up to the race. if you are racing the next day the protein and carbs in most recovery drinks is a really good idea, as it spinning on the bike for a good 15-30 minutes.
There are of course situations where all this is thrown out the window. Incident on the course, other delays, races stacked closer together than on the hour.
Then what?
Then you jog the course. W/O a bike you can't get yelled at, won't be tempted to jump on and ride sections. And at running/walking pace you see stuff you might not other wise. Also if you do that during the race (staying off the course of course) you can see what is working or not. Many times you can learn how NOT to ride a corner or a section by watching the Cat 4s (they have value after all). Or watch the progression in skill from proficient at the business end of the field to the just having fun and have their tires at 65 because that's what the sidewall says and they don't want to flat. Seeing that, watching, learning is helpful.
All that said it will do you jack shit if you don't have 45 minutes of massive watts. And you don't get those without a massive amount of work (and a handful of natural talent).
Bike racing is hard work. Cyclocross is no different, but those elements of the course, the fact that it is really a Time trial for most of us with a few obstacles thrown in and 75 of your best friends on the course at the same time, means even if you are some what lacking in the watt department there is a chance to make up a few spots with bike driving. And really? It is just fucking flat out awesome.
If I want to get jazzed up I think about that one lap, in the 35+ race in Bend. That grass U turn with the off camber there before the beer tent that goes along the finish straight. Some dude completely yardsaled in front of me, bike and body across the course. You hit it with speed and if you had the right line it was cake money simple (but I guess it wasn't that simple because everyone around me was having problems with it the whole race, maybe they ain't so good at reading courses out in the PacNW). I hit that hot with the guy crashed out and pulled the perfect evasive maneuver, totally owned that section of slick grass, and everyone packed around the outside reacted with cheering and shouting. Money in the bank.
I can't race for wins right now. Who'm I going to beat? Anyone? Not likely. I have to race for moments like that.
THAT was a winning moment. goosebumps thinking about it.
Riding through the tunnel of sound in the Clydesdale race that night was a very close second. Having Danny Summerhill go through a whole 30 pack of beer standing at the inside of the same corner spraying everyone down was pretty awesome but that beer tent and finish line, people two and three deep drunk off their asses SCREAMING and yelling and laughing as we raced through that in the dark.
Having a friend WIN a national title and be there to see it happen and see him at the end of the race? That is awesome too.
Yeah it is just bike racing. Jonny has me on an 8.1 mile TT course by over 3 minutes. THREE FUCKING MINUTES. that's a lot.
I sometimes get too focused on the racing "not to get lapped," the negative. I have to remember, I don't suck. I'm just not as fast as a handful of other old dudes in New England.
Ah fuck. Getting a bit too Stuart Smalley. Oh well.
What a load of garbage.
There's a TT to do. At least I remembered my 80mm valve tubes and valve extenders this week.
heddwch
G
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
CX'y
http://fireflybicycles.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/FF023-Studio-2.jpg
heck the whole gallery is amazing...but that new Ti Cross // Matioli stands out as being saweeeeet
heck the whole gallery is amazing...but that new Ti Cross // Matioli stands out as being saweeeeet
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
what do you follow up a rest day with?
Okay, not technically a rest day. That was sort of Sunday when I just rode to the shop in the AM and then exchanged cash for a week of food for the family and conceded to the fatigue and packed the bike in the back of the van with the other bike and the girls and the food. As big as it is, there are huge advantages to that big minivan.
Yesterday was twilight zone on the bike almost. It almost felt like I bonked on the tandem ride, dead legs and no energy. The heat sucked a bit more energy than I expected I suppose. The ride in was super slow, HR maxed at 109 (a hill) and avg 79. Hell that's an unhealthy resting heart rate for some people. Ride home was with one of the Marks and while faster I worked on efficient pedaling to keep the HR avg down around 83, but did max out at 115 (different hill this time).
So yeah. Rest day eh? Went home and plowed through a couple bowls of pasta (it felt like I didn't eat nearly enough yesterday). Woke up latish. The Dog let me sleep luxuriously until 6am, so nice.
