your daily bicycle log

that is -23 to you brits

Holy fucking crap. -3 here (aka 26 degrees F) and I made the mistake of leaving the house sweating through my bald head. Ice cream headache!!

i am still cold

I can't even conceptualise -23C. I assume that as soon as you step outside your eyeballs freeze and you turn into a statue until the spring.

my tears froze, eyes were all frosted up

yesterday was the first day my beard rimed up as my breath froze. Not nearly as cold as MPLS.

i may ride the bus tomorrow u_u

shot out on the new bike after work for some rolling hills hidden in the middle of the city - beautiful low 20s temp and sunny

sry guys

heavy snow this morning, I ordered some knobbly tyres.

david foster wallace and i on the rollers, 2 hours

didn't ride the bus, still shivery

holy shit guys
i looked over my tire last night cuz of my recent flats
and seriously found 18 different spots with slivers of glass lodged into the tire
chicago is covered with tiny glass shards!
only like 3 of them actually made a noticeable mark on the inner surface of the ultra gator skins
but whoa dude: 18?
no flats today tho

oh man chicago is the worst with the glass

went big game hunting on beach rd. why do people not wanna roll turns when a big group gets together?? kinda found myself dropping off the tail of the pack to get more of a workout. also had to cut away from the coastline due to triathlon - touring thru wealthy suburbia has its own attractions i guess.

nicest bike seen all morning = blue master x-light with the old deep-section shamals!!

BONKED hard on a 95 miler trying to keep up with some dudes who are out of my league. haven't felt like this since i started. fuck.

95 miler!!!!!

yeah and i have a crit tomorrow. i'm pacmanning tylenol, eating a big steak and falling asleep around 9pm. i r fuq'd.

california, man, what a trip

a crit in MPLS right now would be a horrorshow

lol shasta, you don't do 95 miles before a race!

good luck

the race is not very serious (early bird racing, i get points just for showing up), it was so nice i was just planning to do 40 miles but then ran into this guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Skilbeck who is a super interesting dude to talk to and the next thing you know, I was way over my head and hadn't been eating and i b-zonked. i had to get off the bike, slammed a redbull, gatorade, two brownies and i was back in biz. dying tho.

Did the Santa Ana River Trail today from Corona, CA to Newport Beach. 63.2 miles round-trip, which makes it my longest ride yet. The actual map: http://bit.ly/8rrPEC

With a slight thaw here and my arm significantly recovered, I'm cautiously back on the bike after my pre-christmas accident. Going to ease in and take it very easy, especially with the weather still pretty hairy, but it's good to be out there again.

rode home from work in fucken 42 deg celsius heat

trade u

yo shasta wtf is a crit?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moa3LgTvgHE

oh, it's a road race with many laps
shasta: did you make that vid?

it's not a road race.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TFqK59gXaw

see those guys at the back? they will never see the front of the race.

see those guys at the back? that's what I try to do....

ive not ridden any bike from thanksgiving to this weekend. ive done 3 35 mile rides since saturday, solo, and i'm pretty much wrecked. just overall total fatigue.

see those guys at the back? they will never see the front of the race.

there is something of an inverse law that applies to low category racing-- see 98% of those guys on the front the first 50 minutes? they will never see the front in the last 5 minutes.

it's not a road race.

― sir ilx-a-lot (cutty), Monday, January 11, 2010 6:10 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

oh my bad it's a street race

no, it's a criterium!

ok cutty

* Criterium – short course (usually under 5 km); mass start
* Circuit race – medium course (5–10 km); mass start
* Road race – long course (usually over 60 km) can be several laps or a single lap; mass start
* Time trial – medium course (usually 20–50 km); solo start. Also known as the "Race of truth."

missing: stage race

sigma road race

missing: alley cat (4 gbx)

missing: passing a pootling vicar. (This isn't your race log.)I hope to get in shape enough to wear out my antiquated equipment. I live right in the middle of a big hill area, major inclines in either direction and anaerobic finish home either way. I hate to put a bike on a car unless it's for a paying race and I'm too old for that. Sure do miss NYC area riding. A+ place to get your early-season miles and spin on, fairly flat and fixed-gear friendly, though how unfortunate that turned out to be. Need encouragement.

