After many weeks of patiently waiting for my legs to come around after having the flu, I believe I've gotten them back near 100% strength. Endurance-wise I'm still a bit off the mark but should peak the week of the Bike Across Florida.
I've been pushing my bottom bracket and chain to the limits trying to get the most out of them before putting on new ones for the BAF. Thursday night's ride should have been the last ride on the original bottom bracket but the new one I've ordered didn't arrive before Saturday. The Thursday ride was an easy pace but we did ramp up the effort a bit on the big climb. The bottom bracket started creaking and popping, however just to let me know it was time to replace it. 6,200 miles is a pretty good distance to go on a BB since I went through about 4 bottom brackets in 2 years with the TREK 1500. The life expectancy of a chain is a different story. I'm not sure if I'm cleaning them too often, which is once a week, and not getting enough lube back in them what. Each chain is stretched out of limits in about 900 miles if I'm lucky, but I have no idea what other folks are getting since they probably don't change anything out until the ghost shifting gets too aggravating and the gear rings and cassette are toast.
Yesterday was a planned ride of at least 130+ miles that is one of the last two stepping stones in my preparation for the BAF. I headed out of the Perry Welcome Center about 9:15 with James D working with me to pull the regular group (of only 3 folks) back. We caught them before the big climb in Hayneville, and I crunk up some Rolling Stones on the iPod and headed on solo to Hawkinsville to continue my 7 hours of fun in the sun. After Hawkinsville, I turned South on 129 towards Abbeville and toward my first store stop.
There is one way to draw the attention of every single living sole in a small town like Abbeville that advertises a "Wild Hog Festival" on the Welcome to Abbeville sign at the city limits: show up on a bicycle (some looked at it like it was from outer space), in spandex (actually saw someone taking a pic on a camera phone) with the accompanying full cycling attire, and then enter a store. You will have EVERYONE's undivided attention whether you like it or not. People actually stopped what they were doing to stare. I like being the center of attention sometimes, but not this time. I didn't hear any banjos playing, but I departed rather quickly anyway.
The next leg was 30 miles into the wind toward Cordelie, Ga. It was uneventful except for the fact I notice I was getting tired way too early into the ride. I'd only covered about 54 miles of the 75 it would take to get to Cordelie, but It felt like I couldn't push the gears with enough energy. When I finally turned my iPod down enough to hear the real world, it was more than evident what the problem was: the bottom bracket had given up the ghost several miles back and I couldn't hear it with the music blaring in my ears. My feet were numb from pushing the pedals for so long and I couldn't feel the popping going on in the BB. A broken coffee grinder was what I had and apparently the heat generated from pedalling non-stop for a few hours was making things worse. It wasn't enough to make me stop and call for help, so I pushed on to Cordelie.
In Cordelie I finally phoned Diana to ask her to start making her way toward me on Hwy-42. I'd stopped, removed the chain from the front gear, and then turned the crank by hand to see it only turn 3/4 of a revolution before stopping. Not-a-gooda.
"Houston, we have a problem."
I continued up Hwy-42 at the same effort as before to get in as many miles as I could, and Diana met me about 3 south-west of Unadilla. I still managed to put in a solo effort of 88.7 miles, a 19.1 mph average, with a heart rate average of 155 bpm on a bottom bracket that was making this a real training session. Not the full 130+ miles I'd planned, but enough to re-assure me that I'll be ready for the BAF where it will be flat as a pancake and I'll have people to draft behind on occasion to save some energy.
Next weekend will be another tough one with 140+ miles on the agenda. We're doing the Peach Blossom ride in Byron, so the initial plan is do the route with the "group" and then do it again solo. I can ride home from Byron which should give me about 145 miles total. The only problem is that there are no stores along the way for the second go-round.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Pardon me, I think I've been pooped on...
Warning: Language is guaranteed to offend so hit the "Back" button now.
Recipe to piss me off:
Choose a topic that you're ignorant about...........like the laws of the road pertaining to cycling.
Take 3 parts of moronic opinions from lazy, never gonna even glance at a piece of exercise equipment, gravity challenged fat-ass, I know more than you and can prove it so "watch this y'all" from the shallow end of the gene pool.