And with the girls complaining of the cold Tandem/trail-a-bike ride yesterday morning with a temp at 74°F and this morning being almost 10°F cooler, coupled with the desire to give the Rusty Race Wagon another drive in a situation that wasn't critical (if it didn't make it to camp we could always hoof it the rest of the way). Fired up the laptop from 1995 (it is insane how much that thing cost - but i have gotten my money's worth out of it) only to find it can't find COM1 and thus I can't run engine diagnostics. Fuck. Oh well. Hmm car seems to be happy right now. Made it there and back w/o any struggle or strangeness. Definitely need to get some sound/heat/cold insulation on the underside of the hood. Might have to get the plans for Boundless's engine wrap even. So that was a nice relief. Car works. Girls did ask to be picked up on the tandem this week in place of the ride in this morning. We'll see about tomorrow maybe.
Hey look at that. I still haven't gotten to what do you follow up a rest day with.
Just rambling on, and on. I'd do this over using G+ but at this point it doesn't autosave, and this doesn't point there yet. I do have to do some house cleaning of the link sidebar here. Add Alby's page and some others, and delete a bunch of dead links or quiet blogs. Would be nice not to have to remove Twoadventures but that's been dead for a while, maybe it will re-awaken for CX season. We'll just call him Mr Agony or something, that VT guy has been impaling himself with the search for a truck. You know it is bad when he is distracting himself with something that normally makes him the most batshit crazy and frustrated (Politics and the current fiscal issue). Hopefully he lands the perfect truck before the crew gets back from germany...
I did manage to put on my Planet Bike Fenders on the Croll. No eyelets or holes in the fork crown or seat stay bridge (no chain stay bridge even) so it is a tough fit/find. The Speedez Hybrid just barely works. The angles on the bike are so steep (compared to a hybrid) that the front barely works and the back doesn't go all the way down to the chainstays, but they do provide 98% of the coverage of the ones that were bolted on to the Giant (still broken, would be nice if someone knew the Giant Rep well enough to put in a word for me so I could get that frame replaced w/o question, but hey, i'm making the croll work).
Needed them last night, kind of. It was barely raining, (not enough to get wet) but hey, I had fenders on. Finally.
Park the car, finish my coffee, stare at the contents of my lunch box knowing it wasn't nearly enough food but unsure of what else to add. I added a banana.
Switchboard central here this morning (no, I'm not describing the scattered bits here).
If I keep rambling will anyone keep reading? TO THE FUCKING POINT DUMBASS.
Right.
This morning's ride in. 2-3 minutes of warm up. Then I did a set of ten 10s on 15s off top gear accelerations (46x12). Out of the saddle, then sit down and soft pedal coast then stand up and sprint as hard as I could. Not a true sprint workout making power with high cadence and leg speed, more of a CX drill with high force increasing to high cadence. Up the little rise the speeds were sprint up to 25mph then slow down to about 20 and repeat. After the Dairy Bee I doubled the sprint duration to 20s and kept the 15-20s off. More leg speed but also jumping harder. My arms felt tingly and it hurt. I think I was doing them right.
kept that up for the next 15 minutes until i hit the city. At that point the 2.5 mile ride finished off as out of the saddle 46x12 grinding work. Felt it in my lower back at each stop sign. In a good way.
I really should have added another two sets of the 'sprints' but hey, I don't get paid to ride my bike.
And this set hurt well enough. HR was up pretty good, and was recovering very well. The Sigma is very slow to respond (I think it avg too many numbers or time points are too far apart or something) to HR but I was seeing pretty solid recoveries if I let the coast section of the interval go too long. Definitely feeling it.
Will try and crank a similar set out on the way home and follow it up with wicked easy tomorrow and then the TT on thursday. I sure would love one of these. Maybe even paint it up all green and while aka Michigan State. But man $12k? Hard core, but then that is with Di2. Probably should get Mike Z or Firefly to build me a 29er first. Although I'm thinking if I get a new mountain bike it would probably need to be dual squish, not a HT. That whole process is about as pointless to think about as wondering if they could do the Spartacus edition in Green and White.
I have been wondering how much the old Paramount is handicapping me relative to a TT bike like some of the fast guys are running. But that being said the line of wonder doesn't last long because Joe P and Curtis S both are doing the TT on regular bikes and beating me. It should be an attainable goal, but man I'd like to get into the 18 min range, even if it is 18:59, before the end of the series. Gotta find those 15 seconds somewhere, and they are probably on the course. Scattered on that roller going into the right hand turn onto Reynolds most likely.
They are all actually starting to look pretty similar, the Trek above, the Scott Plasma, the Specialized Shiv... all crazy expensive bikes that are way too application specific for me to even think about at this point.