My Winter Cycling Log:

Finish season in early November with 2nd place in club hill climb championship. Feel good.

Britain is battered by gale force winds and torrential rain for more than a week. Stay inside.

Get hideous winter vomiting bug. Feel terrible. While immune system is weakened pick up sore throat/cold/cough from baby.

After 3 weeks off the bike, go for a ride. The weather is icy. I crash, injuring my leg and damaging the bike (main problem: rear mudguard permanently rubs on tyre). Pay bike shop to fix bike.

Britain is covered in a sheet of ice and snow. Stay inside.

The weather thaws a bit between Christmas and New Year. Ride 120 miles. Feel good, but mudguard is still rubbing on tyre despite the efforts of the bike shop.

Britain is covered by another sheet of ice and snow. Stay inside.

Pay bike shop to fix bike again. Explain for five minutes in detail how it's possible to get the mudguard off the tyre by pulling it, but that it inevitably sinks back onto the tyre within a couple of minutes of starting riding. Man writes "rear mudguard?" on job sheet. My faith in the problem being solved falls.

Get new vomiting bug / suspected food poisoning from scallops. Feel bad. While immune system is weakened pick up cold from baby.

But apart from that, it's been great, right?

(poor dude)

oh, blaming a baby for your own weakness...

motivation, i dunno. im planning on doing a local tt series. i think i'll just throw clipons on my old pit cx bike. box rims.

while i was still racing, i quit the tt series, since the weather is often super miserable. and the time- midweek after working hours. also, it consisted mostly of rich masters dorks in midlife crisis flashing thousands of $ of aero gear.

trying to get within a couple of minutes of my old best time might motivate me.

doing a TT on a CX bike haha

i know, it's sub-lolz! but i HATE putting clip on aerobars on and off my bike. and im def not buying a tt bike.

dont know how i'll get the front end low enough i need a negative rise stem.

i still have an old disc and trispoke, how would a crappy cx bike look with those? will post if i do it.

Can always flip the stem upside down.

off early yesterday and it was sunny (yet a cool 50F in the shade) so i decide to do an easy 60 miler with the intention of keeping my HR between 140-150bpm.

all is fine and dandy until after about 25miles i sneak up unsuspectingly on a group of four racers right before White's Hill, a 1 mile climb @ 7% grade. (note: I'm wearing my lol optic jacket but going about 18-20mph). I fall in with them up the hill (note: they're all gossiping and talking to each other, and i look down at my HR: 177... 90% of max... well there goes my easy ride).

On the descent a 5m gap opens up initially but I'm a lot bigger than them so I catch up and fall in pretty easily. I only have a few miles left before I need to turn around and we're going about 28mph on the flats and I barely have to pedal. I hate to tailsuck but I figure I may have already beat my PR on White's Hill, why not go for another PR on the next climb (the peak of which was my intended turnaround point)...

they end up going straight and I make a left for my last climb, it's about one mile: short sharp ascent, false flat, then long windy climb. not too steep: 5.5% avg. grade. when i crest i look at my speed 10mph, then my heart rate: 177bpm again!

Pretty sure I have PR'd two climbs already I turn around and head home. I have two routes to go home, one is a skinny shouldered mountain pass that I haven't ridden in many moons as I prefer a more scenic and out of the way route with virtually no cars. So I choose the more trafficked one because hell, I can get maybe one more PR climb out of it.

after the climb i take it realllll slow on the way home 15-16mph because my heart rate is 150-160 just on the flats. i don't feel TOO bad today, should have enough for a 60-80 mile group ride saturday and then a 32 mile crit on sunday.

how about you try not doing the 60-80 mile ride before the crit? go out tomorrow and do one hour of riding, easy, with some short efforts.

i suggest doing ONE easy hour of riding with 2 sets of 3 x 1 minute max efforts + 1 minute rest