Ensure 3 parts stupidity is not measured in appropriate quantities for the tasks at hand.
Take 1 part Type-A personality that is more prepared for discussion than other 3 parts ignorance.
Ensure that 1 part Type-A personality is at "full throttle" from the caffeine in his loving wife's "this will put your blood pressure over the limit" coffee before stirring the pot.
Ensure that you stir 3 parts "who the hell is Darwin?" accordingly with phrases such as: "Cyclists should be restricted to certain roads because I have to slow down to go around them on a double yellow lined, blind curve that is uphill" and the favorite No-Shit!! line of them all, "when 3-thousand pounds of car meets cyclist, the cyclist always loses" to make Type-A personality rise. Oh and don't forget to stir briskly for 1 minute with Type-A personality's favorite: "you should have your dumb ass in church instead of riding a bike" after you turn around, block the lane in front of me, and spout this divine knowledge on a Sunday no less through Tammy Faye Baker war paint that cracks as you speak.
Now toss 3 parts of sacrificial but ignorant lamb fluff onto Type-A personality while you smile and think 1)this is gonna be the funniest shit on the planet and 2)Ron White wasn't right about fixing stupid. All this while thinking you're making a valid point and feeling good about yourselves, but in the mean time you've actually closed the cave entrance behind you with a mean, hungry bear that just woke from a gentle 5 year slumber of taking your shit.
Wait one nano-second as mix comes to a boil.
"Cover your ears darlin..."
DING!!
Dinner is served.
The Queen's English was not used fortunately, only because I wanted to keep my job, but in less than 20 seconds the dish was served chilled and it got really, really quite in the office for the remainder of the day. I guess everyone enjoyed the meal of Crow since they definitely left full. I don't think the "what's this button for?" will be pushed any time in the future in my office while I'm working at this establishment.
All this before 9am. Luckily, I did not have students to enlighten afterward today.........
On more important cycling news, I was able to ride this past Thursday with the group as our regular weekly rides began again. We averaged a tad over 20 mph for 34 miles and was a good ride even though we took it easier than we could have done. Brian, a new rider and CAT3 racer that is here for a few months, wanted to keep his watts down before the Perry Roubaix race weekend so we kept the pace down a bit for us but what was easy for him.
Several of us volunteered to help out for the TT and Circuit race on Saturday, so it was stand around for 12 hours while cheering the racers on during each group event.
Sunday was the first "fun" century I road this year and it was in Dublin. It was a new course this time, and I managed to bring the wrong gear for all the short, steep climbing we had to do. I remembered it as relatively flat except at the end. My Polar said we only climbed 4K feet, but it felt like 10K since I had the 11-21 cassette on the rear and couldn't spin as much as I needed. Flipper had ridden the Tour de Pike the day before and was on his 2nd century in two days. That boy is strong for sure but is a tad thin for his height and maybe a little over-confident right now. It'll work itself out, however.
Tuesday night's ride was a good ride with a bit of wind. BK and I decided to do the 40 mile option but we had no takers to join us. I was surprised to see that several riders didn't come along, especially one who had bragged that he had "gotten in a break-away Thursday night and no-one could catch him." If you've never seen frog legs ripped from their sockets, you need to ride with us tomorrow night. He'll be the first one on the platter. Anyway, BK and I had a 16.5 mph average at the silos at the end of Bible Camp Rd., but we managed to crank it up to an 18.6 mph average for the ride. The last half was into the wind and sucked goats for sure, but we like to suffer and enjoyed every damn minute of it! We're both making good progress after suffering through this year's flu season while spending 3 weeks off the bike.
This weekend will be long, hard miles for me since I need to get in a 130 mile ride either Saturday or Sunday in prep for the BRAF April 20. My loving wife is gonna drive the truck solo while I crank the peddles for nearly 10 hours next month. Hope she finds some really good books-on-CD for the trip.
Recipe to piss me off:
Choose a topic that you're ignorant about...........like the laws of the road pertaining to cycling.