But TT is just a gateway to tricking myself into getting those 20 minute intervals in (even if I am trying to make them less than 19m). They also are the one day when I can get nearly 3 hr in on the bike. Of riding time. Worth it, even if it isn't making me faster/stronger, I'm FEELING faster and stronger and hell it is all in your head right? Well not. It isn't. Racing comes down to what is in your legs. We'll see if the back end of the 35+ gets any tighter this year.
I should probably get the CX bike back up in order soon, new drive train and all and start hitting the cyclocross course in my backyard (the one Skinny laid out), and my tight sand corner mini-track over by the marina.
At anyrate. The Tour is over, long live the tour (it was a good one, dopers or not, I enjoyed the spectacle).
Time to pull out Issue 12 of Cyclocross Magazine and re-read it.
of course a few P O'Grady cartoons can help too:
That one might even work for Gloucester with the day 2 run up... although the true spirit of it lives only in Ron's Mansfield Hollow CX race here in New England.
And mud, really it isn't for breakfast anymore. I am honestly jealous of all the dudes out there shredding in the woods, but I gotta make due with the time and opportunities afforded me. I'm sure I'll be eating mud soon enough.
(is this post long enough or could it be any more of a waste of time to read?)
Heddwch
G
Yesterday was twilight zone on the bike almost. It almost felt like I bonked on the tandem ride, dead legs and no energy. The heat sucked a bit more energy than I expected I suppose. The ride in was super slow, HR maxed at 109 (a hill) and avg 79. Hell that's an unhealthy resting heart rate for some people. Ride home was with one of the Marks and while faster I worked on efficient pedaling to keep the HR avg down around 83, but did max out at 115 (different hill this time).
So yeah. Rest day eh? Went home and plowed through a couple bowls of pasta (it felt like I didn't eat nearly enough yesterday). Woke up latish. The Dog let me sleep luxuriously until 6am, so nice.
And with the girls complaining of the cold Tandem/trail-a-bike ride yesterday morning with a temp at 74°F and this morning being almost 10°F cooler, coupled with the desire to give the Rusty Race Wagon another drive in a situation that wasn't critical (if it didn't make it to camp we could always hoof it the rest of the way). Fired up the laptop from 1995 (it is insane how much that thing cost - but i have gotten my money's worth out of it) only to find it can't find COM1 and thus I can't run engine diagnostics. Fuck. Oh well. Hmm car seems to be happy right now. Made it there and back w/o any struggle or strangeness. Definitely need to get some sound/heat/cold insulation on the underside of the hood. Might have to get the plans for Boundless's engine wrap even. So that was a nice relief. Car works. Girls did ask to be picked up on the tandem this week in place of the ride in this morning. We'll see about tomorrow maybe.
Hey look at that. I still haven't gotten to what do you follow up a rest day with.
Just rambling on, and on. I'd do this over using G+ but at this point it doesn't autosave, and this doesn't point there yet. I do have to do some house cleaning of the link sidebar here. Add Alby's page and some others, and delete a bunch of dead links or quiet blogs. Would be nice not to have to remove Twoadventures but that's been dead for a while, maybe it will re-awaken for CX season. We'll just call him Mr Agony or something, that VT guy has been impaling himself with the search for a truck. You know it is bad when he is distracting himself with something that normally makes him the most batshit crazy and frustrated (Politics and the current fiscal issue). Hopefully he lands the perfect truck before the crew gets back from germany...
I did manage to put on my Planet Bike Fenders on the Croll. No eyelets or holes in the fork crown or seat stay bridge (no chain stay bridge even) so it is a tough fit/find. The Speedez Hybrid just barely works. The angles on the bike are so steep (compared to a hybrid) that the front barely works and the back doesn't go all the way down to the chainstays, but they do provide 98% of the coverage of the ones that were bolted on to the Giant (still broken, would be nice if someone knew the Giant Rep well enough to put in a word for me so I could get that frame replaced w/o question, but hey, i'm making the croll work).
Needed them last night, kind of. It was barely raining, (not enough to get wet) but hey, I had fenders on. Finally.
Park the car, finish my coffee, stare at the contents of my lunch box knowing it wasn't nearly enough food but unsure of what else to add. I added a banana.
Switchboard central here this morning (no, I'm not describing the scattered bits here).
If I keep rambling will anyone keep reading? TO THE FUCKING POINT DUMBASS.
Right.
