your daily bicycle log

Same thing almost happened to me on the lakefront trail over the weekend :\

Quick brunch jaunt on Sat down to my old neighborhood, then followed it up with a (non bike-related) self-defense class for double the workout.

I think this Sun we might round up a few women and cruise Staten Island loop(s)...? Not my idea, I don't know why SI except that it's green and kind of country there.

Fuck. Shins hurt when you bang things into them hard.

Longest ride ever for the second weekend running! Cycled Putney to Windsor, 52.7 miles, 3 hours 25 minutes. Fun!

Here's the route (the light blue wiggly line), starting at the red marker,
then heading west to Richmond, Twickenham, Sunbury-on-Thames, Chertsey, Virginia Water, Woodside, Windsor, Staines, Hampton Hill then back up through Twickenham and Richmond home. No elevation to speak of except around Windsor Castle.

http://toporoute.com/cgi-bin/getSavedRoute.cgi?routeKey=GHPCMAYSRQYMSFD

Managed to subluxate my shoulder AGAIN when doing my stretches. Ow.

first ride since march. i cant help think this shouldnt hurt me, but this hurt me a bit.

http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/4003/highgradelooppw8.jpg

im sposed to ride the triple bypass in less than two months (120 miles, about 10k feet of climbing). its a rec ride but if i dont start riding a bit, that could hurt worse.

Did the ~10 mile loop around ye olde local university today to burn off the rest of a hangover, and it was pretty nice - saw a bunch of pheasants, red-tail hawks, and magpies. About midway through is the grizzly bear research facility so I got to watch one massive bear summon another one from the tank of water so they could engage in a wrestling match on out in the field behind their cages.

Anyway, after falling over at a stop sign with one foot still locked in my pedal, my rear deraileur got kind of messed up and my chain was clicking. During the last 1/4 climb to my house my chain totally broke. It was not a good week for me.

Can I just pull out the broken link and let the deraileur tighten up a bit, or do I need to buy a new chain?

whee! from right around the 34 mile mark above.

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/8711/speedo2vk4.jpg

how much do you weigh, sir?

~165 these days.

im all out of gear. my rear wheel was down to the threads, so i grabbed the only rear wheel available-- an antique spinergy mrs hunter used for triathlon. the rubber was all dried and split, but at least it was there.

what im gettin to is spinergy is fast on the downhill. i just kept praying the whole thing dint spray apart.

i am now very familiar with the downhill "pray to god" thing

first ride since march.

what's this about tho?

i finally put a brake back on after 2+ years. it's actually been on for over a week, but i didn't have any pads (bought it used) so it just sorta sat there. whenever people asked i just said i was practicing for a bit, before taking the plunge into having a break. cycling lolz :-/

wait, "brake," not break

Back-only vs front-only!

having a caliper with no pads is great gear non-sequitur.

first ride since march.

what's this about tho?

rec riding is not fitting my current work and family schedule ;_; getting in 100 mi/wk commuting is helpful tho

i am now very familiar with the downhill "pray to god" thing

straightup denial is easier on nerves. the canyon road where i did above is pictured way upthread; the problem with it is that its residential and has blind driveways. road is mobbed with cyclists in summer, so locals know (and hate that) we're there, but it would be easy to have a very bad thing happen at more than 40 mph when yr chest,knuckles and stem have become one.

back-only is for jerks and lesbians, laurel, a-doi. also it is hell of stupid on a fixed gear bicycle.

i am familiar with the pray to god thing, but mostly from skiing. tucking from the top of highlands at the end of the day = 60 mph and finding jesus.

today: did this (vvvv below) in 30 minutes even, in the middle of rush hour traffic. bonus points for v mild altercation with motorist who made a left turn in front of me while i was going like 20 mph. special thanks to Brakey the Brake. I almost endo'd, but did a badass front wheel stall instead (by accident/necessity). terminus: a bar stool :D

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1917870

Oh, I read "brake back on" as "back brake on" and yeah, it seemed odd. My bad.