Take 3 parts of moronic opinions from lazy, never gonna even glance at a piece of exercise equipment, gravity challenged fat-ass, I know more than you and can prove it so "watch this y'all" from the shallow end of the gene pool.
Ensure 3 parts stupidity is not measured in appropriate quantities for the tasks at hand.
Take 1 part Type-A personality that is more prepared for discussion than other 3 parts ignorance.
Ensure that 1 part Type-A personality is at "full throttle" from the caffeine in his loving wife's "this will put your blood pressure over the limit" coffee before stirring the pot.
Ensure that you stir 3 parts "who the hell is Darwin?" accordingly with phrases such as: "Cyclists should be restricted to certain roads because I have to slow down to go around them on a double yellow lined, blind curve that is uphill" and the favorite No-Shit!! line of them all, "when 3-thousand pounds of car meets cyclist, the cyclist always loses" to make Type-A personality rise. Oh and don't forget to stir briskly for 1 minute with Type-A personality's favorite: "you should have your dumb ass in church instead of riding a bike" after you turn around, block the lane in front of me, and spout this divine knowledge on a Sunday no less through Tammy Faye Baker war paint that cracks as you speak.
Now toss 3 parts of sacrificial but ignorant lamb fluff onto Type-A personality while you smile and think 1)this is gonna be the funniest shit on the planet and 2)Ron White wasn't right about fixing stupid. All this while thinking you're making a valid point and feeling good about yourselves, but in the mean time you've actually closed the cave entrance behind you with a mean, hungry bear that just woke from a gentle 5 year slumber of taking your shit.
Wait one nano-second as mix comes to a boil.
"Cover your ears darlin..."
DING!!
Dinner is served.
The Queen's English was not used fortunately, only because I wanted to keep my job, but in less than 20 seconds the dish was served chilled and it got really, really quite in the office for the remainder of the day. I guess everyone enjoyed the meal of Crow since they definitely left full. I don't think the "what's this button for?" will be pushed any time in the future in my office while I'm working at this establishment.
All this before 9am. Luckily, I did not have students to enlighten afterward today.........
On more important cycling news, I was able to ride this past Thursday with the group as our regular weekly rides began again. We averaged a tad over 20 mph for 34 miles and was a good ride even though we took it easier than we could have done. Brian, a new rider and CAT3 racer that is here for a few months, wanted to keep his watts down before the Perry Roubaix race weekend so we kept the pace down a bit for us but what was easy for him.
Several of us volunteered to help out for the TT and Circuit race on Saturday, so it was stand around for 12 hours while cheering the racers on during each group event.
Sunday was the first "fun" century I road this year and it was in Dublin. It was a new course this time, and I managed to bring the wrong gear for all the short, steep climbing we had to do. I remembered it as relatively flat except at the end. My Polar said we only climbed 4K feet, but it felt like 10K since I had the 11-21 cassette on the rear and couldn't spin as much as I needed. Flipper had ridden the Tour de Pike the day before and was on his 2nd century in two days. That boy is strong for sure but is a tad thin for his height and maybe a little over-confident right now. It'll work itself out, however.
Tuesday night's ride was a good ride with a bit of wind. BK and I decided to do the 40 mile option but we had no takers to join us. I was surprised to see that several riders didn't come along, especially one who had bragged that he had "gotten in a break-away Thursday night and no-one could catch him." If you've never seen frog legs ripped from their sockets, you need to ride with us tomorrow night. He'll be the first one on the platter. Anyway, BK and I had a 16.5 mph average at the silos at the end of Bible Camp Rd., but we managed to crank it up to an 18.6 mph average for the ride. The last half was into the wind and sucked goats for sure, but we like to suffer and enjoyed every damn minute of it! We're both making good progress after suffering through this year's flu season while spending 3 weeks off the bike.
This weekend will be long, hard miles for me since I need to get in a 130 mile ride either Saturday or Sunday in prep for the BRAF April 20. My loving wife is gonna drive the truck solo while I crank the peddles for nearly 10 hours next month. Hope she finds some really good books-on-CD for the trip.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Been riding much?