This morning's ride in. 2-3 minutes of warm up. Then I did a set of ten 10s on 15s off top gear accelerations (46x12). Out of the saddle, then sit down and soft pedal coast then stand up and sprint as hard as I could. Not a true sprint workout making power with high cadence and leg speed, more of a CX drill with high force increasing to high cadence. Up the little rise the speeds were sprint up to 25mph then slow down to about 20 and repeat. After the Dairy Bee I doubled the sprint duration to 20s and kept the 15-20s off. More leg speed but also jumping harder. My arms felt tingly and it hurt. I think I was doing them right.
kept that up for the next 15 minutes until i hit the city. At that point the 2.5 mile ride finished off as out of the saddle 46x12 grinding work. Felt it in my lower back at each stop sign. In a good way.
I really should have added another two sets of the 'sprints' but hey, I don't get paid to ride my bike.
And this set hurt well enough. HR was up pretty good, and was recovering very well. The Sigma is very slow to respond (I think it avg too many numbers or time points are too far apart or something) to HR but I was seeing pretty solid recoveries if I let the coast section of the interval go too long. Definitely feeling it.
Will try and crank a similar set out on the way home and follow it up with wicked easy tomorrow and then the TT on thursday. I sure would love one of these. Maybe even paint it up all green and while aka Michigan State. But man $12k? Hard core, but then that is with Di2. Probably should get Mike Z or Firefly to build me a 29er first. Although I'm thinking if I get a new mountain bike it would probably need to be dual squish, not a HT. That whole process is about as pointless to think about as wondering if they could do the Spartacus edition in Green and White.
I have been wondering how much the old Paramount is handicapping me relative to a TT bike like some of the fast guys are running. But that being said the line of wonder doesn't last long because Joe P and Curtis S both are doing the TT on regular bikes and beating me. It should be an attainable goal, but man I'd like to get into the 18 min range, even if it is 18:59, before the end of the series. Gotta find those 15 seconds somewhere, and they are probably on the course. Scattered on that roller going into the right hand turn onto Reynolds most likely.
They are all actually starting to look pretty similar, the Trek above, the Scott Plasma, the Specialized Shiv... all crazy expensive bikes that are way too application specific for me to even think about at this point.
But TT is just a gateway to tricking myself into getting those 20 minute intervals in (even if I am trying to make them less than 19m). They also are the one day when I can get nearly 3 hr in on the bike. Of riding time. Worth it, even if it isn't making me faster/stronger, I'm FEELING faster and stronger and hell it is all in your head right? Well not. It isn't. Racing comes down to what is in your legs. We'll see if the back end of the 35+ gets any tighter this year.
I should probably get the CX bike back up in order soon, new drive train and all and start hitting the cyclocross course in my backyard (the one Skinny laid out), and my tight sand corner mini-track over by the marina.
At anyrate. The Tour is over, long live the tour (it was a good one, dopers or not, I enjoyed the spectacle).
Time to pull out Issue 12 of Cyclocross Magazine and re-read it.
of course a few P O'Grady cartoons can help too:
And mud, really it isn't for breakfast anymore. I am honestly jealous of all the dudes out there shredding in the woods, but I gotta make due with the time and opportunities afforded me. I'm sure I'll be eating mud soon enough.
(is this post long enough or could it be any more of a waste of time to read?)
Heddwch
G
Friday, July 22, 2011
Okay this is warm
Tolerable with the AC but still pretty unusually hot. Even the places that were cool yesterday with the wind off the water are in the 100s. Newport was 71 yesterday with the breeze, today? 93.
Big change. Down by our house it was 82 or so, but now near 100.
Hot.
And what did I do today? Did I ride in? Yup. But did I travel light? NFW. Of course not.
I had some wheels that needed to go to UPS, a pair of boxes fit in the trailer quite nicely. I didn't want to drive the black car w/o AC today, stuff had to get out so I headed on down to Dorrance St and dropped em off. Saw Donnie (he's gearing up for hilltowns, if it is warm watchout, he's used to it by now) also saw John R, social bit of a jaunt sending these off.
Of course that put me downtown and it was later than I wanted and needing to get up here more quickly than slowly I just went right up college st. Did I mention the trailer?
Yeah 20% with the trailer in 100°F heat, maybe not the best idea.
The sigma computer was saying it was 102°F on the way to the UPS store. Granted that was sun but there was wind and my head shaded the unit a good bit of the time.
Hot.
Oh boy warm.
The extra drag kind of sucked but it also means no need to wear the backpack on my back. But it was too hot for the glasses, had to take em off to allow for full cooling.