Massive wind and rain today so I broke out the turbo trainer for the first time since 2007. To compare fitness levels, I did 30 minutes at pretty much my limit and when I compared my stats to the same ride before starting training for my ride to Paris, I managed to travel 7.3% further, all other variables remaining the same. Quite pleased with that.

did two 15 mile rides over the weekend. the first one felt like nothing but the second one kicked my ass, i think because it was the first really hot day and i forgot to bring water.

did around 200 miles this weekend, i didn't forget water

hunt3r how to i fixed chronic back pain???

also, i didn't ride on saturday or sunday, and i've now realized that my body actually needs several hours of aerobic exercise a day or else i get weird and twitchy

have you ever gotten your bike fit? i think i've said this before but most back/butthurt problems can be solved with a proper fitting. are you stretching after long rides?

never gotten the bike fit, though i'm certain the top tube is too short, even with a long-ish stem and sorta long-ish bullhorns. i'm normally really flexible, and like being stretched way out.

it's a 53cm pista, and i could probably stand to move up to a 54 or 55.

also, sometimes stretching, most of the time not. i did LOTS of back stretching this weekend, though. like, 4 hours worth over the course of the weekend.

i think cuttys right, acute pain may be chamois time, but chronic pain is likely fit?

i had one season with lots of low back pain, the only thing that seemed to help stretching on the bike during rides. and i was getting out of saddle much more on any climb over 5 minutes long. i dont bet you has many climbs longer than 5 minutes in CHI but what do i know?

chiropractors- c or d? (i say mega d, as everyone i know who goes to one ends up dependent upon them, like mrs h. but they do help some ppls.)

chiropractors = D
massage therapy = C!

i am so ready to drop bills on some massage therapy. and/or ROLFING

will settle for roffling if its cheaper

i initially misread as "im so ready to drop pills..." and i got all YAH RIGHT ON LOLS. so, pills and roffling then.

well you need the right pills

20 miles today and i am BEAT

Off for my 46-mile loop in a bit - hope the weather holds...

It held - was a good temperature and not too much breeze. 52.8 miles in the end (map to come), 3 hours 12 minutes at an ave speed of 16.5mph. Lovely. Since then I have degreased and relubed my chain!

NB that doesn't include an hour stop for lunch, and of course the computer stops recording time when you're stationary. So 3 hours 12 minutes of movement.

i broke 1000 watts (1045) on my powermeter! rejoice!

Explain how it works, cutty? Do you build up power, like distance, or do you reach a maximum, like speed? How do your figures compare to others? And what do you use to measure the power?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/biondino/cycle010608.jpg

i have a powertap hub built into a reynolds attack carbon clincher in the rear.

i'm sure most amateur cyclists can only break the 1000 watt barrier in a sprint or huge acceleration/jump. it's very hard to sustain that type of power. it's basically a surge in power, so no, it's not like distance. i'm no PRO but i assume a sprinter like cavendish can hold 1000 watts over 20 seconds possibly. but then he's done for the day.

if i try to do a 60 second max effort interval, i can average around 450-500 watts.

did 2 hours (no idea what the distance was) with a friend today on pretty bike baths, felt fine.

GIS "bike bath" leads to nothing particularly amusing.

my legs were burning so bad following this guy up high grade yesterday that i could actually hear the sound of bacon frying.

Had fun plugging various variables into a calorie calculator earlier - apparently my ride last sunday (map above) used up over 2,800 calories! That's pretty impressive. My daily commute is about 750, which is about the same as an average lunch.

Planning a 38-mile ride for tomorrow morning because of time constraints - a bit nervous as it's pretty much all city/suburbs (for the Londoners among you, it's basically Putney - Twickenham - Southall - Northolt - Pinner - Harrow - Perivale - Brentford - Kew - Putney. The guy I'm riding with might veto it, in which case we'd probably do a timed three lap circuit of Richmond Park - this seems to be a benchmark for London roadies with the quickest of them going about 40% faster than I ever could o_O

Here's the map of today's ride through NW London - turned out to be 43 miles in an end, thanks to a detour to the post office! Haven't yet figured out the speed/time, but it was much more (sub)urban so more traffic lights, traffic etc.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/biondino/cycle070608.jpg

i rode a usual rec/training ride on my 28 lbs commuter today. the road was swarming with riders, but not too many with a rack and fenders. the ride features 1400 feet of climbing in one shot at 5-7%. i dont think i'll use that bike again for this purpose (i mean, 28 lbs sheesh), but the internal hub has plenty of range. i have a 48/18 on the bike and didnt even use 1st gear. after 2500 miles or so, i'm pretty happy with the nexxus internal 8.

i was 2 or 3 mins slower on the climb.

Can you tell us a bit more about hub gears, the pros and cons, and what they're like to use? I'm not sure 8 gears would feel enough but maybe I'm spoiled.

Another question - how do you figure out the amount of climbing you do - 1400 feet in your post above. I have a ride planned that I think is going to involve a lot and I'd like to be able to brag about it :)

Here is the ride in question, using toporoute's excellent new "terrain" feature:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/biondino/Surreyride.jpg

And here's the elevation profile:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/biondino/elevation-1.jpg

Which I make more than 3000 feet of ascent! Blimey.