Nope.
Saturday was a great day to ride with a 54F start and lots of sunshine leading to a nice 68F finish temp. I got a late start and had to work to catch the group; however, since I left late from the house. It was more diet issue than lack of planning that led to me leaving later than planned, but I was able to "hold my own" during the ride thankfully. I opted to head straight out Russell Parkway and catch the group coming out that way since that was the direction I was told they would go, but apparently no-one else got the memo. So..., I had to push from the get-go at 22-25, into the wind none-the-less, to latch on in Byron.
When I finally got within 1/4 mile of Byron on Houser's Mill Rd, I could see the yellow seat of BK's bike but no-one else around. Can't say how much I enjoy riding with BK since we work well together, but today it was right when I needed it since my warm up had been in the HR red zone for 35 minutes. BK said the group was no more than 5 minutes ahead, and he sat on the front blocking for me until I could recover a bit. We caught the group a few miles later in the hills and from there it was an outstanding ride. BK and I worked most of the ride keeping the group as organized as it could be and we both spent a lot of time pulling stragglers back to the front. Kim was not feeling well but was a trooper for hanging in there to finish.
I wound up with just over 75 miles and a 17.6 average. Could have been much better, but it was more about the ride and the people with me than a training goal for this ride. I enjoyed it more than worrying about training for the BAF in April that is over 160 miles. If I've learned anything from all the hard rides I've done, the one thing that matters most is knowing how many times and how long you've gone into the red zone of your HR and knowing that it will take 10-15 miles of normal riding out of your legs each time you stay there for 10 minutes. At least that's what happens with me.
Today, I should have been riding since it was about 70F outside, a gorgeous clear, blue sky, and a huge ride event coming up in less than 7 weeks. But......alas I had to go to Cordele and race the wife's Miata in an auto-cross race. Heehee! BK actually showed up at the end of the race with Tonya since they were out riding the motorcycle and rode down to Cordele so she could see where we raced once a month. Diana was invited and encouraged to go with me as well to race today, but NOOoooooooo!!!!!!! She wanted to stay home, cut her hand while preparing her breakfast, go to the emergency room to get five stitches, and then go ride 30 miles on a bike with Dave and Carrie. And, she cut her hand AFTER I'd left and been gone for over an hour.
At this point, I should express how I feel like a piece of crap and should provide excuses for my not being there for the wife. But, she's tough. Hell, she's put up with me for over 15 years so she must have a higher tolerance for pain than a serrated steak knife can provide. Right?
Apparently, the bagel she pulled from the freezer and was attempting to slice in half required a tad more force since it was still frozen in the middle and she just had to separate it to toast it in the oven, so she held the bagel in her hand and attempted to slice it in half. I must be rubbing off on her 'cause only I do stupid shit like this. Glad to say that no tendons were severed, not fingers were lost, and Steve (owner of Prinnie-Mack Coffee Co. and CGC Club sponsor, and Physician Assistant) sewed her up in the ER and sent her out into the cycling world to conquer road and rogue canine alike. The wife called me to inform me of all this after she'd been sewn up of course.
When I arrived home from my excursion of tearing rubber from tires and sacrificing engine life for the good of my adrenal cravings, I discovered that the pain killing meds given to the wifey had worn off. Egg shells gentleman. Eggshells.
A raiding we will go, a raiding we will go. High-ho the merry-O a raiding we will go! Into the medicine cabinet of course for those happy pills we never take all of but never throw away since we may need them some day. Like...................today!! Vicoden, Oxycontin, drool inducing meds from the pharmacy that will make her sleep is what we need! BINGO. She's a-sleepin now for sure. At least until the happy pill wears off and I'm up stumbling over dogs in the dark to go find another one. For her.
I guess at this point it would be remiss of me to even state that I did fairly well at the auto-cross event and was able to post times better than cars/drivers that should be handing me my ass on a silver platter. Winning is great most days, but today, like yesterday, was more about the time spent enjoying what I was sharing with others than trying to piss an inch further than the next idiot.
Sometimes it's just about the ride and not about how you got there, or where you end up.