Just hoping that there either isn't much wind or that it is a cross wind for the way home. Headwind is too much work with the trailer in this heat, tailwind sucks for cooling. But it will be what it will be.
And of course I have very dead legs from last night's TT. Oh that hurt. Still feeling it. Feeling it even walking around.
My back feels great on the bike, standing, sitting or in TT mode. Heck it even feels great standing up or sitting in a chair or walking around. But lying down? Oh fuck me. I can't roll over from one side to the other without stabbing pain from the muscle. And I don't sleep like a log. More like a dying catfish laying on the bank in the Maryland sun, flop over to one side for a while, then roll back again. Every movement woke me up. These back things are weird. I can twist sitting here and feel it but no hindrance in range of motion. Just when I'm lying down. Might have to sleep standing up tonight, or on the bike or something. Between the heat, the poor sleep and the heat, I'm a walking zombie right now. And I'm obviously repeating myself.
Probably a good thing I don't have the camera. Because then I'd be like everyone else today taking pictures of their car temp display, or thermometer by the pool, by the _____ yeah, shot of the trailer full of wheels would have been cool but oh well. I took a picture of the rig with one wheel box in it. Shot with two boxes isn't a big departure.
Oh hey look, it is registering triple digits down by the house. And the wind is still slightly cross, but probably will shift into a headwind. Oof.
Good side of things is I think the washer stack I added to let the hitch work with the ritchey drop outs works for a very light load, not sure about getting closer to the weight limit (12.2 pounds of wheel boxes isn't much...
be safe out there
and no, even though i'm feeling okay about the heat i am STILL not going to race CX in august.
heddwch
G
Big change. Down by our house it was 82 or so, but now near 100.
Hot.
And what did I do today? Did I ride in? Yup. But did I travel light? NFW. Of course not.
I had some wheels that needed to go to UPS, a pair of boxes fit in the trailer quite nicely. I didn't want to drive the black car w/o AC today, stuff had to get out so I headed on down to Dorrance St and dropped em off. Saw Donnie (he's gearing up for hilltowns, if it is warm watchout, he's used to it by now) also saw John R, social bit of a jaunt sending these off.
Of course that put me downtown and it was later than I wanted and needing to get up here more quickly than slowly I just went right up college st. Did I mention the trailer?
Yeah 20% with the trailer in 100°F heat, maybe not the best idea.
The sigma computer was saying it was 102°F on the way to the UPS store. Granted that was sun but there was wind and my head shaded the unit a good bit of the time.
Hot.
Oh boy warm.
The extra drag kind of sucked but it also means no need to wear the backpack on my back. But it was too hot for the glasses, had to take em off to allow for full cooling.
Just hoping that there either isn't much wind or that it is a cross wind for the way home. Headwind is too much work with the trailer in this heat, tailwind sucks for cooling. But it will be what it will be.
And of course I have very dead legs from last night's TT. Oh that hurt. Still feeling it. Feeling it even walking around.
My back feels great on the bike, standing, sitting or in TT mode. Heck it even feels great standing up or sitting in a chair or walking around. But lying down? Oh fuck me. I can't roll over from one side to the other without stabbing pain from the muscle. And I don't sleep like a log. More like a dying catfish laying on the bank in the Maryland sun, flop over to one side for a while, then roll back again. Every movement woke me up. These back things are weird. I can twist sitting here and feel it but no hindrance in range of motion. Just when I'm lying down. Might have to sleep standing up tonight, or on the bike or something. Between the heat, the poor sleep and the heat, I'm a walking zombie right now. And I'm obviously repeating myself.
Probably a good thing I don't have the camera. Because then I'd be like everyone else today taking pictures of their car temp display, or thermometer by the pool, by the _____ yeah, shot of the trailer full of wheels would have been cool but oh well. I took a picture of the rig with one wheel box in it. Shot with two boxes isn't a big departure.
Oh hey look, it is registering triple digits down by the house. And the wind is still slightly cross, but probably will shift into a headwind. Oof.
Good side of things is I think the washer stack I added to let the hitch work with the ritchey drop outs works for a very light load, not sure about getting closer to the weight limit (12.2 pounds of wheel boxes isn't much...
be safe out there
and no, even though i'm feeling okay about the heat i am STILL not going to race CX in august.
heddwch
G
Full Season Bikeworks TT Results
With three weeks to go here are the complete standings:
Oh and it would seem that having this song in your head from listening to it on repeat for an hour is GOOD for the TT speed.
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