Saturday was a great day to ride with a 54F start and lots of sunshine leading to a nice 68F finish temp. I got a late start and had to work to catch the group; however, since I left late from the house. It was more diet issue than lack of planning that led to me leaving later than planned, but I was able to "hold my own" during the ride thankfully. I opted to head straight out Russell Parkway and catch the group coming out that way since that was the direction I was told they would go, but apparently no-one else got the memo. So..., I had to push from the get-go at 22-25, into the wind none-the-less, to latch on in Byron.
When I finally got within 1/4 mile of Byron on Houser's Mill Rd, I could see the yellow seat of BK's bike but no-one else around. Can't say how much I enjoy riding with BK since we work well together, but today it was right when I needed it since my warm up had been in the HR red zone for 35 minutes. BK said the group was no more than 5 minutes ahead, and he sat on the front blocking for me until I could recover a bit. We caught the group a few miles later in the hills and from there it was an outstanding ride. BK and I worked most of the ride keeping the group as organized as it could be and we both spent a lot of time pulling stragglers back to the front. Kim was not feeling well but was a trooper for hanging in there to finish.
I wound up with just over 75 miles and a 17.6 average. Could have been much better, but it was more about the ride and the people with me than a training goal for this ride. I enjoyed it more than worrying about training for the BAF in April that is over 160 miles. If I've learned anything from all the hard rides I've done, the one thing that matters most is knowing how many times and how long you've gone into the red zone of your HR and knowing that it will take 10-15 miles of normal riding out of your legs each time you stay there for 10 minutes. At least that's what happens with me.
Today, I should have been riding since it was about 70F outside, a gorgeous clear, blue sky, and a huge ride event coming up in less than 7 weeks. But......alas I had to go to Cordele and race the wife's Miata in an auto-cross race. Heehee! BK actually showed up at the end of the race with Tonya since they were out riding the motorcycle and rode down to Cordele so she could see where we raced once a month. Diana was invited and encouraged to go with me as well to race today, but NOOoooooooo!!!!!!! She wanted to stay home, cut her hand while preparing her breakfast, go to the emergency room to get five stitches, and then go ride 30 miles on a bike with Dave and Carrie. And, she cut her hand AFTER I'd left and been gone for over an hour.
At this point, I should express how I feel like a piece of crap and should provide excuses for my not being there for the wife. But, she's tough. Hell, she's put up with me for over 15 years so she must have a higher tolerance for pain than a serrated steak knife can provide. Right?
Apparently, the bagel she pulled from the freezer and was attempting to slice in half required a tad more force since it was still frozen in the middle and she just had to separate it to toast it in the oven, so she held the bagel in her hand and attempted to slice it in half. I must be rubbing off on her 'cause only I do stupid shit like this. Glad to say that no tendons were severed, not fingers were lost, and Steve (owner of Prinnie-Mack Coffee Co. and CGC Club sponsor, and Physician Assistant) sewed her up in the ER and sent her out into the cycling world to conquer road and rogue canine alike. The wife called me to inform me of all this after she'd been sewn up of course.
When I arrived home from my excursion of tearing rubber from tires and sacrificing engine life for the good of my adrenal cravings, I discovered that the pain killing meds given to the wifey had worn off. Egg shells gentleman. Eggshells.
A raiding we will go, a raiding we will go. High-ho the merry-O a raiding we will go! Into the medicine cabinet of course for those happy pills we never take all of but never throw away since we may need them some day. Like...................today!! Vicoden, Oxycontin, drool inducing meds from the pharmacy that will make her sleep is what we need! BINGO. She's a-sleepin now for sure. At least until the happy pill wears off and I'm up stumbling over dogs in the dark to go find another one. For her.
I guess at this point it would be remiss of me to even state that I did fairly well at the auto-cross event and was able to post times better than cars/drivers that should be handing me my ass on a silver platter. Winning is great most days, but today, like yesterday, was more about the time spent enjoying what I was sharing with others than trying to piss an inch further than the next idiot.
Sometimes it's just about the ride and not about how you got there, or where you end up.
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